Episode 281 - Spring Break Mistake

Sometimes the best plans blow up in your face, that is the case with our NJ Spring Break trip but let's see if we can make these lemons into lemonade

Transcript

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Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the 125 roller coaster challenge trimmed and staple podcasts. I'm Paul, and guys, we are on the road. This season is full swing. And you know what? We're not perfect. We're not perfect. And this one is entitled Spring Break Mistake. And I'm going to fill you in on uh my little error of judgment, my little error of thinking in a second, though. But first of all, guys, I don't know what's going on. I'm thinking you guys might actually be liking this podcast now because we have never seen numbers like what we're seeing every day right now over all the different platforms. I like to say it's like, oh, Apple Podcasts right now is really pushing us for something because you know uh the numbers on Apple are going crazy through the roof. Guys, it's across the board. Uh Podbean, um, Audible, Spotify, Apple, people, even YouTube, we're seeing an uptick on listeners. And guys, that is awesome. It makes me want to keep on doing these episodes and keep doing more and more and more and more of these episodes because um we're seeing the response. And the response is fantastic. So thank you guys so much. If you do like talking about uh different amusement park adventures, different lists on coasters, news on the coaster world and the amusement park world, definitely make sure you follow us wherever you are. And if you happen to wander over to YouTube and are listening to this on YouTube, guys, we're trying to get to 10,000 subscribers on YouTube. I mean, we're doing great on other forums. We have 13,000 on Facebook. We have, I think, 3,400 almost on Instagram, 2,500 on TikTok. So we got all over the board here. But for some reason, I just really like YouTube and I love doing the walkthroughs and all that stuff. So if you're finding yourself over there, guys, why don't you just uh click that subscribe button? It's a simple click for you, but it really does mean a lot to us. All right, so let's talk about my spring break mistake. All right. So if you're familiar two episodes ago, we talked about the first park that we went to, amusement park that we went to, which was King's Dominion in Doswell, Virginia, all right? And we were able to go there because I like to go to parks during the week. To be honest with you, not a fan on weekends. I kind of stay away from weekends, mainly because, well, two reasons. First of all, you got the crowds. And when you have the crowds, it makes it, first of all, very hard to ride because you're waiting a line instead of just walking on the rides, which I like to do. And second of all, the more people you have, the less I want to film because there's a lot more potential for complaints, I guess. Now, when I go to a park, I go right to the management, especially if it's a smaller park, and say, hey guys, this is what I'm doing. Here's my card, here's my channel, here's what I'm looking to do. And 99% of the time, not a problem. Uh, the only time I've ever been, um, I called in advance, which I'm not going to do this year. I'm going to film the place. I'm sorry, I'm going to film it. But Jolly Rogers over at uh Maryland, I called them because I wanted to see, like with Maury's, even if the pier is not open with rides going, you can still walk on the pier. I wanted to check that out with uh Jolly Rogers. But when I called him up, they're like, no, we don't want anybody filming anything here. No, we don't, no, we don't do that. We don't we don't allow that. So I never went because I'm like, I'm closing on my 400th coaster. I'll be damned if they're the ones who get the 400th coaster, you know. Uh, because I've never been there, so any coaster I ride there would be I'm at 399, guys. The next coaster is 400. And I got three in mind right now. Um, not gonna spoil it, but I do have three uh in mind that I'm looking uh I'll be okay with those being uh number 400. But I digress. So when we basically uh what was I saying now? I was going basically talking about you know going to the different coasters, going to parks, we always let people know in advance, but I don't go on weekends because more more potential for people, you know. First of all, there's a lot more people that I gotta dodge through to get stuff, and second of all, potential for problems. So I don't go on weekends. So basically, these spring breaks that I've been seeing have been fantastic opportunities to do it. I went to King's Dominion the week before this, and um had it was a good crowd, but I was able to get done what I needed to get done during the week. Um, so here we are. That spring break's done in Virginia, but you know what? New Jersey has their spring break. All right. So I'm like, all right, I can go hit hit a park here. What park do I want to do? So if you're familiar, and if you're not, you're gonna be familiar. This year, we're not just doing the 125 roller coaster challenge, we're also doing the 125 water slide challenge, guys. And that's off to a good start because unlike the rules I have for this year's uh roller coaster challenge where I can't do rides that I did in 2025, I can ride them, but they're not gonna count for the challenge. You know, I did dot um I did Grizzly, I did Twisted Timbers, they're not on the count. The only ones that are the ones I didn't do last year and log flumes. And now we're doing the water slides. So the water slides is all brand new. We might actually hit 250 at the weight we're going. So I'm sitting back here thinking, where do I want to go? I know Six Flights Great Adventure is probably going to be crowded. And I've already knocked out Sierra Sam's. So, and then I've already knocked out uh DreamWorks uh water park. Do I want to do Nickelodeon? Well, you know what? Nickelodeon's not open. I mean, Nickelodeon's open, but Sandy's not open, and that's one of the ones for the 400th. So I finally sit back and I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna wake up early. Baby, I'm going to Atlantic City. I'm gonna go to Atlantic City, I'm gonna go to Island Water Park. Island Water Park is in the old showboat, and it actually is just part of what it is. You got um the showboat, uh, I mean, you got the island water park. Island, yeah, it's a water park, but they also have Lucky Snake Arcade, and they also have a couple other little things in that area, and I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna go there. Yes, it's spring break, but come on. It's a small water park, it's a Monday, yeah, it won't be that bad. So I get in the car, head on out, drive all the way there, about three and a half hours, four hours, to get there. A lot of tolls, because when you're in New Jersey, baby, you got the tolls. You got the tolls. And I came back, it was like almost$30 in tolls when I was done with this trip. Um, but I pull in and I pull in and I see some people getting out of the car. I'm like, oh, cool. Okay, there's some people getting out of the car. That shouldn't be that bad. So I go over, I do a couple little things outside since I'm already there. I walk in there. As soon as I walk into the lobby, there's a lot of people. There is a lot of people in this lobby. There's people that are checking into the hotel because I keep forgetting, oh yeah, this is also an active hotel here in Atlantic City. See people there. But the one thing that caught my eye was, wow, there's a lot of small kids here, stuff like that. So I'm like, all right, all right. Let me walk, walk over to the water park, get my ticket, because the one thing I'm very happy about, and if you listen to a DreamWorks episode, you'll know I don't buy them in advance. Because I know my personality is sometimes squirrel. All right. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. And I know that, okay, I might be intending to go to DreamWorks Water Park, but maybe something else will catch my eye. Maybe there'll be a car problem, maybe I have to rush back to work. I'll get the tickets when I get there. And when I went to DreamWorks, that isn't how they work. I actually had to sit in the corner when I got there and actually buy the ticket online because they didn't do it there. But I knew Island Water Park, I've I've been there before. Sidebar, I don't know what's going on, but our walkthrough of Island Water Park is rocketing up our list. Um, every day there's 10, 20, 30 new people watching our walkthrough of Island Water Park, which is another reason why I'm like, give the people what they want, right? But I knew because I was there before that I could just walk up and buy tickets. And I'm so glad I do this. Because when I got to where the ticket booth was, it was completely full cue out the door or out the area, going down the hallway. And every person I saw was one adult, maybe two, and like five young kids. And I'm not talking about high schoolers or middle schoolers, I'm talking about kids not in school and kids that just started school. There was a lot of kids, all right. Now, one of the things I do is I don't I try not to video kids. Obvious reasons. There's privacy issues, there's this stuff. When I go to a kid's section of an amusement park and do it, I pan really fast. I shoot high. I'm shooting over the kids, I'm showing the food locations, the attractions, and stuff like that. I don't want and I want it so much that if a kid is in a video, it's so quick that it's a blink of the eye. So here I am. I just drove three and a half, four hours. I just paid, I don't know how much the tolls were at the time, but I knew I would spend money on tolls. And now, two things. First of all, there's a lot of kids. So I don't want to film because there's a lot of kids, but second of all, these kids are gonna be doing something. For me to do the water slide challenge, I I I need to get on the rides. I don't want to wait an hour to go down a slide because there's 37 kids in front of me, you know, all in individual tubes. So here I am, I'm like, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? I'm already here. But I didn't pay for the water park. So what I did was I walked through Showboat, went to the boardwalk, and I looked at the boardwalk for a little bit there, and I realized when I walked through, most of the guests were in line for the water park, which left an area that wasn't really full. There was people, but it wasn't really full, and that was Lucky Snake Arcade. Now, when we first went to I uh Island Water Park and stuff like that, two things. We um called in advance because it was a water park and I wanted to, you know, make sure, hey, can I film and stuff like that? And when I went, I went with uh my friend, and they knew we were coming, the PR people, and they gave us not just free access to the water park to film it and also enjoy it, like we could go to the VIP areas anywhere we want it, but they also gave us a red envelope that had eight game tickets. And I'm like, okay, you know what? I got these eight game tickets. I don't know how much is on them, I don't know what's going on with these things, but I got these eight game tickets um on there. So why not do a walkthrough, first of all, of the arcade? Because it's been about three years since we did the walkthrough. So the explore. So do the explore, but let's do a challenge accepted. You know what? We rarely do a challenge accepted. This is basically uh, can you knock out all roller coasters at Hershey Park without uh a fast pass? Uh, how long does it take you to go through all the water slides at Dawny Park, which is one I want to do this year? But with that being said, I'm like, good, this is perfect for the challenge. So I go through the walkthrough, I get it done. You know, it's about a 20-minute walkthrough. We're gonna drop that. Uh if not dropped already, it's gonna be dropping soon. So Lucky Snake got some love there. But then I sat down, I'm like, I'm gonna go do the challenge now. So I go, do an introduction, I do my second, you know, I always do a quick, quick hit introduction, uh cold lead, I guess they call it in the business. And then I do my intro. And then I went to my first game, and I go over and I'm like, all right, let's see what's on this thing, and I pull it, and it's like two hours. I'm like, what the hell does that mean? All right, well, let's go play a little bit here. Play the first game, no tickets come out. Doesn't not not tickets. And I'm like, okay, what's going on here? So I'm like, all right, hey, let's go play it again here. Let's go see what it is. Oh an hour 58. Okay, cool. Do it again. No tickets. Stop filming. What's going on here? I figured out that what they gave me was eight promotional um passes, which allowed me or anybody who has them to play the game for up to two hours. Any game you want for two hours. Now you can't occup points, you can't win prizes, but you could try out all the games. And I'm sitting here like, I don't want to be here for two hours. Yes, I can play every game in two hours, but I don't want to be here for two hours. So I'm sitting here and I'm like, okay, kill that video. I'm killing another mistake, kill that video, can't do that video. But then I'm looking, I got eight of these passes, and I'm like, you know what? There's a some of the small families started wandering in, you know, see some little kids and stuff like that. So I literally was like, I went to eight families. I went to eight families, you know, that could tell that, you know, they had two or three kids, and I went right up to their moms and said, hey, listen, I got this promotional thing here. They cannot get any prizes with this, but here, you can play the game for two hours, let your kids play, have fun. All eight of them were like, oh my God, this is amazing. Thank you so much. I'm like, no, no problem. I would rather them have these tickets and have these kids, because they were small kids, let them play and play and play and play and play and enjoy the day without mom dumping money, dumping money, dumping money, dumping money. So that's what I did with those eight passes. I was like, you know what? These families, yeah, let's give it to them. So now here it is. It's now 12 30. I got there around 11. I got nothing else to do. I got nothing else to do. My big mistake. What am I gonna do in Atlantic City now that I can do? I got in my car and I drove to Six Flags Great Adventure. It's about an hour away, and you know what was really cool about the drive? It went right through the heart of the pine barrens. I've always come to Great Adventure through Philly, going by Trenton, jumping on a turnpipe, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I finally got to see how beautiful Great Adventure is by going the back road, by going through the pine barrens and coming there and actually seeing uh Nitro along the lake, because um, you go by the lake there and you're like, oh, this is actually really pretty. Yeah, it's a corporate park concreted over and all that stuff, but its original location was really beautiful. So I enjoyed the ride and I got to Great Adventure at 2 o'clock. And we dropped this episode uh on the YouTube channel. Uh I think it's called uh Spring Break Mistake uh or mishap or something like that. Um, so I get to Great Adventure and I'm looking at my Great Adventure sheet, and of course you got what's new, but when it comes to Great Adventure, what's new is still being built. And I'm not talking about Project Purple, which is their giant roller coaster. I'm talking about the boardwalk that they're pulling the games, I mean the the the um rides from uh Six Flags America and transplanting them there. So that's not there, so I don't want to do a what's new because I'm like, without that, it's kind of eh. And then I'm looking at it, and most of my stuff I need to do is safari. And I'm like, it's already 2, 230. And the spring break theme was all safari based. Well, that's not really the safari and stuff like that. That's dragging people to the safari, which is great for the safari, but not really great for me. So I don't know what I'm gonna do filming-wise. So I go in the park, and by the way, uh, when I got there, they had a pre-line before security. And they had two security guards standing there, and they had two lines. And when people were walking in, they said, Okay, how big is your group? And I'm one, so I just walk right in and I'm old. But what they were doing was checking for chaperones. I love this. I love this. One more time, I love this. Because so let's be honest. If you're a young mother or a young single father, I was a single father with young kids that are seven or eight to thirteenth, fourteen, would you pay for a daycare center for the summer? Or would you just drop your kids off at six flags and tell them to come back at five? Well, we all know what the answer is. There was a lot during the summer, there's a lot of unattended children under 16, even 18, under 18, even young kids, that are just running around that park. Because it's cheaper to buy a season pass there, buy a meal plan, and just have your kid spend every day at great adventure. The fact now, and then also on that end, you also have the young kids, older high school, you know, young college, under 21, that get stupid and they cause fights. They cause issues. We've all seen it on the news. Heck, Hershey Park even had a situation this uh already, and they might be looking to do the chaperone. The new thing is you need to have somebody over 21 per two or three younger people. I think it might be two. And they need to be in the park with you the entire time. They can't, all right, all right, I'm Bob, um, I'm 22 years old. Uh, let me get you guys into the park. Okay, I'm getting out of here now. If you leave and you're the older one here, they gotta leave. And the fact that when I walked in that line, I didn't see that at King's Dominion, but I did see that great adventure where they had two security guards. How many people are in your party? All right, how old are you guys? You're 21. Do you have a license? Can I see your license? To do this was fantastic. I am pro this the entire time. It makes it it's going to cut down on the stupidity in the lines, and it's also going to be more profitable for it, too. Because let's be honest, if you are dropping off 16, 17-year-old kids, they don't have money. They're not buying anything, they're not getting the upgrades, they're not doing, they're they're basically non-profitable. So for the parks, it is 100% risk, zero reward. So by then doing this, slow clap, loving the chaperones, hoping every park does it. Hoping every amusement park does it. Now, with that being said, I get in there and I'm like, all right, let me go to guest services. Boom. I got my front of line passes. We're all good to go. And then I sat there and I was like, okay, what do I gotta film? I gotta film, I gotta film. What am I gonna film? I gotta film something, I gotta film something. You know what I filmed? Jack Squat. I got in line for El Toro, because you gotta get in line for El Toro, front of line pass, boom, ran uh El Toro. It was running a little slow, it was a little chillier of a day. Then bam, went over the nitro, bam, rode nitro, jumped over to flash, boom, boom, quick as the flash because I had the pass. Okay, it was more like 25 minutes because it is a boomerang, but boom, enjoyed that, and then bam, bam, jumped in line for um what was the other one? Oh, Jersey Devil got that one taken care of. Hit my rides, had a good time, walked through all the sections there, just relaxing, just looking at things. Now, of course, I did do an R Park day, so I did have updates, here's what I'm doing, stuff like that. But I wasn't the week before I was at King's Dominion and I had to get Let's Eat done. I had to get merch done. Here, I just enjoyed the day. I enjoyed it. I stayed for about three hours. Actually, I don't have a meal plan, but because of the uh legacy membership I have, I get 50% off food. And um, one of the funny things was so I get in get in line for the pizza because surprisingly, it was the opposite of King's Dominion. King's Dominion, the lines weren't too bad with the rides, but the food lines were nuts. Here, the ride lines were crazy. El Toro would have taken me, if I didn't have that front of the line pass, it would have taken me an hour, hour, 15 minutes to get through that line. Because they only had one train going, which I understand it's early in the season, and it was thank God for that. But I'm looking at the food lines, I'm like, what do I want to eat? I can go over here, I can go over here. One of the things that surprised me was Jersey Devil Barbecue, which has Never been open since I've been going to the park. Any day I go, there might just be a weekend only stand. I finally got there, and you know what? Uh the stand's gone. It's just an empty building. So I'm like, all right, I guess I'm not getting barbecue today. Um, because best of the west is being re-renovated to something new, hence, no barbecue there. So I walk up to the pizza guy and I'm like, you know what? I want two slices. So I go to the guy, two slices, you know, boom, boom, give me two slices of cheese or pepperoni or something like that, right? And he comes back, 19 something, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, yeah, I got I got my pass, um, my half off. He's like, yeah, I know. It's$19 and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, wait a second. The$19 thing on that board is a slice of pizza? Oh, and a breadstick and a soda. And I'm like, holy crap, no. Take kill that order here, right? I'm like, that's way too expensive. Even if I get one slice, that seems really expensive. So I'm walking around, walking around, like, okay, I'm I'm hungry here and I want to eat. So I go to Yum Yum Cafe, and I gotta say, Yum Yum Cafe is looking amazing. They did a great job painting it there. No line, walked right up there. They had a thing, thick pizza. I'm like, what the hell are they talking about? Thick pizza? What the hell does that mean? And I get there, and it's literally the square pizza, you know, the the really big crust and all that stuff. And I was able to get aside, and it was cheaper than the regular slice, and I got mac and cheese. There was a lot of food there, and then with my half price off,$9, guys.$9. Fantastic meal. Highly recommend Yum Yum Cafe. I was surprised because I went to Granny's uh when I was over in that section to check it out, and there was nothing really there I wanted. Uh they had, you know, some chicken and stuff like that, but nothing really grabbed me there. So yum yums, thank god for yum yums. I really enjoyed it. So, all in all, great adventure, got on the rides I wanted. Houdini was closed, which is always a bummer. I always love jumping on Houdini, even though I know the secret now. I still like to jump on Houdini, but um, all in all, great day. So happy that I decided to audible and go to Great Adventure because I don't know what else I could have done. I know if I did decide to pay the$59, whatever it was, for Island Water Park, I would not have been able to film because way too many kids, and I probably wouldn't have been able to do much. I might have been able to get on the slides. I might have been able to get on the slides, but without filming, it kind of is a lost trip, I guess, it would be the way I say it. Um, every time I do a trip, I try to make sure I'm filming something, even Hershey Park, because that's gas, and we've all know what's going on in the world right now. Gas is kind of up there, and I don't have the Mazda 3 anymore. I've got a Subaru. So Subaru's really good on gas mileage, but it's not 50 miles per gallon like I was getting with that Mazda. It's 36, 37, really good, but it adds up, you know, those miles, especially when you're driving, you know, 120 miles one way, you know, 240 miles to go to these parks. So I'm glad that I did not do island water park because I think that would have I might not have been able to get everything done and I would have had to go again to finish it. And with parks like that, like Dreamworks, I knocked it out. I don't have to go back for three or four years. I'm done. I did it. Boom. Thank you. Good night. Um, same with Sahara Sam's. That's off the board. It's done. When I go to the Ion Water Park, I want it to be bam, I'm done. Uh, knock out what I need, get it out into rotation. People have been enjoying the stuff, you know. Uh, most of my videos are what they call evergreens. They're not time sensitive. I'm not um, you know, I do some things on news with stuff, but uh I try to keep everything not date specific. That's why you don't see much holiday stuff from me, um, Halloween stuff or Christmas. I want when people do an explore, I want them to see it in the summer. Uh, what it looks like in the summer. When I do a let's eat, I want it up to date. Uh, and I don't have to go back for a while because a lot of these places don't change. So I'm glad I did the article. That's why it's a spring break mistake. I should have gone to Great Adventure in the morning and I might have been able to do the safari. But you live and learn, and sometimes what you think is the best course is not always the best course, but the smart people in life, if you're going the wrong way, you don't just keep driving. You got to be brave enough to stop, turn, go somewhere else in life and also during spring break. So, once again, guys, thank you so much for listening. I'm Paul, and I can't wait to see you guys in the queue in 2026.