Podcast: The Ride - Cedar Fair with Grant O'Brien

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

Grant O'Brien (Dropout, What Have You Been Drinking? Podcast) drops hard, fast coaster knowledge that makes the PTR boys' heads spin like a spinning wild mouse! Can they handle the g-force of the conversation? Or do they need to wait in the child swap area?"McGruff 4" episode is up at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/PodcastTheRide⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride⁠ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey there Forever Dog listeners, this is Julie Klausner, and you may know me as the creator and co-star of the TV show Difficult People or the co-host of Double Threat with Tom Sharpling, but I'm also the host of How Is Your Week, my iconic podcast that is now back and better than ever. How Is Your Week? Scorching hot pop culture takes, fascinating interviews with guests like Pat and Oswald, Moonion at Zappa, and Bruce Valanche, and the biggest laughs in podcasting. That's right. So tune in Tuesdays and Thursdays for How Is Your Week produced by Forever Dog, available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you. get your podcasts. Forever. Dog. Warning. The following podcast may contain perilous heights, the perils of being

a perilous height, and perilous fights with escaped camels. Dropouts, Grand O'Brien takes us to a place like no other America's rock and roller coast. Let's get to the point and stop saying all these taglines,

Cedar Point, on podcast The Ride. Welcome to Podcast The Ride, a podcast about theme parks, which is made history by featuring the world's first gigadorks. I'm Scott Gardner, joined. by Mike Carlson. Wow. Yeah, this is a new level of dorkness that the world has never seen. And what's interesting about it is it's organic. It isn't sort of an AI thing.

It's not a machine thing. It just naturally grew out of us. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. As far as the human body can push dorkdom. Right. Now, hyper dorks have existed before. This we know.

That's correct. But giga. I'd like to think we're pioneering. Yeah. And it is nothing to do with testosterone replacing. or anything like that's a whole different thing i'm not taking it by the way i'm just saying again it's organic it's not from my very high tea not natural high tea yeah you should still take it on top of it just to see how far i want to but i'm not doing it yet i do want to do it live on the show and

see if it has kicked in by the end of two hours hopefully that's how it works i i assume uh it's like hulking out um jason sheridan is out today uh he is currently hard at work investigating whether the 1998 horror film Urban Legend is streaming on Tooby or Zumo. It has been several days. We haven't heard back about his findings, and we wish him luck in this investigation. I have a clip. He sent me a clip of his voice. Oh.

For the beginning? I haven't listened to it. Should it be like, do you want it at the top? He said, whatever you want to play it. So he didn't, I don't know. Let's play it. Let's see if it's appropriate. Ahoy, hoi-hoi, Mike Scott, a distinguished.

guest, Grant from Dropout. Oh. I didn't know he was going to introduce the guest. But as the big brave coaster fanatic of the show, I had to send a message since we're talking about... This is a midway through message, but wait a minute.

I don't know what he did. We picked the wrong place. Let's revisit this. Oh, it's fine. Let's revisit this. We haven't even introduced the guest. I guess he wanted me to play it beforehand. And then me assess it.

Okay. But he should have said play in the middle. It's his fault. Not mine. He shouldn't have been so open-ended. Right. He shouldn't have said play it whenever you want. It just frankly, it doesn't make sense because we have to bring the guest into it and say, and bring the topic into it.

In a lot of ways, he just ruined the show. In a lot of ways, it's Jason's fault. We're still at the beginning. We could trash it. Start over. We could. No, no. Let's keep it rolling.

Let's stay on our toes. At least we've gotten a preview of it. We know some of the energy to expect when we set it up for later. What we need to do now is bring our guest into it, and I'm excited about our guests today because here's what will happen sometimes. Not enough, maybe, on podcast to write. I enjoy when this happens when the audience sets us up on a little guest-blind date. Oh, yeah.

Where they go, you know, I don't know if the boys know this person, but I think they would really hit it off. And that's exactly what's happened, and I'm glad that it has. You know our guest as a regular on the many shows on Dropout. he is also the rare guest who is taller than Mike. It's Grant O'Brien. Howdy, folks. Ah, hey.

What a great to meet you, Grant. Two of the three good boys. What a pleasure. What an absolute pleasure this is. And one waiting with a message that we've partially heard. This is, I think, history. Has there ever been a guest taller than you, Mike? Great question.

Did we ever have Peter Mayhew on the show? I don't think we have. I think so. Wilts Chamberlain? Yeah, we have. We didn't make it to Will. That's too bad. He's got stories.

We didn't have Paul White, the big show, the pro wrestler. Oh, my man. The big nasty bastard? He was the big nasty for a few months, officially, and then they changed his name. How tall are you? Six-three. Wow. Mm-hmm.

It's not that tall. Yeah. Fair enough. Who can say that besides you? I get that Scott's impressed, but that's not that tall. I hear you. I hear you. I'm just saying.

I get it. I'm also in kind of a particularly short chair. And then right before you came in, I lifted yours all the way because I was like, he's always going to need that leg room. And I do. Yeah, yeah. I'm glad I was thoughtful. You are sitting on like a jester's throne. Yes, this is very, yeah.

So I'm impressed because you're towering above me here. Yeah. How tall are you? I'm 6'5. Okay. Wow. Pretty cool. It is pretty cool.

Yeah. I mean, that is objectively very cool to be. I think so, yeah. It's cool. It's cool to be tall, I think. When is the point? Where was the point where it outgrew? when was it the most awkward for you?

When were you an amount of tall? Or am I making that up? Was there never an amount of tall that wasn't great to be? I'm currently an amount of tall that's not great to be. 6.3 is honestly as tall as probably at 6.3,

you run into the same tall guy problems of like, I can't fly. I can't walk without my knees hurting. This is incorrect. Peter Mayhew is a perfect example. I'm going to be, I'm going to be, I'm going to have the cane before too long. Oh, you think, oh, yeah, yeah.

Do you struggle with that? Interesting. I mean, my knees are okay right now. They're not so bad. Sometimes the right one is okay, but flying is a big pain in the ass. I hate it. I mean, I'm also stressed about it in general. Yeah, I'm also very nervous on a plane.

I don't care for that. This is, I'm glad this happened. But it's going to be cramped. I think you've got a perspective that you share here. I'd almost rather, instead of a seat on a plane, they just give me a little hole to crawl into. and I just like kind of grab my knees and like turn into a little ball and I'll just stay like that for four hours.

I have a dream and it is to one time take a flight with a fold flat bed because that would be I could if I could roll over onto my side it would solve all my problems on a plane. I think that's right, yeah. Ooh, the fetal position.

Yeah, that's correct. Just curled into a little fearful ball. I was too tall for my bed when I was a kid. I sleep in a little ball because I don't fit anywhere. The world's not for me. That's right. Yeah, I guess, well, yeah, bed sizes kind of go out wider than they do longer, huh?

Correct. Yeah. Oh, the best bet I ever had was a twin extra long in college. It was great. Wow, wow. You don't need that extra width. No, why would I? I'm not that thick.

Yeah. I'm quite long. You're not at all. And, yeah, I think if you, like, so, like, stacking two smaller beds, like, end-to-end might be the move. I, if I'm at like an Airbnb situation or something, I will look around for like a stool or something I could put to hang my feet off the end of the bed. A little bono, a little cliff, a little brain. I am a little bit too long for a queen bed. It is, it is a little, I mean, if I'm, if I'm really starfishing on it, if I can figure it out.

This is, I, I, I'm glad we're getting into the, the tall stuff. And not to go out of order, but, but here's something that I, because I was going to ask you about this, I think, I think, I think, probably the core reason why we were set up on this on this blind date today is that because it's due to a spoken word piece that you delivered on the dropout show Smarty Pants. That's right. In which comedians give presentations almost to a PowerPoint degree about topics that they're passionate about. Yeah, they set us up with like a graphic designer and we do.

You come up with like a new idea for the world or really. really, you know, really get deep on something. I was saying before we started, I do think I misunderstood the brief of Smarty Pants that it was like, oh, I'm writing kind of a stand-up piece that'll have, that'll have a lot of jokes. And I did a book report. I gave a solemn list of facts about roller coasters

that I knew off the top of my head. That was not, that did just roll out entirely? That, I mean, yeah. Like, I confirmed some facts, but there was nothing in that that I did. didn't already know. Jeez. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. Well, look, I think this makes you a perfect podcast, the right guest. Like, look, if humor is peppered into this, then it is. But I think, like, I think factoids. I don't think there's time for jokes. I think there's too much to say. All right. Let's take, let's sniff all those out.

A lot of our audience probably would suggest that we stop with the jokes, I think. I sense that there is a certainty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what percentage it is. This isn't something that somebody said in our audience, but it's something that I heard was said by like a younger. audience member of a TV show it's been in my head

ever since that apparently somebody of a younger generation declared somebody who was working on a show that jokes are cringe and that phrase has been in my head ever since is this a wide held belief jokes are cringe so this could be a great for the listeners

any listeners out there who believe that jokes are cringe this might be the one for you yeah what's not cringe is amusement parks that's no nothing cringe about that who could ever find one element of any amusement park that has ever been that is remotely cringed. A little too earnest? Never. Never. Yeah, that's the zone you wanted to stay. But you, you know,

you touched upon a lot of great stuff in your monologue, and we'll get to the more substantial things. But it truly was, I could tell why people said you got to be on podcast the ride, because you just kept going like, all right, check that. All right, he was like a Frady Cat Kid, check. I was. But the one I wanted to bring up right here is that you brought up Standing Coast and the negative impact that they can have on the vaginas of the world. What in the world was the plan with those? It is a, if anyone hasn't been on one, and I have, I have not, nor have I experienced the, like, the impact on the female body. They're going away.

It's, in fact, Cedar Point, which we'll get to, is the topic, they had a standing roller coaster that I grew up with that has been converted to a floorless coaster. Oh, okay. Which is happening on many, if not most of the stand-up coasters because it was a failed experiment. Wow. Because it's a, it's like you put on a backpack of a harness with a, with a bar that goes between your legs that's a wedge-shaped. It's sort of like a, is it in the world of a saddle? Yeah, yeah. Or bike seat, I guess.

You're kind of sitting on that. You're not really standing. You're kind of sitting on, especially. Especially for a tall. Like, it doesn't go up high enough for me. So I kind of have to just keep my legs out in front. Imagine, okay, Scott, imagine, like, a giant put his hand between your legs and lifted you up just a little off the ground.

Yeah. So you're, like, kind of sitting in his hands, but, like, you can also touch the feet with, like, you can touch the ground with your feet, but it's just weird halfway. Yeah, I can't put weight on them. I can't put weight on them. But also, it feels like you're, like, your, like, the, your taint is doing so much the work. I also don't know the experience of riding one with a vagina, but I do know where it hits my pubic bone, and I know how pubic bones work. It's like, it's, it's, it's not that

different. You can extrapolate for, yeah, Mike, when you were physicalizing it, you did like a little bit of a cup. And I find that a little bit disturbing. And that I can imagine, it sadly, it reminds me a little bit of a terrible thing once said by a president of the United States. And I, kind of a grab motion and like, well, if that's what it feels like for anyone, that's the, that's a terrible thing, that's very invasive. Ridler's revenge is what I think I, I, we first talked about this is when I went on that at the first Fright Fest episode, which is already six, seven years ago. You got a little cupping on that? Yeah, there was a lot of stuff happening in my genitals that day. Well, that's where I wanted to take it. We can't speak to the vagina experience,

but granted, in many episodes of the show, Mike has spoken of the perils of being a tall person jamming into coaster cars and getting a lot of crotch damage in the process. Does this sound familiar? A hundred percent. And I think it should be a testament to how good roller coasters are that you and I are willing to put up with that. That's true, yes. Really quite uncomfortable a lot of the time.

Yes, yes, it is. A lot of times when I'm riding a roller coaster, I'm unhappy. I'm not enjoying myself because I'm in a lot of physical discomfort. Yeah, I've been in like a mild panic oftentimes, depending on the way that the bar has smashed my penis. It's gotten too tight and I know that there's like, well, I just have to deal with this for I'm, I have one click too many and now I'm in danger and I've got to, I've got to wait. I've just got to deal with it. Well, and we recently had the revelation of learning the industry insider term stapling. And that is when you get that one.

One click too many. Yeah, yeah. Which can have, look, that's happened to me. I don't think I have any right to complain about this because I'm not as tall and I don't go on as many roller coasters. But the little bit that I've experienced it of like, oh, that's a bit much. That's going to be tough to deal with for the next couple of minutes. But often that'll happen because I don't go much further than like in credit coaster.

And in credit coaster, you launch pretty fast and then you're out of there. As opposed to some of these, some of the rides we'll talk about today are long journeys. So if you're stuck at the top of that long journey and you don't like, what's happening with your crotch? That's got to be tough. Yeah. But, you know, sometimes bad things happen to your crotch. And you just have to, you just have to roll with that because, because life, life demands it of you. Life, life, life, calls upon it. This is something I should teach to my, my two boys. That is an important lesson. Yeah. So you're going to have to know. Life's going to teach them that on their own. That's not something anyone can be told. Oh, my God. It's really hitting me that,

like, they're going to have lives that I have no control over. They're going to be out in the world and bad things are going to happen to both of their crudges. That's right. Quite a place to have gone from how we got there, but it's the truth. Rather, roller coaster related or not. They'll thrive. Any amount of, I'm not going to start thinking about specific damage that

will happen to my son's crutches. But you guys will just be able to speak to the same, because I can only imagine on some of what we'll talk about today. Because you, we've basically, Mike and I have talked about how we like launches because it gets the job done fast. Anything you're afraid of, you're just up at the top of that thing pretty

quick, you don't have time to think about it. We literally, with Cedar Point, are talking about some of the longest, slowest lift hills in the world. They get to, like, very precarious. Old kind of lift hills that really, really, really take their time rattling on their way up. And that let you see potentially into foreign nations? From a couple of them. You can see to Canada on a clear day.

It's great. Oh. So crazy. But when I was too afraid, one of the things I was bummed about is like, man, I'm never going to see Canada. Yeah, you're going to have to go there, you're going to have to get a passport, you're going to have to do it the hard way. How the hell wants to do that?

Yeah, yeah, geez. Go through Detroit, no thank you. Well, let's start digging into, because I think we'll come across some of the things you discussed on Smarty Pins. We'll do it over the course of talking about the main topic today, which is Cedar Point. This is kind of a big one. I'm excited that we're doing Cedar Point here, and I think we landed there because you sent a, a great list of stuff. And it seemed like just Cedar Point was the way to encapsulate a few of them because you're clearly passionate about a couple of the coasters there. You're passionate about the history of coasters, coasters topping each other, the coaster wars. And I think Cedar Point is a great way to, you know, dig into all these things. Cedar Point is the reason I feel that way, but it was, especially Cedar Point in the 90s when I was a kid and the coaster wars, which I'm sure you're familiar with, but it was, uh, theme parks around the world trying to one up each other with record breaking roller coasters, uh, Cedar Point was at the vanguard. Cedar Point was right there, was right there in front of it.

It sucks because I wish, look, I wish I served in the wars, but I certainly dodged the draft because I was so, scared at the time. Bone spurs. So yeah, I was sat on the sidelines of the Coast Wars, but that should have been at the time in my teens is when I was enjoying it, so it's a bummer to me. Ah, it's not too late. I'm still doing it. I'm still working my way up. You're building yourself up, and, you know, here we have to admit that, like, look, it would be great if we were coming into the Cedar Point episode and having been to Cedar Point, and I have to admit that I have not, and you have not, Mike? No. Okay, okay. But, you know, this is not It's in the middle of nowhere.

It is tough to come by if you're not looking for it. Okay, sure, yes. Because it's in Sandusky, Ohio. Correct. Which is near-ish Cleveland, but not that close. It's, if you think about Ohio as like five points, Cleveland, Toledo, Cincinnati, and then something else. Columbus is right in the middle. Cedar Point sits sort of right in between.

Like smack dab in the middle of the state Between Cleveland and Toledo Right on Lake Erie in Sandusky, Ohio On a little peninsula that goes out into the lake This arrangement It's one of these things like You know I'm a theme park fan

My wife's a theme park fan But she had not She never seen it she was a little like So which one cedar point And I explained it to her and I shared her video That had an overhead And she gasped It's like this is a beautiful plot of land

A really unique place for a theme park It really amusement park Well, we'll discuss. Well, they're different, but I don't know that I'm even using. I would actually, I'll be interested in you guys's input because I made up definitions to amusement park versus theme park. I liked your definitions. I thought you clarified it really.

It elucidated it for me and we do a podcast about this stuff. My definition would be an amusement park is rides full stop. a theme park is theme plus rides. Sure, yeah, yes. The rides are definitely a part of it, but you also have immersiveness. You're more likely to, you know, go to fictional worlds and meet your favorite characters.

They're, you know, they're multi-day part. I mean it's a one-day park is you go and you're not, you're not making a weekend out of it, right, right. Yeah, that was, I'd never thought about that angle. I thought you laid that out perfectly in a little side-by-side graphic. That's right. And I'd never thought about that, that regional versus tourist destination. I wrote that whole thing

and then I was like, fuck, I was supposed to include graphics. Okay, let me see where I can, let's see what I can put in for this graphic artist to do. And that was one of them. It was very helpful, side by side. I think that's very true. But then as I watched,

as I learned more about Cedar Point, I started to question, is it sort of on the line in a way? Because at least a video overview that I was watching was certainly making the claim that this could be, it is a multi-day park for people. Yeah, they wish.

That there is a... Oh, interesting, interesting. Well, what was name-checked was the resort, which I don't, is the resort breakers. Breakers. That's okay. The hotel breakers. Which is not where I'd stay if I go and was doing a multi-day. They've got a thing in the back.

I think it's called Lighthouse Point, which are little cabins. Come on. That's really cool. Have a little campfire out there with your friends. That's where to stay. Right. In some old hotel. Is it on the water dish?

Yeah. It's like, it's. there's there's you it's not you can see the water you can't like go to the water um you can Cedar Point has a beach of all damn things you could you can walk out on a sand beach and swim in Lake Erie do you just do it from the park or is it like I'm going I here's the park but then I got to go away the hell around to get to the beach you can there's a little there's a little or I haven't been in about five years and I know they just remodeled the part of the park I'm talking about right but there used to be just like stairs down to the beach and you can go

and swim in the dirtiest water you've ever seen in your life? That's pretty unique. Instead of riding roller coasters, who wouldn't want to do that? Yeah, I guess, you know, in photos and videos, it seems like people are more laying out, enjoying the scenery of the beach. I guess I didn't see a lot of bodies in that water. And you won't because there's antithetical to life. Lake Erie is a literally caught fire in my lifetime.

It was, it is a, yeah, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire when Dennis Cucinich was the mayor. It's a, it's a dirty, dirty body of water. Is that because it has like gas in it? Yeah. What makes it catch? Yeah, no, because there's gasoline and oil and a bunch of leaky bad boats in it. Oh, man. Did Cucinich try to fix it?

Did he try to clean it up? I, I'm told, yes, and that that was somewhat success. full. I'm not going to go to Lake Erie. I've got things to do. You haven't tested the pH of the water lately. I'm not. I live on the Pacific Ocean. That's poison enough for me. Thank you very much. Fair enough. It's a poison you can live with. Yeah. But it started as a beach park. It was founded in the late 1800s. It was called the Queen of American Watering Places. And it was like a come to the beach and there's a band shell and then

they put up a little like roller coaster that two guys would push up a hill and then let it go. That's how they did it? I don't think I knew there was that type of ride. Yeah, yeah. It was like a like really, really like all right, what's the simple machine version of this? It's like

we'll push it up and then it'll slide back down. Just a couple of grumpy bastards it's walking up a hill. That's fascinating. Yeah, it's yeah, this goes back to 1870 and I like when you still like this this is more common in the northeast is that these places that like like Kenny Wood is is one I'm forgetting others but they kind of like grow out of that they were more of a park in a in a very different sense and whatever the

1800s sense of a park I like yeah concert shell or like there's a big gazebo or a a pavilion of some kind there's like donkeys yeah yeah there's still donkeys at cedar point I mean, that's great. I wish there were still donkeys at Disneyland. Oh, yeah, that's true. Wouldn't that be good? Yeah. They still have the cats, though, right?

The cats are still everywhere. That's still... That's not even their thing. That's just because cats exist. It's an unofficial attraction, yeah. It's not on the map. It's between the lines. With a famous mouse, how's that work?

You got to keep them separate. They can't go near each other. Oh, God, they clawed Mickey to death. No, but it's like, I find the history of it interesting in that respect. that it's, I like when there's these places, or Eilich Gardens is when I went to in Colorado. And when there's these places that are very old timing where you can picture people in like scratchy, very modest bathing suits. And that's what it was. And then it ends up having the aesthetics of modern six flags 150 years later.

Well, and that's, I like that a lot too. And it's, it really roots it in time where it's like, well, as you said, like it's a beautiful place for a park. It was a beautiful place 150 years ago. And so, Peter's like, oh, yeah, why wouldn't we hang out here? It's great. Yeah, yeah. When it's cool in this regard, that it, like, this spot was picked for tourists before there was anything there just due to its beauty.

And it sure gives you a lot more to look at when you're on these coasters, when you're getting these views than the typical, when I compare it to, like, Magic Mountain is just somewhere arbitrary. That's, like, pretty ish, but it's kind of nondescript. or like the one I went to Great America in NorCal is just truly just somewhere. Just clopped. Here it is. Oh, is that finally down?

Wow. Wow. I knew it was ticking down. But like a lot of coaster parks, I feel like end up just being in some kind of like arbitrary spot. And you have a view, but of, you know, that's a Six Flags thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Almost brand-wide. The land was not so desirable before it was purchased.

Sure. So. Not a ton of bidders for. Derny, Illinois. How's that in terms of picturesque? My memory is it's not very picturesque, but... Are there any pretty six flags? Yeah, there's a few probably that weren't originally six flags.

That's what... That'd be my guess is. I think they're missing opportunities up at Magic Mountain. I think, like, it's on a mountain. You could do like a cool terrainy thing. That's true. They don't really use... It's just ugly.

Yeah, I think, unless we're forgetting a big one or like a defunct one, used to. be but yes so often it's just plopped in some spot but see to point these views are dramatic and spectacular it's like some of the best scenery for coasters i've ever seen well and it's got a great it starts your day so well because you kind of you there's a long like bridge or i don't know what it's called when it's on a peninsula road there's a there's a road i know a causeway it is a causeway this was a thing on this on the second gate i did a which is our patreon uh i was very passionate about a thing in Disney world called the Michael Graves Causeway that connects the swan

and dolphin hotels. Oh boy. And I was trying to think of what are other causeways that are famous in the world. And we couldn't think of one. And here we are. We're at a practical causeway. You take a causeway to get to Cedar Point. And this, what you get on that drive looks so fantastic. You kind of, it's this like sort of sweeping turn that you drive. So you just get this great skyline. Oh, I love a coaster skyline. That's, that's, that's, that's just magical. If I'm good, you know, like, often, like, you guys could speak to this. If you're, if you're, like, if you're, like, driving past Magic Mountain to somewhere else, which is, it's often, like, oh, I'm going four hours north or whatever, or to somewhere really functional. But I,

I always get so excited, because it's a drive that's so nondescript, except for coaster skyline. And I almost feel, like, if I'm with other people, like, oh, shut up, I just want to look at this coaster skyline. of a place that I don't even like to go. I said that the last time I went. I was my friend Aaron was in the car, and I was like, look, look, isn't that beautiful? Isn't it beautiful?

And it is. It is beautiful. It's really something. Not to jump around too much, but you being from Columbus, I had the pleasure of doing Kings Island once many years ago. Oh, beautiful. And that involved me. I was with my college girlfriend and who lived sort of like between Columbus and Cincinnati.

So there was a lot of driving back and forth on that trip. And again, a lot of, like, non-descript stuff. But then, like, right in the middle, we were like, oh, there it is. Wow. Coaster Skyline. It's, King's Island, I, there's, well, I imagine we'll get, we'll get more into it. But I think, I would say Kings Island is even a prettier park than Cedar Point. Yeah.

It's a less dramatic park, but, like, back in the woods, in the, in the Appalachian foothills, you get there with all that, like, different change in elevations. it has a it has a dollywood-esque um yeah yeah um terrainy vibe to it we'd be really jumping all around but have you done dollywood no it's on my list i've yeah i want it so bad we need to talk about this we need to figure this out but they uh that might be i i don't know for sure but in terms of coaster views i bet that's up there i've heard i've heard it's like well it's it's the most beautiful part of the world like the appalachian mountains are really pretty yeah well we've done horrible things

to them. Sure. We've extracted all their resources, and it's been great. But at least there's fun coasters there. But anyway, yeah, you're on this, it's wrapping around, like, you know what's great about a coaster skyline, too? I'm glad this term that you've coined, I really like. And I like that it, I think a really good one, gives you coaster history.

Like, the best ones are, it's not just a bunch of stuff from the last 10 years. it's like modern steel achievements mixed with old wooden history and then sometimes where the the twain shall meet with your hybrid coasters where modern technology is overtaken the old. Like if you're looking at like, wow, that's a dozen coasters and they're all different and they all tell different stories. Well, and a lot of time, and back in the Coast Wars days, there'd be a new, there was something new all the time.

And it was kind of like a once a year or once every year. other year thing that you'd go. And so it's like, oh, man, look how big that is. It's a real preview of what you have coming for the day. It's great. Oh, yeah. You could start talking. Like from here, it looks too intimidating, but maybe when I'm close to it, I can get a sense of it. Well, I'm just, the, the, the coaster being built mere feet away from us currently that's testing. Like, now we have a coaster skyline, fast and furious. Yeah, you're right. We have, we newly have a coaster to where we live. We have a coaster skyline. God, you're right. And it looks like it's going to be great.

It looks, that looks superterrani. It looks like they're using the mountain the way the way Magic Mountain doesn't. Yeah, yeah, right. Yes, yeah, they've carved it up in clever ways. And Fast and Furious is awesome. I can't wait. I think it's going to be great. Oh, yeah.

Other than the maybe make me a little sick because it spins like Guardians does in Florida, it's going to be amazing. Yeah, yeah, it looks great. The countdown is on. Holiday shopping season is officially here. Uncommon Goods takes the stress. of gifting with thousands of unique, high-quality fines you won't see anywhere else. Don't wait. The most meaningful gifts get scooped up fast and now is the perfect time to cross names off your list.

Uncommon goods looks for products that are high-quality, unique, and often handmade or made in the U.S. Many are crafted by independent artists and small businesses, making every gift feel meaningful and truly one-of-a-kind. I found this Bluetooth, I guess you call it a radio because it looks like an old-time radio. I think it's nice. It combines modern technology with the beauty of... sort of old school electronics. I think it's going to be a very good gift for my wife.

Don't tell her. Luckily, she doesn't listen to the podcast. Uncommon Goods is something for everyone from moms and dads to kids and teens, from book lovers, history buffs, and diehard football fans to foodies, mixologists, and avid gardeners. You'll find thousands of new gift ideas that you won't find anywhere else. All right, so let's go. Don't wait. Cross the names off your list before the rush.

To get 15% off your next gift, go to Uncommonogoods.com slash ride. That's Uncommonogoods.com. slash ride for 15% off uncommon goods were all out of the ordinary I you know if we have not quite landed anywhere specific at Cedar Point yet is now good time to check in with our buddy maybe he'll all right all right very do a veer us into a smart smart okay let me let me let me play this one second ahoy hoi Mike Scott and distinguished guest grant from dropout I'm sorry couldn't be there, but multiple sclerosis flare-ups happen when they happen. But as the big, brave coaster fanatic

of the show, I had to send a message, since we're talking about Cedar Point, America's roller coast, the roller coaster capital of the world. Located on the shores of Lake Erie, it's home to Magnum X-L-200, the world's first hypercoaster, which, let's say it all together, is a roller coaster with a height of at least 200 feet. All right, back to my

sick bed and prednisone haze. You boys have fun. I don't think you left the haze. Listing things. That's what he shved in with. That's fascinating. You just want to make sure to get that dry fact in there. I appreciate it. He's right. He's right.

He's right to, and they invented the hypercoaster. They invented it. This is really funny that it seems like, so that, yes, you refer to these coaster wars. Yes. I think he actually has sent us to kind of a perfect jumping off point. Because, like, actually, you know, you say

that, but I don't know that we really have talked about the coaster wars on the show. And from my little bit of research, it seems like a Magnum XL200 is a like major element. Kicked them off. Yeah, yeah, sure. And a big, what, attack, one of the first

volleys in the coaster war. The Pearl Harbor. The Pearl Harbor. The Coastal Wars. Opened in 1989, correct? Yes. And it, you know, started this trend of places needing to break records with every coaster that they opened. That became like a big selling point.

That was how it was a marketing stunt more than anything. Great adventure. in New Jersey, did that a couple times when they were trying to break some records. Magic Mountain did it out here. It would be, if you could get a couple of feet taller or a couple miles per hour faster and say you had the fastest in the world, it was a way to sell. It stopped. It ended because it got to expect. Because that's crazy.

You can't do that forever. You'll, Icarus will melt his wings of wax. Well, did you say also in the, I feel like you answered somebody's question on Smurdy Pants that the 2008 financial crisis said something to do with it? It did. It's, I believe, and the history runs from 1989 when Magnum opened, then every other year there would be a new roller coaster breaking a record someplace. up until the tallest in the world, King de Kha at Great Adventure, which was a disaster financially, which was, it was, they built it, and then the economy shut down, and so no one could come ride it,

and it's very expensive to run. It's gone. And it's gone. It was built, and it was gone. The other model is at Cedar Point, and they just had to do a big, big reifer above it. They had to turn Top Thrill Dragster into Top Thrill 2. Wow.

which is a way to like that that's like you know taking your maiden name to shed the name of a spouse who is toxic or something that's like or whatever like they're hiding from their past they had to like rebrand in order to get away from the follies and I think it's missed I don't think Cedar Point has made a good business decision in like a decade I think they've I think they've been wrong over and over and the top thrill two is I think a prime example of it. Wow, wow. Well, I guess it's interesting that the coaster wars are impacted by the world at large, and it's probably telling that the coaster wars have been a little, there's been peace for a little while, but now they're ramping back up due to like the new places where the money is, which is like Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, where they're building the, like, because one of these, and I don't remember the name of it, it's Six Flags, Cadilla. The 600 foot tall Falcon's Flight. Wow, you knew the name. Oh, yeah, yeah, gee. And that flies off a mountain, basically, yeah.

Oh, they're using the mountain. Yeah. So that is going to, that's, I'm so curious about that one, because that's going to, like, demolish. That's not a, we beat it by a couple of feet. That's a 200 feet beyond absolute record shatter. Shatters the record. And it's, and it's like a classic roller coaster, you've got a lift, you've got a launch in the middle. It's very, very long.

Wow. I predict disaster for it. I think it's going to be. What a monument to hubris, it seems like it will be when it is idle in three years. 150 degrees out. Yeah, yeah. On the sand, so it sinks. And those records will keep being broken as well.

Yeah, sure, yeah. There's no cooling mechanism. Oh, God. Have they, have people done it yet? I don't believe it's open yet. It's not open, I think, but if they test it with humans, I guess is what I'm saying. I don't know. I don't know.

Are they going to test it with like a space chimp or something to make sure? Well, here's one. Like, what about the, what about the sand in your face? You're going hundreds of miles an hour through a sandstorm. You have to wear a space helmet. There's oxygen. Yeah. It's like you're jumping out of a Redville balloon.

It's the, yeah, it's the, the halo jump from Mission Impossible Six. You may have to put the same gear on. I mean, that... You've got to grow Henry Cavill's mustache. Yeah, that'll protect you. I mean, I think that is an issue for, like, one that more recent entry is that this one at Ferrari World which is in the

sort of in the King to Ka model of shoots you out, you do a loop, you come back but at just absolutely brain rattling speeds and I think you got a lot of problems with sand and bugs on that thing. And you have a problem with that roller coaster model. This is a seat of point.

There's one at knots too, accelerator at knots, which is an intimate launch. It's a certain type of launch that now I can't remember the name of. They're getting rid of all of them because they don't work that well because it's just the physics it's very

very expensive to run and it's and it is just terrible for the structure to to throw people at it at hundreds of miles an hour whoa for the people bad for the structure bad for the business they're there this is how the coaster wars ended with hubris wow wow i i i geez i mean it is like an arms race kind you know well i want to find out where it ends yeah i mean there's always like do it's funny because these are like multi-million dollar experiments in a lot of ways because they're like that green lantern coaster

that was at Magic Mountain closed after six years because everyone hated it it just like hurt it was like it would I'm trying to what's the best way to even describe it was like in these little circles and it was like a flat and you would you would sort of rock

and roll your way through it no almost no roller coasters ever look more like a toy than that yeah and and and they're just like hey what if we what if we fuck with people like this and then they tried it and people hated it and then they literally had to get rid of it but it's so funny that like you would expect now in this day and age that like well these experts they run these through a computer and they can tell that everyone's going to love this so suck this equation is perfect how would we yeah but still there's there's

trying things it's an old compact it's say it is a computer but it's a 2002 compact yeah so we'll see with this the fast the fast coaster can't can't lose there's no way that can be weird Oh, no. An Abu Dhabi, what could possibly go wrong? You mean, do you mean the... I mean the one up here, yeah. You're calling it by a nickname because it's your friend already. But no, so yeah, it is funny that you're like, I get it in like 60 years ago, they'd open a ride and they'd go,

we don't know if people are going to like this. But how today? But now today you're like, oh, well, certainly they've tested it. And they tested it in the computer and the computer tells you not the case. The difference between Magnum XL 200 and Millennium Force is that Magnum XL 200 was designed pre-CAD software so they couldn't use that computerated design so it's rattley and there's weird there's weird parts of it you're exactly the change yeah one of the great timings of history of the coaster wars yeah yeah wow wow cad technology okay so this is in yeah in

in 1989 and they're they're defined as a coaster park to some extent by by 89 but they also have they do have like disneyish stuff i watched an ad from the 80s that's that like highlighted other things there is a there is a train there's like a building on fire there's old west stuff some theme towards the back yeah yeah yeah there's some like more you know kind of every theme park kind of things but but it seems like magnum is where it takes a turn and we it starts becoming about stats so hypercoaster hypercoaster is a term that they invented because it goes over okay okay all marketing yes and in fact uh these records because i've come across these words here and there. It's not unfamiliar for me

to hear, I guess I've heard Gigacoaster, and Strata Coaster, but what I didn't know until the last week is that they made up all of these terms of them. Well, and I guess who else would have? There's not a board that is assigned to these names.

True, true. I'm floored how well that worked. How, like, it's, because the term hypercoaster is like, oh, that's just accepted parlance now amongst dwebes and dorks. Which is crazy because it's such a silly term.

It's like a 12-year-old kind of word, but then like, all right now, the B, yes, the Bureau of Hypercoasters will lay in. A gigacoster? What are you? I was thinking about it. It's very like, yeah, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, the metric system.

It makes sense. It goes, it goes hyper. Yeah. Gigastrata. Yeah, it's, I mean, I'm trying to think of like, mega, ultra, like, what other, like, prefixes for, like, superheroes or video game characters? Ultraman, Mega Man.

Like a microcoaster somehow. Microcoaster would be good. Yeah. It's got to be other. Right. Colossosso stupendo. I mean, yeah, you can like, you can get real dumb with it if you want. Yeah.

And they have. Yeah, they're pretty dumb. And that's exactly what they've done. Yeah, Strata has done. So, so I guess maybe it makes sense to go through them in the order. So hyper, but what else about this? It, like, what, yeah, what's notable about Magnum X? So Magnum XL 200 is.

was designed by aerodynamics, who are one of the important coaster builders of history. They built the Matterhorn. They built X at Six Flags, and it bankrupted them. They had to close the company. Oh, wow. But Magnum was, I mean, the marketing, frankly, just worked great. Because it was the tallest roller coaster in the world.

I'm getting my facts screwed I don't think it was actually the first one to break 200 feet I think that was one overseas So Magnum The guy who was in charge of the park at the time Dick Kinsel

Did a Said like well let's make it three feet taller And break that record So Magnum XL 200 is actually Two hundred and five feet Which drives me crazy You don't even Why put 200 in the name

If it's not true but that's not the case. Right, right. Just call it Magnum. That's a fine name. The X-L we don't need. Yeah. It really means, I mean, it's already, we're in condom territory with Magnum.

With Magnum. And then you get X-L in there, and now we're extremely in-contacted. Yes, we're right in the zone, the condom zone. Deep, deep inside a condom. I get it. It's like, yeah, it's extra large. Yes, it's big. I see it.

I see it right there. And then 200, yeah, actually, I didn't even clock 200 as it is 200 feet. 200 just seemed like kind of an arbitrary, just still, I don't know, it's like a racing straight. It sounds, it sounds like a, yeah, it's an exciting number. Death Race was 2000? What am I thinking of the movie? Blues Brothers 2000.

Blue Brothers 2000. I mean, think about what is the, if it, Blues Brothers 2, who cares? Blues Brothers 2000. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's changed the world. Right. Until we get to Millennium Force. Oh, yeah.

That is literally this name. They stayed in this, yeah, yeah. Yeah, oh yeah, so they were beating something I'm seeing called Bandit at Yomiuri land, and it was on the way, and Dick Kinsel's like, fuck bandit. He was relatively new to taking over the park, one of the visionary businessmen of America, Dick Kensel. Dick Kinsel. May he live long if he's not, if he's still alive. Is he? I don't know, yes, hey, all right, Dick Kinsel. What's he doing? 85. What's he up to? I don't imagine much. I did.

He's got the CTE of having ridden roller coasters for 40 years. When he retired, he said he wants to stay in Sandusky, but he has a winter home in Florida. So he's probably one of those two homes. Yeah. I'm going to connect with him on LinkedIn. I wonder which one he spends more time in. Sandusky or Florida. Who knows?

Who knows? If you had to pick. But Magnum was a, it was such a draw. Now, I was three when Magnum was, so I don't remember that opening, but I remember, like, my first trip there. I have a, like a, like a full, full color, I can remember the smells memory of my, my sister was an infant, and I was with my mom, and we found a place where you could see people's faces when they were just about to crest the hill. What a beast it is. It's so loud. It's so...

Now, the ride experience of Magnum is not phenomenal. It's not great. Do you think it ever was, or is it this is kind of like a... As you said, a pre-cad. There's wearing and tear. It is. But I think for the time, it was probably as good as could be done. It was, you know, what makes a good ride?

Is it just our expectations, or is there an objective, you know, is it good or does it just seem good? Well, I think it takes repeated rides to... really to really nail it down. Yeah, yeah. It's, uh, but still there, still kicking. Um, I have since been on it and it's, it's, it's great, except for the one part when it makes you, when it has really, really, really extreme geez. Oh, geez. Wow. Wow. Okay. Okay. G's indeed. So this, so this becomes like, all right, yeah, a huge, huge marketing campaign. Uh, uh, it's part of them going public on the stock exchange. I bought, like, changes. Did you really? a couple of shares of Cedar Fair style when just to just to participate in it just to like I think

my parents let me do it as like oh here's a way to learn about money wow and it didn't and obviously it's gone great wait because what happened I I know that there's I I know that it's been mergers and that Cedar Fair the parent company has is now one with six flags but six flags is that what it's called yeah it's I think I I believe what happened a couple years ago Cedar Fair and Six Flags merged and took the name Six Flags for the... Yeah, more exciting. But the management from Cedar Fair. Like, the company looks like Cedar Fair, but the names are six flags.

It's more of a Cedar Fair. It's more that Cedar Fair took over, but Six Flags had more value maybe in the market-wise. It's been more familiar, even with negative connotations. Now, what will the Travis Kelsey take over due to this entire? Well, he's trying. He's an insurgent, what do they call him, insurgent invest? Are you wrong? Activist investors. Thank you. Oh, he's like that guy who tried to take over Disney? That's right. Isner in there? Yep. Wow. Wow. Eisner or you mean, or are you talking about that there was that recent one? They tried to oust Eiger. The guy from Wendy's, whatever his name was. We were talking about him. Oh, right. That weird. Yeah, yeah. Now I don't remember the name. And then some people were on board, but some people were like, no, no, no, it would be worse. Don't. And then, yeah, he didn't. I don't think he got close with the votes. But there was a couple attempts. And it's going to be worse now that Cedar Fair and Six Flags are one company. I mean, oh.

Corporate consolidation? Cool. I'm sure that'll only bank things better for the consumer. Yeah, yeah. Have we noticed any impacts of this? Do we feel like it's changed anything about knots? We've been privately assured that some of the things we like about knots are going to remain there. That they respect knots culture and mythology and all the things that we sold.

No, no, I say to that. Not. I'd like to be an optimist. No, no, N-T, not K-N-O-T-D. So, I mean, sometimes it stays. everything stays like the same for like three years and then changes happen and then it's like actually we could do this with a third of the staff yeah what if we what if we just lay off of well um the norcal park just got so i think you can see a lot of that i think they're going to sell off a bunch of

parks that's what i think we not just see that that headline i think cover porter jason sheridan was posting about this headline that uh that we're we're we're going to see entire six flags go down fully like lesser performing right i don't know which one i don't know if they've identified which ones. Right. Should we, I'll identify which one. I'll tell you off the top of my head,

which ones are, yeah, well, yeah, well, what would you kill? No, now I'd actually have to think about it. I just,

mainly I hope that, especially for Natsbury Farm, that they silo the graphic design. There are nice aesthetics throughout Natsbury Farm, not across the board, but a ton. I like the basic font of the park.

Let's please keep the Six Flagsism. And frankly, with apologies, the Cedar Fairism. I think there's probably a lot to like about Cedar Point, the graphics and logos don't seem to be one of them. Oh, no, no.

A thing I liked as a shareholder of the Cedar Fairbara is they would, when they bought knots, they imported some of their stuff, but they didn't go as crazy as they get. They let their parks kind of be separate as opposed to everything is six flags over New England, six flags over. there's less symmetry. That said, yeah, the fonts are not great, and they should keep their grubby mitts off knots. Did it come from CD?

Is because they do, now I, like, there was the only thing that was bumming me out watching a bunch of Cedar Point videos was it was making me flash to the, like, graphic design of Eilich Gardens, which is a bad and disturbing place where I had a pretty awful couple hours, which is not, I don't know,

that has nothing to do with the Denver? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Which interesting, like skyline-wise, because you can see downtown and everything. But I was on a roller coaster that shook and a woman fell and possibly died next to my son on a merry-go-round. It was a very disturbing. It ended with a real energy of let's get the fuck out of here. Yes, yeah, yeah. So I was having bad flashbacks just looking at signs and going, you know what else, a complaint I have across the board, because this is a six-flags thing, or something that just gives me a bummer vibe whenever I see it, is the logo for the fast-pass system across these parks fast lane.

Yes. Because it bums me out for a few reasons. One, ugly sign. Two, I go, oh, should I, I'm not getting on any of these rides. Everything is so long. Should I buy a fast lane? I go and ask, well, that will be $210 or something. And even if you buy it in advance, it's not good.

And then three, it seems like, and this includes Cedar Point, I don't think it's doing anything for you. I think you might buy an expensive fast lane thing and then still wait an hour in line as opposed to three. Or five hours. A hit on Cedar Point is those lines get really long. Those lines are long, long, long. But I'm sure with a lot of fun entertainment

With the stars of the time And delightful music Yeah, here The peanuts are here Yeah You guys want to meet Snoopy? Let's go A three hour wait is not that bad

If Pigpen is walking around Sure, sure It would be It would be like There'd be a Pepsi machine At one of the switchbacks And every like hour You'd pass the Pepsi machine again

And say, I guess I get another Pepsi While I wait here in line it also feels like either it's like maybe your best bet and I'm judging this off of maybe a great America is that there is one old standard definition television playing a feed of music videos from 2006 that's your best bet as far as entertainment I want to get some black eyed peas yeah the song how bizarre we can really enjoy ourselves I wouldn't mind that that's fine that'll lift my spirits I it's well you're pointing at something that I think another reason I think

that the coaster wars and that era of it ended is there was a time in America when like families were the liquid of audience when playing. It was when like Vegas went family. When it was like, oh, let's get people with kids. They are the people who spend the most money. Let's all be Disney World. I feel like the massive impact of Disney World

really blowing up in the 70s and 80s, like lots of places. It was like, oh, that's, I see this. This is working great. And now, as with another thing, 30 years of income inequality. The money is in the luxury market. So instead of playing to families, you play to people who come in and buy a $200 fast lane pass, as opposed to the kind of democratizing effect of everyone's waiting in the line. It's, you just get in line and that's

what you're doing. And that's part of it. Yeah. Huh. What a shame. That's a, I know, that is a bummer. Boy, that also very well explained, a giant premise explained very concisely. That's a bummer thing about the world, too. Subscribe to drop out. Watch me on Smarty Pants. Yeah, I do recommend. You won't laugh very much. But you'll be informed. You will, you'll leave smarter than you.

Learn something. Truly, actually, I mean, you say that, but I also, like, some of the things we've been talking about in this episode, you know, we haven't done that much, like, pure coaster talk on the show. Because often I find myself going, like, these names, whether it's an Intamin or a B&M or whatever, or, like, the moves of a coaster. I will find myself going to snooze town. and talking about it can be a little dry for me audio-wise but not your piece you got me excited about intimate

and B&M well I'm a professional performer but it's funny you say snooestown because my my I'll if I need to fall asleep I'll put on like a ride through of something on my phone and just watch it be lured to sleep by the sounds of a

rollercoaster it's the greatest but you also brought up like a you brought up a list of the things that you you know You know, like here's elements that are exciting the coaster. Here's a vertical loop. Here's an incline twist. Here's a zero G roll. Well, we're, it's, and maybe not, but I was a big roller coaster tycoon.

Oh, yeah. I was, I was. I was deep in that. I was not. Actually, my wife was, but I, I never. Oh, she has great taste. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a, that was a good way to get all that in my brain because it's like, what do you want to add next?

Click this. Like this, but. Oh, and it's at your fingertips and you can visualize it and you're and you're inventing it that way. And it's also a good way to talk about what works on a roller coaster is there are moments of a ride. There are different, there are quite literally elements and that it's like, okay, which one works, which one doesn't. And what flows into the other? And I have so many opinions on them. Well, what gets you excited when you see a new coaster has this or that?

Air time. It's my favorite roller coaster in the work. is at Cedar Point, is steel vengeance. Ah, okay. Which is, which has more airtime than any other roller coaster in the world. It has the world record, a record breaking roller coaster, of airtime, which is that feeling of, of, there are two kinds of airtime. There's floater airtime, which is zero gs, which is like, I'm floating, and then there's ejector airtime, which is being, which is negative gs, when you get thrown out of your seat, like, whoa, hop up over that. that happens on a steeper hill on a on a on a tighter hill on when you get on on when the

centripetal force throws you harder out of your seat okay as you as you crest something are you getting air time in an inversion or is that those are those are you might be getting hang time in an inversion which is the same effect but upside down you're still getting you're just getting pulled at that point by gravity I see um typically you won't get it in an inversion because you'll take those quick and you'll kind of get stuck to the bottom of your seat. You usually get it cresting something. Okay.

Which is what works so well about, about Steel Vengeance is there's lots of little bumps, blips and bumps all over the place. And that's like your favorite sensation on the coaster? Correct. That's what, okay. Yeah, it's that feeling of like your stomach comes up just a little bit, and you're, for just a moment, you're weightless.

Yeah. This is what I was saying. And things that are often dry when you read them, you really, you made the emotional argument about it. I want to have that feeling. The way you, you, like, you go to heaven when you, uh... It's the closest I've ever gotten. Literally, physically, and just feeling was...

Now, as, as cowards, do you, do you, are, is there a sensation that you look for on a ride? Or is it rather the, more visual rather than the feeling of a... Well, I have done a handful of coasters now since doing this show that made me break. So Veloccoaster... You had to for your job? I had to for my job. It was for work. I had to be brave for work.

The Velocaster, though, in Orlando has, like, on my list. Eight moves, including what you're talking about, airtime, and it's got, like, the, like, barrel rolls. And it's literally, like,

almost every move it makes is perfect. It invented a barrel roll called a lagoon roll right over the water. I mean, that's thing. I, like, I was cackling... I still, like, cackle, like, the Joker after being on it, because you can't quite believe

that your body, it's like the most perfect thing I've ever experienced. Now, I've not experienced this one you're talking about here at Super. I've not experienced this. This is, that's another one on my list. Right, but this. I've been to Orlando in a long time. This thing, I it all of, like, gripes about coasters were like, I mean,

it's a little bit groin crushing, but it's worth it. But everything else, it's like it feels perfect. It feels smooth. It never, I don't even think about the reality of how dangerous it is. A new coaster that's running glassy like that oh that's that's happening so you just feel like you're flying half the time and i can't i wrote it like three times in a row it's unbelievable and it gives you what

you're talking about which is just this is that giant top hat and you just like feel like i'm just flying here but other coasters make me go ah shit i'm flying oh god oh no this makes me go yes let me soar into the heavens i'm laughing like whatever whatever happens to me happens to me i don't care in that moment. In that moment I'm released from my anxiety. Yes. Yes. Well, do you really feel that way? Yes. You got a lot of anxiety. A lot of anxiety.

I don't think I'd ever connected that that is like that is part of it. The moment doesn't last that long. It's a quick moment. It's a quick moment. But the way that coaster is, like, Hulk is not that situation. Yeah, Hulk, Hulk is fun but Hulk makes you know the reality

of what the mechanics are. You can feel that it's rattling. You gray out a little bit. Like you very much are fighting the forces of the machine. Even so it's fun. Isn't that also great? It is. But isn't that also like?

It's interesting. It's an interesting experience and it's fun and I will do it and I like it a lot. But Velocaster makes you forget what you're strapped into. That's what I think is amazing about it. I can't wait. Is that it's like the actual physical thing you're sitting on melts away. And I feel like I'm flying for two and a half minutes. It's wild.

We were talking about getting stapled before. There are ways to design a carriage, a train where that. B&M, Bollinger and Maviard, they have their clamshell that it's big and wide and won't staple you. It's wonderful. There's engineering fixes for so many of these. The big thing with me and the stapling is it's usually universal where there's just this little weird like stegosaurus, back bump right where my balls are. And that points my groin into the air.

Hard plastic. Yeah. And then I get crushed, like, because my penis is like, your shaft is pointing up. And then I get like smashed and it goes like it gets inverted. Like it can be really uncomfortable. These are fun aspects to a coaster, but not to happen to a penis. Right. So.

I want zero inversions. It's that bump. It's that bump, especially like mummy over here, Universal Hollywood. The bump is... Yeah, yeah. It's still a fun minute, but it's not... Are you, like, offended by that as a true coaster fan? Yes.

How dare you? How dare you waste my time? This is a coaster, you say? But if you think of it as, and I've said this before, the Chili's to go of Mummy, it's not the full Chili's experience. Isn't it not even the Mummy? It's the Mummy returns.

It's the sequel to the Mummy? Sure, yes. More so. Have you done the Florida one, though? I have not. I've never been to Universal in Florida. And it's, it's, it's a grail for me. It's so great.

And that, yeah, that ride highly recommended there. It's not, the coaster experience is a little better, but it's more, more the theming, more, like, more show scenes. Less it ends and you go, what the fuck was that? Which is why I'm so pleased that Universal is investing on that kind of stuff now. Like, it's, yeah. They're really, yeah, they're killing it. I, while we're on SteelVit, just to, like, close that Steel Vengeance. This is one of these coasters that is built.

It is a new ride taking over the corpse of an old one. It is. It's a zombie ride. A hybrid. And then they made up a new term, the hyper hybrid. And another success. They knocked it out of the park with their market. It's a cool name.

There's a roller coaster manufacturer called Rocky Mountain Construction, who kind of made it there. business. They invented a new kind of track that they could lay over existing wooden structures, but it was steel. So you won't get that like wooden shake. You'll get a little bit of the give, but it's a good way to modernize a roller coaster. Oh, well, did they also do because it's a similar, it's a very similar ride to twisted colossus. Yes, they did. That is an RMC conversion. Because these are both, I have not been on either. I've only done ride-throughs, but it is spectacular to watch.

I mean, it's really clever seeing this old wooden structure just get, like, taken over. And, like, doing, obviously, like, doing inversions within an old, like, 70s or whatever structure is visually dazzling. Like, acrobatic kind of inversions, really tight. This was the ride that they flipped, it used to be a roller coaster called Mean Streak, which I grew up with. Okay. Which was, when it was built, it was the tallest wooden roller coaster in the world.

It's a hundred It's some number of feet And it was so rattley and bad It was so painful and unpleasant It was like it was Just skip it don't even do it And when they said they were going to This was going to get

I'd heard rumors of the wonderful work That Rocky Mountain Construction does That was my first time experiencing it Cheskiss Wow really What a Alan Shilky, that's the guy's name who was their

designer, who came up with all these little hairpin turns. Wow. That's a mad genius. Jeez. Yeah, yeah. The way you were physicalizing it, like the coaster track coming out of the flow of a pen

or set. Like, that's pretty beautiful. Imagine somebody just like doing it as if splattering art or splattering paints on a wall, you know? Right. Mean streak It was like

It did loops basically It was like tight in its own structure And it kind of did two loops around When they when they redesigned it They added a third run around Really low to the ground Which is where all those little bumps are When it's just so wild and twisty

Oh Man you're making me want to do them all It's fun They also did Because I've noticed a couple of these There's one of Magic Mountain Called Wonder Woman Flight of Courage And then there was one at, I think one at Great America...

The single rail coasters. Single rail, yeah, these are very interesting looking. They do look like they glide. Like, they're interesting just to look at and me to stay on the ground and not go on. But maybe I didn't want to go on one of these. They like the, like the, like fluidity. The conversion track. Yeah, they can do those really tight maneuvers.

Wow, right. Well, the one at Magic Mountain, it's only, it's a single rider only. It's a very narrow train that can really you really ride that bucker oh it's good. Yeah, that's, yeah, that's

I do like, that's the thing that stops me from certain things, at least up until now, is that like, I do I like a little car, I like feeling a little more secure in my car. That's the problem. Rather than the like the side to side of all. Yeah, and then like, especially like X2

and Tatsu where I'm just like, I'm so exposed. Like, I know. X2 is something else. I'm sure it is. And it's like, it's, I get the YouTube video. I watch the YouTube video like every three months and go, you're going to do it. You have to do it. Like, you have to do it.

But it looks. Do it at night. It's like, when you do it, do it. It's like, I don't know what is up. I don't know where, what direction I'm pointed. It's going to be, it feels so crazy. It is. Yeah.

It feels like you're going to be, brain is going to be like, I don't understand. That's right. Being tortured. Yeah. Yeah. That's the good part. Yeah. No, I know.

I understand. want to live. This is good. I get the logistics of it. Let me tell a steel vengeance horror story, though. Oh, go ahead. Not long after it opened. Here's the thing that will make you not want to get on any ride. Not long after it opened, a 17-year-old boy threw a packet of hot sauce at a train, which exploded and hit some people in the face and eyes, and seven people had to be treated medically for this situation. That's not that bad. I mean, yeah, in the scheme of things, not that bad. That's not that bad. I suppose so.

In the moment, trying to figure out what it was, which I think I might flash to, like, we've talked about when the goose hit Fabio, Bush Gardens, and I think I would go to that. I'd go, like, some. A bird? Yeah, or, like, it may be probably smaller, but, like, I, we must have hit, like, a sparrow or something, and it's sour blood. Or, like, stinters or something. You probably couldn't even tell it was a liquid going point quick like that.

You just wouldn't know. A packet of hot sauce. I can't believe the. spread of that. I guess it really speaks to the aerodynamics at play that just the throw of a teenager splatters it, that what the train is doing makes it spread to seven people. Well, and that's a thing about coaster parks as teens. And I'm wrong for being there. They're right. I'm invading their terrain. Right. It's I, that there are roving bands of scary teens. Oh, yeah. That's part of it. They operate the rides and they're also there hanging.

So it's both factions of team. I have entered a teen town. They are letting me be here for now. But that is what they're customs. One of the great things about Cedar Point when I was growing up is you could go when you were like 13 and it's a closed enough environment to be like, all right, I'll see you tonight, kids. And you're so free with your friends to punch them and curse at them. Yeah, nobody's going to tisk, tisk in a line, nobody's going to judge that I, like, I think I've said before, like you get to experiment with curse word, you get to try on new favorite

curse words for some days. Yeah, and there's, and it's, it's like a boy-girl thing. Oh, big deal, yeah, it's a very big deal, you know, and then you see like a person you don't know, and then you, like, fall in love with them, but you never talk to them. Or, or in the switchbacks, because the line is five hours, you keep, you keep, you You pass them once an hour and like, I'm going to talk to him this time. I bet this time I'm going to say something. They're going to cross.

I see way up there. In an hour and a half, I got an opportunity. How do I say something? OMC, pretty cool band, huh? Hey, how bizarre. Hey, how bizarre. It's right. How long this line is?

How bizarre? They're number seven on the VH1 countdown today. Oh. I think they'll knock Sugar Ray off soon enough. Whoa, what's your name? Let's go a little bit further. Let's, you know, I think maybe it's a good time to get out of the 90s. Let's pass the 90s.

Because the most important fulcrum point in the history of this park is clearly the millennium. It is. Millennium force. This is a big deal. It doesn't seem like this would be at this point maybe people's number one favorite in the park, although maybe. But it seems like it's very important as far as coaster wars go. It is. As far as your attachment to this place.

It was the first giga coaster to. to use their parlance it was the first coaster over 300 feet um and it i was there opening season i was there the year 2000 um or 2001 i actually can't remember which one i was their opening season whichever one they were calling the millennium um it's we're talking about that that view coming in it's so big and so long that's that's what works best about that roller coasters, that it is very long. It's long and it's fast. It's, you're, it's, it's the, I was too scared to go on it that day.

There's that, this particular trip, the day I saw Millennium Force, I was, I must have been eighth grade and I was, I volunteered to hold all the girls' purses while they went on. Oh, wow. And there, I remember a moment. of like you gotta get yourself together here man this can't be the kind of go this is humiliating if you stay in this lane forever yeah this makes me flesh to the unfortunate when erin had to do that for haggards in uh islands of adventure in florida and that is because she was pregnant uh yeah this is you this is you being pregnant voluntarily yeah this is me being pregnant with

fear and fear baby and it was like the next year that I went back that I was like I gotta just get on these things I got I've got to do it And you did it You didn't let it linger for And I fell in love Wow

And if that isn't a story About taking chances It's what these things It's what rides are good for They give you like kind of evolution In your life I mean like it took me Until doing this podcast

To have any evolution And I still haven't gone that far All told But I'm hoping to watch this with my son What's the coasteriest coaster You've been on? Um I

What would it be within the Disney World ones? I mean, probably... God, it's Guardians are In Credit Coaster, right? Or Rock and Roller Coaster. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's whatever in there you consider. Yeah, yeah.

That's a proper roller coaster. That's kind of you. That counts. That's an unqualified counting. Okay, okay. I feel like, you know, I think to this day one of the moves that has freaked me out the most is the rock and roller coaster, not so much the launch, but what happens at the end of that line,

that first move is definitely that is like a kind of a, far as I can go because what do you you go up real high and invert I don't know I forget what exactly is happening I believe it's a cobra roll I believe I believe I believe the maneuver is a cobra roll I actually didn't know what it was called things see that part yeah that's interesting I don't I love that was like the first real coaster I ever went on rock and roller coaster when I was whatever 13 I don't know something like that and yes the launch was just like the scary part's over and the phone part is immediate, right. Riding.

Right. Stephen Tyler's in my ear. I feel comfortable and I feel good. And now we get to go on a fast one thing. Who on earth hasn't felt comfortable with Stephen Tyler right in their ear? The most comforting sandwich. But, yeah, it's interesting. I don't know.

I've tried to figure out what, like, now I'm like trying to like, sometimes I'll go on a ride and be like, would Scott like this part? Would he like this part? And there are certain parts of the rides then he would like. But sometimes I can't sign off on the entire one, even though I think to get to the good part, you might have to go through a bad part. Yeah, and even the way you guys are describing, like, what you're chasing, I still feel like even, unfortunately, on it in credit coasters. There's moments that I'm like, I'm getting through this because I like the other things. It's very rare, and that's definitely the case on Rock and Roller, where, like, I've never felt free like you guys feel.

In moments I do, but there's, like, all of these top tier ones, it's still like you will get through. You can survive this because you like the other stuff. What's the Incredit Coaster? Could you walk us through Incredicoster about like, I feel good, bad, good, bad. Like, what is the launch? Lately, it's awesome. The launch is fun. Yeah, lately I don't feel too bad in any.

Maybe the biggest drop still gets to me a little bit. Though it's fun as hell. But that is a good drop. It's a, it is a, it is a, and I'm not even being that nice. It is a good, you know, you do get a little bit of air time over that. Yeah, yeah. Is there air time with that? Yeah, you get a little bit of the flutters.

Well, I think I mostly also enjoy the 360 there, but there's maybe like a second in the middle that I'm like, bleh. But not they pass as fast. That hits my neck. Depending on how bad I slept or whatever, what's going on with my vertebrae, sometimes that loop is a little too slow for me. And that's the only part of Incredica coaster at this point that I'm like, okay, I hope this works out, okay. There's a ride at knots hang time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which has lots of exactly that.

hanged it. It was like, this is, they really take their time through those loops. If they got rid of that first part, I'd be riding it a lot more. Oh, there's one for you. I did it. Yeah, yeah. I did it. Yes. There's something at Cedar Point that has a symbol that has hanged that where you like stare down. There's, there's a couple of roller coasters there. There's a tip kind of. It's, their newest roller coaster, which I've not been on, opened this last year, was Siren's Curse. Yes, I've seen this. Which is a tilt roller coaster. You're describing exactly right. It's, you're describing exactly right. You go and you go flat.

It's hang time, but it tilts. And then the track itself lifts up 90 degrees and let's it go straight down. So you're like sitting in a chair just looking down. I'm just worried about like, I think there, not that I don't trust the good people at Cedar Point, but like if you were looking straight down and then you could tell that it didn't click in right, imagine the feeling you. The idea of that is far worse than any like heights I would hit. getting stuck, I think they got stuck before the tilt. Yeah, when it was still, well, that's, I

was saying I don't like any of their recent capital expenditure. That's, it's the old engineering term. The best part is no part. This, this breaks all the time, obviously. This, this, this crazy mechanism that lifts the car

90 degrees is always malfunctioning. So it's, it's, we're talking about the, the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, They need people eaters there, and they haven't been putting them in, and I think it's a mistake. I think Sirens Chris was a mistake. Wow, wow.

I'll ride it. I bet it's wonderful. Sure, sure, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I saw a video saying a similar point in saying, like, now, some of these rides, they run three trains at once. And, like, that's as good as they give, but that seems like the most you can possibly do is three cars. Yeah, you need a lot of block sections for that. Yeah, yeah. But so, you know, also speaking of Incredicoster, I was surprised.

see it. I was like, let me just look at lists of coaster records, because I know Cedar Point is going to be on a lot of these. And I was surprised to see Incredit Coaster, like, you don't see the word Disney in any coaster. Yeah, it was a big, almost ever. Yeah, yeah, like an actual, actual competing. And Credit Coaster is, it's not a super impressive one, but it is in terms of like wanting a good ride, that it is the sixth longest steel roller coaster on Earth. So, which Which I always, you feel very satisfied. That is not a ride that ends, and you're like, that was it. Like, you get a big, full experience right behind Millennium Force.

Millennium Force is number five now, which is the longest track. Guardians is number 10. Really? Yeah, yeah. They have to be, I bet they do run three or four trains on Encretta coaster. I bet they can really, it's, they need people eaters. They need, like, high capacity rides. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's also beautiful. And Credit Coaster is just a great, like, that is a lot. lovely looking. It's mainly what I'm chasing. And I do like the redo. I like seeing the characters. Yeah, it's neat. Yeah, I like music.

I put some in that dirt patch when you're circling at the end. That's always been the game. Weird dirt patch. Yeah. And that's your finale is. Right. What an opportunity for a thing. Yeah.

And they do Jack Jack Big in the last scene, but like something in there like that you spin around would be cool. Or if you were like one of those, uh, uh, you know, like, I'm not going to get the right word from Incredibles' lore, but like, they fight like big, crazy balls with arms and shit yeah yeah if there was something like that and it felt like it was grab it could be still I mean it could also be an animatronic

but I know they're not going to do that that's no no no no too too but so in terms of US the top three are three in Credit Coaster two Millennium Force number one Fury 325 at Carolin's we haven't talked Carolins I don't think right uh Fury

no I mean, I could dive in on Fury 325 if that's what we're after. Well, if you're compare contrasting Fury and Millennium Force. Well, okay. You know what? It's an interesting comparison. Fury 325 is made by B&M, which has come up before. They did Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure.

There's a whole bunch of them at Cedar Point. They make big, smooth, really like, glassy, lots of airtime. I love B&M rides. I would rather Fury 325 over Millennium Force. Did they ever do Disney? B&M, I don't.

They did Hulk at Universal. Have they done Disney? Disney works with Vacoma a lot, and Vacoma built Sirens Curse. There was a fuck up. Oh, interesting. Huh, huh. Do they, are they, is Vacoma fucked up?

Are there any notorious Disney fuck-ups that are... That's a good question. It's not at the top of my head. Vaccoma did Hagrid's, and Hagrid's is supposed to be wonderful. It is, yeah. I greatly look forward to writing Haggards. I do.

I got, I got to get down there. But, but, okay, so Millennium for, you know what, here, let me do this well. There's a, there's fun Cedar Point commercials here and there. America's a rock and roller coast. That's right. Yeah, I was, like, they had a logo at one point that I did, like, where the I and point is an exclamation point. Yeah.

I thought that was fun. nothing that was that worth playing on the show except for their promo for Millennium Force and it's a little bit visual so listeners forgive me but I think it's worth playing just because this isn't the only time they made a lot of fun

kind of like four minute long promo videos for coasters and theming as we've said is not the thing with these rides but they do name them all with names that like imply bigger ideas and then it's up to the promotional material to like fill in the story and the idea of the millennium which loomed so large in all of our lives it being such a major wow i can't believe i'm a teenager and i'm seeing the millennium i think it really fed into millennial hopes and fears this is this is kind of a fascinating

little piece oh sorry to set the stage we're looking at the earth and there is a bunch of kind of ambient alien light yeah that is kind of hovering and looking to form and and go somewhere. I wonder where. At the turn of the millennium, there were signs. That's such a bad shot. Or, no, like a street, I guess. It's like a, man, opening up his shop.

Wait, what are we looking at? It's a closed stone, like a town, like a small town, main street. Is the town doing well or not? Is, I would bet that that town is closing down for Y2. Okay. Like, it's like, we've got a batten down the hatches. Who knows what's coming our way? Just in case. Yeah, yeah. Let's get in the bunker. This is what Sandusky looks like, by the way.

Oh, is there's a rough place. A higher intelligence. A man is buying a newspaper. That man is buying a newspaper. He's dressed like a game. But there's a crazy logo. A symbol keeps appearing. Is that supposed to be kind of the shape of Millennium Force? It is. Oh, okay. Gotcha.

Beyond Oh, I see. And then a crosswalk And the shape appeared So we're seeing Like people trying to go about their day But something keeps flashing to them What is it?

The millennium beckons The millennium says step into the future And then maybe it's worth skipping ahead a little bit But people keep seeing And now like a crazy math teacher Is drawing it frantically on a chalkboard Beyond space I remember physics days at Cedar Point

Oh right, yes It's on a kid's hat. The shape is appearing in the clouds. In cliffs. Race along the edge of the time space continue with the universe as we know it. Race along the edge of the time space continuum. I mean, I love that. This is entirely marketing department just inventing because there's like, it's a new fast ride. Go.

Well, and they probably when they made that, the ride wasn't done. Probably, you know, it's like they're built it the year before. So it's their, they're having to be like, okay, we can't show the ride at all. But there was like some 2000s era graphic of a, I mean, I'm assuming there'll be more maybe at the end. But like there was a little bit of like roller coaster track, but it'll digital, I think. Am I wrong? Maybe I missed. Yeah, yeah, they do start showing.

There's like a blue track or something. Oh, it's a beautiful. It's a rendered blue, yeah. They do very video gamey, yes. That's what most of the video becomes. Doom graphics. Doom style, like level. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And then you get the. excellent tagline, the future is writing on it. That's a great tag. That really is good. Objectively terrific. That's a great tagline. Really good. Yeah, I liked this vid. But I love the like just trying to make it about

more than it is. It's about like it's not just a big fast roller coaster. It's about this is the, are you why even bother living in the new millennium if this isn't your entry to it? I, do remember the optimism around the millennium? Remember how good it felt

in the year 1999 into 2000? What have we done? Look at where we've wound up. It's all told a pretty bad millennium. Not a great millennium thus far. No. Thus far. Yeah.

We could turn it around. There's plenty of time. There's plenty of time. Maybe not in this century, but this millennium, I got a lot of hope. All right, yeah. We'll just punt this century. But the red, maybe the second century of the millennium will be game. Right.

I do feel a connection to that roller coaster and the optimist. and the optimism of the millennium. Because it looks, even when you got, like it's such a big, steep structure. It looks like something you, unusual. It's only one of two of that style of roller coaster. There aren't that many of them. So it looks unusual and it looks as big as it is.

And that, it made perfect sense that it was themed around the millennium because it seemed like the biggest thing that was ever going to happen when it opened up. Wow, wow. And it was perfect that we, did build up our hopes for how great the millennium would be in that it never got much better only maybe barely in fits and starts got better once in a while yeah yeah someone you know iPhones I guess are fun yeah that's true they are yeah yeah Dodgers just did well yeah yeah yeah greatest world series is waiting for you in the new melee how about that action figures

look better than ever yes so there's that I didn't know that was how gonna happen I couldn't even have imagined a world but that could happen right exactly Exactly. I mean, McFarland Toys is doing okay at the end of the 90s, but like now we've taken it to a whole new level. James Cameron's only going to make three movies in the new million, but they're going to be increasingly better and more awesome movies. How about that? Yeah. Well, okay. We've got our first point of disagreement. I can't hear it right now. I've got my fire and ash blinders on. I understand. And that's fine.

And listen, I celebrate it for you. He's got a lot riding on fire and ash. I really do. I don't have the Millennium's right. I know I know if I'm at hour two realizing that it's not and I mean I slowly dismantle the costume cold cream wiping off nothing makeup never mind I'll exit the theater quietly but but did it after with the buildup that you gave it did it like with the fear you had at 13 would you end up thinking when I got on a couple years when I finally did it Yeah. Wow.

Wow. There's, it's, it's, it's snarky criticism nickname in the enthusiast community is Millennium Forseless. Oh. Talk about that, like, airtime is non-existent on Millennium Force. Right, right. It's very fast. It's very tall. But after that first tale, it just kind of goes.

It just, it just kind of meanders. It's long. Yeah. It's not unpleasant, but it's, it doesn't do that much. It's not unique, I guess. You're going kind of fast, but that's about it. Yeah, you're going very fast. Yeah.

But, well, yeah. Cool. So there's maybe a battle going on at Cedar Point within itself of, all right, yes, this ride has broken a lot of records, but does that automatically guarantee a great ride, and maybe it does not. Which you're setting up, my second favorite ride in the park? I think I have a guess from just watching Vids. Maverick? Maverick. That's exactly.

what it is. Maverick is a, it's a launch coaster, but you kind of launch over a hill. It didn't really break any records. It, it is not, that's about 100 feet tall. It's not super tall. But those maneuvers that it does are so

much fun. It's, it has had, I should say, a lagoon roll, much like a Jurassic Park. But they had to take it out because it was

too intense. It's just a now it's just a little twist because people were getting too thrown around by it. There's two launches and you don't see

the second one coming so it happens out of nowhere. There's so many wonderful surprises on Maverick. Wow. I believe also designed by the people that designed Millennium Force

and they learned their lesson. They figured it out, man. Well, is it a I saw it listed as an Intim and Blitz? Is it an intimate blitz? It is an intimate blitz. Yes, it is an intimate blitz. What is a blitz? A blitz is a multi-launch. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. When you're getting a blitz of launches. Oh, okay, okay. Wow.

You explained that much, but I was looking at a list and nobody was fucking saying it in three words like you just did. I don't know if you know, I don't know if you know about enthusiasts. Brevity is not their thing. Yeah, maybe that's some of the, maybe like there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, like it veers to dry and the way I've mentioned this before that I have a son who loves trains and if you end up in the world

of train enthusiasts there's a lot of like grouchiness and a lot of like everything but the joy of it's fun train oh look at the train there it is like if you're in the weeds of like train specifics it's like this is the most boring thing I've ever gatekeeping old man

in the train yeah yeah you go to the train stats and they're like they're so unapproachable when you go to Griffith Park. And those, like, all the guys in the overalls there, just maintaining the few trains there left. More awkward than an awkward teen, operating intimate blitz. And they're, like, kind of mad you're there, even though it's like, you're trying to learn.

I want to spend time with my train. Right. Like, it's a necessary evil to have people come near me. I guess this is how we make money here. Every child is a third wheel between me and my train. Uh-huh. Yeah, no, this, that looks like a really charming, uh, fun. It's fun. Yeah.

And it's, and it, I had no hopes for it when it opened up because it, because I was record-breaking-pilled for a very long time. I was, I was, I was a creature of marketing. I was led to believe that the biggest is always the best. And it's simply not the case. Yeah. Yeah. It is interesting because I guess they seem to be, I mean, obviously in overseas they're doing it, but it does, it now seems to be more about the way in which your, and this is the way I describe, the way in which you're handled.

Yes. Versus the actual records. Alan Shilke, he had a lot to do with that at RMC. Interesting. And he's just left RMC. So we're going to see what happens now. Is he going somewhere else?

I don't think so. I think he's retiring. Oh, okay. Somebody could get him on a room. This is rare we come across these things with like, you know, Joe Rodey did a lot of the best Disney style. Yeah, yeah. Yes, super cool guy.

I don't think we haven't like, we only, there's only a few of those we ever talk about. It's like, oh, and they left. So what are they going to do? They're going to do something. But we hear their back, maybe they're back. But Alan Shilke is, Alan Shilke is like an MVP to watch,

or to watch retire. I'm going to half remember some of this, but I believe he was the designer at Aerodynamics. Okay. Back back with Matterhorn and X2. And then when Aerodynamics went bankrupt because of X2, he went over to Rocky Mountain Construction and was sort of like handed the,

it's like, okay, be a mad. genius for us. Come here and we're whatever idea you want to do, you're, go for it. Also like, who's the Spider-Man to Rise the Resistance, uh, fella? Trobridge? Yeah, yeah. Scott Trobridge. What a ride.

What a great ride. Which one do you mean? Rise of resistance. Sure. You're in the wrong room. Oh, no. Well, no, it's not. My, my issue is just that it's like the ultimate Star Wars ride, but it's not, it's

missing so many elements of like what you would put in the actual ultimate Star Wars ride. Oh, that it's, that it's the new movies. That it's the new movies and then there's like a little bit. What a huge web. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So like there's like, like, it should just be all the movies. Yeah. And it should have like a moment like some like a little more romance or something in there too. Just like getting all the difference. No, no, no. I'm with do like a, do like a great movie ride moment of like see, remember. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. But like the Leah's theme or like that. We need a little like sweeping thing. Even because there's a moment like. that or at least a quiet moment in Star Tours

where C3Bio says you've just joined it looks like we've just joined that Rebel Alliance and there's a little bead of heaviness I want like a little more of that in it That is a fair criticism I accept that But it is obviously very impressive right There's plenty of good stuff

You've heard that criticism for the first time Try hearing it for the 20th time And then see how you feel That's the prison that you live in a fortunately here It's still a fair criticism Yeah yeah yeah It doesn't impact the fairness I know

It's whatever The way you speak and then he joined the Rebel Alliance. That's a moment that I appreciate in Star Tours. He joined the Rebel. I'm trying to perform it. I'm trying to get recapture the magic. It invites you. It invites you.

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, there's just a couple things they could do. They could still plus it up. It's not lost, not totally lost. But, you know, we're never getting a big ride like, we're not getting an expensive Star Wars ride like that ever again. Ever again. Even from Disney, I think they're not.

I think they're not. No, yeah, yeah. We've got a rough 10 years ahead of us. But when you say all, like maybe the American economy. It's very popular. Oh, yeah. Honestly. No, I think so.

It's that an AI. Doomsday Secret Wars are like the AI stock of like if those two Marvel movies go, like we're done. Like the country maybe goes bankrupt. Shut it down. Disney's merging with Navidia. Right. Then that collapses when it all collapses. And they determine that they're going to take the Navidia name over Disney.

It's more valuable after those two flops. And now it's six flags. Right. You're right. And then Six Flags takes that over. And then Six Flags is running Disneyland now. God damn Sabarro's everywhere. Because Robert Downey Jr.

chose a weird accent for Dr. Doom. This accent tanked America. Yeah. This is the true. I have Dr. Doom. Nope. Wrong as soon as you're it. Yeah.

Nope. And they had to dub it over like Doolittle so it doesn't even match right. The America Dream is. his writing on this accent, Robert. Dr. Doom cannot be from Scandinavia. Unless you can really nail the Scandinavian. He can. He can. He could. Sure, but the Doolittle situation was really something.

Yeah, he's, when he puts it, he's like a Colin Farrell. When he puts his back into it, it's great. He's amazing. When he doesn't, oh boy. Once in a while, something interesting happens. So we'll see. Let's name check some other things as we go. Well, well, here. let's you know what we were going from hyper to giga to strata let's talk strata with top thrill which came up a little bit yeah so there i saw an old ad for that that's really pushing that like you're in a dragster you're in a race but it's a dragster that it's got it's going somewhere you've never seen a dragster go before into that sky so and so this kind of a but you could sort

of ignore the the racing theme probably to some extent you could ignore any of the themes on any other. A theme is maybe even overstating it. The themes are, the themes are red, green, blue. It had a racing font and that's about what they did with it. But this is a strata coaster and strata means

400 feet. 400 feet. But you're not getting a lot of, here's another bit of jargon I kept running into is that it's, they also qualify that it's the world's fastest coaster that returns that does a loop and goes back to a station as opposed to one that goes straight up in the air

and then just goes back the way he came. A lot of the coastal records are like swimming in the Olympics when it's like, oh, wow, you've set the world record for 25 meters ages, 27 to 32. Yeah. Yeah, there's, it breaks 100 miles an hour. Or I should say, it broke when it was, it's now a different ride. When I was there, it was top throw dragster, which was one of the rides we were talking about, like accelerator that launches really fast and hard and goes up over.

the 400-foot top hat and goes straight down the other side and then you're back to the station. Their fix for that has been to get rid of that launch that really was so rough on the equipment and do a, this is a trend now in roller coasters, a swing launch, which is, it's a different propulsion system that can't get you going with as much force, but you go through it a couple times because you roll up and then you roll back through it and you go up and the new part is they put a

spike behind it that then you go straight up the back part gives you the rest of the momentum and then that plus passing back through the launch gives you then the momentum to go up over the top oh it gives you more ride it does it does give you more ride which is a hit on top thrill

dragster is it that's not it was like seconds long it was a five hour wait for a seconds long ride sort of in the Superman the escape world A perfect comparison That's exactly what the comparison is In fact that spike

That's basically what you're doing is Is a Superman The my I haven't been on Top Thrill 2 Not a lot of people have Because it was also a mechanical disaster But The good part of Top Thrill Dragster

Was that crazy lunch You know now if there's no crazy lunch What am I waiting for? It's tall but everything here is tall I'm tall I don't need tall What's the special thing

And if it's gone It's gone So I'm I'm I'm skeptical of top thrill too This is current Tallest roller coaster in the world At least maybe with some of those Caviats

And then it will be crushed If they open When Falcon slide comes up And it would not have been Except for King de Kha just closed King of Kha was like 20 feet taller And was just demolished.

It was a brutal collapse, too. Wasn't it? I saw that collapse. Fuck you. We're done with this trash. It wasn't like a classy implosion or anything. It's six flags.

They're not going to do it class. They're not going to do it. It's going to be some guy. Yeah, well, probably a couple teens just knocked it over with a couple of bats, baseball bats. They swore it to the ground. Come on, man.

Knock this fucking fucking knock over, man. You fuck you bitch at it until it. It collapses due to cowardice. Shit. The C word until it buries itself. None of them sound convincing, swearing. I'll go die then. Shit.

Shit. You fall over. Yeah. Let's like speed around a couple other things. Just if you have like a fondness for these. Here's a B&M Raptor. Oh, Raptor's great. Raptor's my favorite B&M roller coaster in the park.

Wow. It's an inverted roller coaster. Which is like a Batman the Ride type where you're a feet dangler when your feet are dangling. It's very compact and it's right on the midway and you can kind of, you can go under it. So it's beautiful and you can see all of it. And it's just a very, very well-designed. No, never mind. I was going to say, have you ever been on Batman the ride?

And the answer is no, you've not been on Batman. I am not. I almost did the time I went. and uh it's an it's i wouldn't if you're that's a it's a it's good but it's i didn't do bam in the ride i've done riddler's revenge though i don't know why that's i didn't it's it's uh bnms i will say if you've been on one of them you've been on all of them and i mean that because i like all of them but how do you compare it to it's like silver bullet at knots oh right i did that i did silver bullet yeah well then of of of great comparison

Silver Bullet, I find it to be a flawed but interesting ride. It's got that really, like, slow, dry. You really, like, meander your way down that first hill. Oh, yes, that began. That helped me, yes. You really take your time. I'm like, oh, I'm ready to scream. Oh, not yet.

No, no, no. Oh, I got a second here. I'm already at the bottom. Wow. It does a lot of similar stuff, but I think it does it with more force. It tosses you around a little bit more. Right. I love, by the way, just you pull up that Wikipedia for,

Silver Bullet, and it's funny when you see, like, rides in this, like, what ride did this replace? And in this place, the case, that Silver Bullet replaced the Church of Reflections. It's just a nice real church. Yeah, I was going to say, demolish Silver Bullet and put the church back. I think it's still, they moved it. It's across the, it's in the parking lot in one of those, like, park areas. That's a huge parking lot.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's wild over there. Knott's is awesome. And you can be there, like, when I left you, Mike at Knott's Scary Farm, I was, I just, I walked up to the. the fake Independence Hall and just kind of stare. And there was not a soul. Like I have this entire, it wasn't been that late.

It's 11 o'clock. I'm the only person over here. There's no security guards. Then I started to get scared and then I ran to my car. That's what I worry about like a more algorithm brain, spreadsheet brained people looking at knots and going like, why is there all this land with like this building here? Like I wanted to stay strange and like not. You park in a field and Yeah

Right Very well themed Yeah yeah so like There's a lot of strangeness that like A person that would look at it Like what the hell is like We gotta pave this and put I mean they could put cooler stuff there I'm sure

But it costs money to do that Yeah so I don't know if it's And they have other things to replace in the park proper Like if you were looking at the park I think there's still like things and areas to theme up So they probably Maybe the land is not in that in too much of demand Because that dead mall where we record

in an episode has been dead and dying for a long, long time. Also, and those parking lots go right up to each other. It's just, that is just the kingdom of parking lots over there. And then the water park. Nobody wants, I guess. I meant to go to that water park this year and I did not. Wouldn't that be fun? Yeah, I meant to go alone.

41 year old man. Sounds great. Another word about that. I didn't look. I did. Yes, go on. Yes, I did. But I didn't do. Yeah. So, yeah, that whole zone, you would think someone to come in and go, okay, Nott's, this is like prime real estate, we got to really get rid of Independence Hall, we got to get rid of the old, did they put something new in the Fridays? No. The Friday's closed. It's just empty.

That'll probably be empty for a long time. Probably. I think we, this is where, in this area, we have to really hope that the economy does not get better. That's a good point. Yeah, yeah. So they get out like an influx of cash. Keep knots weird and then dying in parts. Val Raven? Val Raven is a B&M dive coaster. I said there are two now with Sirens Curse. Again, Sirens Curse was a mistake.

They have two roller coasters that dangle you over a straight drop and then let you go. That's what this does. It dangles you. You go straight down. You do a loop and then you're back. It's pedantic. Wow, wow. It's a waste of time.

I don't care for Valerie. I think dive coasters are, they're gimmicks for the GP, the general public. Oh, mm-hmm. The normies, yeah. Sometimes it's dismissible, this is for normie. Yeah. Actually, well, isn't that, in a way, being that opinion, I guess we're all being a little bit of gatekeepers. We say things like that.

That's what fandom is. That's what I don't know how to be a fan of something. But I say that to say, isn't that. there is there not a ride called gatekeeper? Oh, oh, there we go. Oh, look at this. I believe the final BNM. Gatekeeper is a wing coaster.

Kind of like X2 where you're on, hanging on either side of it. It's really, they knock this one out of the park. This is a stunning roller coaster. It's the main gate for Cedar Point has, I call it sort of like, Golden Gate Bridge. type arches and this roller coaster comes up

and it does maneuvers through the main gate by like turning on its side so you've got these near misses as you rotate through

the arches of the golden gate it's the experience of it is it's fine it's fine it's fine

it's a we I think any wing coaster because of just the physics of it gets really rattley it's a really

rattily rind. Catches the wind. But man, those near misses are really something. They're very exciting. Yeah. And it's in a dramatic entrance

to the park. Right at the beginning. Right at the front of the park. It's, they let you know right away. This is the roller coaster place. Right. Oh, it's gorgeous.

Yeah. Yeah, very neat. What if they were in this? Rougaroo. Rougaroo. Rougaroo. Roo-Gro. Was the stand-of-of-old.

roller coaster that I was talking about before that got converted into a floorless roller coaster. I've not been on it since it was a floorless coaster. When I was on it, when it was Mantis, the stand-up roller coaster. Oh, right, right. As a roller coaster is kind of cool. I would like to ride it without that, without, you know, my penis being ripped off. Yeah, yeah. I'd love to know what that experience is like.

You know what's a stand-up coaster, I'm realizing this now, as we're talking about, stand-up coaster, yes, you either get like a seat, like, up your butt. or nailing your balls, and it's a little uncomfortable. But a stand-up coaster, I think, in the same way that I am a lot more nervous on a plane when there's turbulence when I'm sitting, but I'm okay if I'm in the bathroom on the plane and the plane is rattling. I don't know why that is. If I'm peeing and I'm getting knocked around in the bathroom, I still don't like it,

but I do feel a lot less anxious. I don't have that. I can't wait. I'm in danger. I got to go by my seat. That makes more sense. But for whatever reason, when I'm standing. standing up and I'm rocking around and I go,

I don't like this. I do feel better than when I'm like strapped in and I feel like maybe I'm like, I can't move. There's something about like being able to move or stand up. But I feel similarly with a stand-up coaster where there is something more comforting to me that when I'm kind of standing up on Ridler's Revenge

versus my legs dangling. If it gets dangerous, I can jump out. I just walk off. I can just walk off the coaster. It's fine. I think there's some weird psychological thing there. The theory behind them is is sound, that it is more open like that. Yeah. You're less

like a victim of circumstance. I think it's just like my leg, when my legs are dangling, I feel like I'm more, I need to be able to use my legs, I guess, because I could run away. It must be some like animal thing. It must be some animal. Well, it's certainly not a logic thing because you

can't run away. No, no. And the plane doesn't make any sense either. Yeah. But I do want, if I could hang out in the cockpit with the pilot on a plane, I think I would feel a lot better too. I could fly the plane, I would be less, I mean, that's it. 100%. Yeah, really, I've, I, I would, I would, I would, I would like, is there a third co-pilot ever, like, or a second co-pilot?

Where I could just sit back there and if they need anything, I'll help them. If they need, like, a drink, I'd help the pilots out. This is a flight attendant. You're describing a flight attendant. I am describing a flight attendant, but maybe there's a different position where, like, I can get, maybe I get a little discount on the ticket. And then I help them, but I'm also in the cockpit. I can see where we're going. And if something gets a little like shaky, I go, well, what's going on up here?

Is everything okay? I always look for the staff vibes. No, of course. Oh, sure. Of course, yeah. They're fine. They're fine. It's fine.

Yes, we're rattling. And there's like a lady that just looks like she's done this a million times and she's non-plus. She's just whatever, a normal, neutral face as she wheels. God bless her. She's saved my emotions. But if I look at a plight attendant and maybe she's like, been doing it for a long time, and I look at her face and her face is in the air.

then I know there's maybe a problem. If her face is on the ceiling, then I should probably worry. If they ever have to stop the drink service because of turbulence, I'm certain I'm going to die. Oh, sure. That one, yeah. No, I don't like it.

I wouldn't like that anyway. Okay, so you're looking for the third staff position of cabin worrier. If I will bring a stool, too. I don't even need a chair. I'll bring a little tiny stool and I'll sit hunched in that stool in the cockpit. You ever heard of Spurid Airline? Right. they all have stools closing going away the economy's falling apart you have to bring your own stool are they done really

oh oh i hadn't heard that too bad um what do we miss that i feel like i named checked a lot of coasters there anything you want to say in the way there's there's there's um hit most of the record breakers it is also just a lovely park it has it has some naughtness of like oh i could just hang out here and soak up some vibes there's a lot of flat rides. There's a lot of like old I'm so charmed by like an antique carousel and they've got

a really good one up front. An old roller coaster from the 70s called the Blue Streak which is like a classic wooden white structure blue track. It's it looks great. Oh there's so much no there's

there's Do you regard Kings Island similarly? I found there to be some charm at Kings Island. King's Island is terribly charming. Kings Island, the next time I'm in Ohio, if I have to choose between one I'm going to go to, I will probably choose Kings Island.

Interesting. It's been longer since I've been there, but also I like the ideas behind their new rides a lot more. They're putting in stuff that I'm more interested in. They just added their own 300-foot giga coaster, but designed by B&M, the people who did Fury 325. What I described as one thing, they have at King's Island. Oh, right.

And I have not happened. You might have to. So you're saying a better last decade of business decisions. Yes. Oh, so maybe they might have your ticket next time. Interesting. It was also, for the longest time it was a Paramount Park. I got to go and it was still, it was like, because I got to see the awkward Italian job.

That is the craziest theme. any ride really strange one of the weirdest movies ever to have the ride god bless it just this side of mummy returns yeah yeah even that's like you know you can tell they started like oh yeah this is a franchise we're going to do a couple things based on this franchise and make more movies of it okay italian job there's no more italian job it's already a remake it's you're already remaking and was it even a people does that a hit movie not in my memory it wasn't but yeah this is where jason would be able to tell us the stars and then tell us that never saw it. He's never seen it. Yeah, yeah. Charlie Theron. Walberg. Mark Wahlberg.

Oh, yeah. A rapper in it. Uh, what's the rapper in it? That's not coming to me fast enough. I don't know. Is there not? Donald, I can't be thinking of Donald Sutherland. I can't believe he's, he has not done much hip-hop. Well, he was going by Childish Gambino at the time. Oh, really? Oh, that was interesting. That was, yeah. Donald bought the name from him. Good name. Can I borrow that? anyways but yeah well that's the question would you

in terms of okay for someone like me I feel like obviously you'd recommend it to Mike would you recommend it to me me being maybe a little nervous to get on me I don't know if I'm going on a lot of coasters do you think I'm getting enough fun or charm

to no no I wouldn't if you're not to I'll go back to the day so when I was holding the purses I might be a purse holder I had a Like a real come-to-Jesus moment of like, you're here and you're not taking advantage of what's here. Come on.

Why even spend your time doing this? That's really close to what my wife said to me to get me on the Tokyo Tower of Terror. Because I wasn't going on any of the Tower of Terror's. And then she was like, you're in Japan. Get on the ride. So that sentiment does a lot for maybe I need to have that sentiment more with some other. It might lead you to a new passion. Who knows?

That is true. I would not recommend Cedar Point. if you're not going to. There are not elements to it, but nowhere close to knots level of of theming. It's really about the rides. You could have a full day, but it would all be rides that you could ride,

you know, a number of places. Right, right, right. Huh, huh. So it's really got, yeah, you got it, but if you're in it for coasters, if you're in it for record breaking. That's right. If you want to stack up your own personal record,

all day I believe it has had the highest number of roller coasters in the past I don't know that it still does it might be Magic Mountain oh really

but if you're a coaster person you must go you must go you should probably pay for the fast pass so you can get on everything because you probably won't otherwise which is a sick

world that we've built but you'll be terribly grateful for having done it because oh my goodness the rides are fabulous wow yeah wow geez well beautiful I'm still glad we could talk about it for well also in really quick did anybody catch that the two of the

camels got out of the camel enclosure last summer this is what I'm saying there's still donkeys yeah I saw that camel I'm so happy to be out too yeah yeah he was jumping up on his back feet jumping up on his back feet but then like the land was so close to a guy in a wheelchair

Alarmingly Well, and I remember specifically in that video There was someone who was helping with the wheelchair Who just left the wheelchair Oh, never mind You've got metal with you You can weaponize this Me, I'm just a person

All the goats got out too There were a bunch of goats at the petting zoo Yeah, come on, that's great Well, that's nice for everyone That there's camels Especially for the animals Yeah, yeah They love it

Well, geez, this was a lovely thing to talk about for a long time. I'm so glad we were set up on this blind date. Thank you, audience. And thank you. Thank you. Brian, you survived podcast, The Ride. Let's exit through the gift shop. Is there anything you'd like to plug?

Yes. Depending on when this comes out, Dirty Laundry is either currently airing or we'll have just aired on Dropout. So you can watch maybe all the episodes right now. Subscribe to Dropout. It's great. Subscribe to my podcast. What Have You Been Drinking, which is available on patreon.com?

Oh, it is a full Patreon. It's behind the paywall. It's, you know, ad support it's for the birds. I don't, I'll do it for the good boys, but not for anyone else. We're half and a half. We're a hybrid. We are a hybrid, yeah, hybrid coaster. That is truly the model.

That is the model of entertainment these days. That's right. Good boys. We have the fast lane, essentially. But this show is substitute rides for. for cocktails and talk about things you like to drink and how you got into drinking them with with all your favorite stars. Fantastic.

Okay, okay. Well, so glad you could be here. Let's do it again. This was a blast. Please. Have me any time. That was lovely. And as for us, for three bonus episodes every month, check out Podcast the Ride the Second Gate.

Or get one more bonus episode on our VIP Tier Club three. You'll find all of that at patreon.com slash podcast The Ride. We got that Jason. You want to just like play the, just go to the middle of it. it again. Let's get one more hit. While we got it, you know, there's very little Jason in the episode. It's too bad. It's too bad he's the coaster boy and couldn't...

Yes, no, indeed. Well, it might merit a return to Cedar Point in some way, shape, or form. But... Roller coaster capital of the world. Located on the shores of Lake Erie, it's home to Magnum X-L-200, the world's first hypercoaster. Yay. Which, let's say it all together, is a roller coaster. The hide of the least 200 feet. Didn't really lead us through that all that well.

We were going to say that together. We could have you to cue that up a little better. I didn't remember exactly how we phrased it. I remember the 200 feet parted and not the middle. Cadence was all over. We'll send him a page of notes. I'll send him a page of notes. This has been a Forever Dog production.

Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gardner, Brett Boehm, Joe Sillio, and Alex Ramsey. For more original podcasts, please visit Foreverdog Podcasts.com and subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with the latest Forever Dog news by following us on Twitter and Instagram at Forever Dog Team and liking our page on Facebook.