Episode 282 - Family Matters

We had so much fun with the kiddie coaster list that we decided to do it again with our family coasters.  Which 10 are the most unique that we have done out of the past 33?  Let's find out

Transcript

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Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the 125 Roller Coaster Challenge Trimmed and Staple Podcast. I'm Paul Guys, and it is time for us to uh do another, not really rankings, but we're gonna discuss 10 coasters that fit into a category that really caught our eye. Now, if you're familiar with the podcast about two episodes ago, we started off with what we like to call the kitty coasters, you know, the wacky worms and all those, and we talked about 10 of them. We we rode 36 of them, uh, 10 of them that caught our eye that we thought were very unique, either theming, or they meant something like the first uh kitty coaster we ever rode, the first one we ever did a POV with, all that kind of stuff there. Well, you know what? That episode got an amazing response. I cannot believe the numbers I saw, and I figured, you know what? Let's try it again. And this time we're gonna go with what we call the family coasters. And uh, we rode 33 of those. But before we get started, guys, if you like roller coaster content, amusement park content, uh that fits within 15 minutes to a half hour, you know, if you're for your drive to work, you drive back from work, or you know, going to a grocery store, this is the podcast you need to listen to here. And uh, wherever you're listening to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Podbean, uh, any of these, uh Buzz Sprout, whatever these things are called, wherever you get your podcast, make sure you follow it. Because we're dropping about two episodes a week. Uh, and there's no certain day. Basically, we do these in batches and we spread them out. Um, so make sure you follow so you don't miss an episode. And then also leave us comments. You can leave us comments on the different forums there, Apple and all those. Or if you want a quick response or you want to tell us something, go to Instagram, go to Facebook, go to Tickety Talk. Uh, there, it's 125 Roller Coaster. Um, very simple. All of them are across the board there. And we check that every day. Leave a comment there if you have a uh suggestion on an episode, or if, hey, you really messed that up, uh, like we did last time with our mistake with uh sprint break. Uh let us know there. And of course, we have the YouTube channel, which is the flagship. We're trying to get to 10,000 subscribers. So if you like what we do, you want to help us out, drop a subscribe. Uh, we definitely would appreciate it. Simple click for you means a lot to us. All right, now we are done with the intro. We're done with all the propaganda, and now it's time to talk about some family coasters. And um, what is a family coaster here? Well, kind of like what we said with the kitty coaster, you kind of know it when you know it. You know, the whole nine yards there. Uh, kind of the same with the family pick uh coasters. While the kitty coasters really, you could tell they're for kids. They're like little circles that go around, very kid-oriented. These are more rides that the middle grade kids could ride with their parents. So think of it as the transitional ones that go in there. Like one that I always consider a family coaster now, even though I have it under mind train, is Trailblazer at Hershey Park. Now, the Trailblazer and its heyday was a state-of-art coaster. It had helixes and the whole nine yards. But as time has gone by, it has become, it hasn't changed, but the world around it's changed. Literally, when you see um Trailblazer now, it's right next to Stormrunner, which is a launch coaster that launches out at 50, 60 miles an hour, inversions, the whole nine yards. So it kind of became a family-friendly coaster. That's what these are. These are coasters that aren't really uh up there in the aggressiveness, the intensity level. And, you know, they're not a mind train. They're they're kind of, like I said, a step up from the kitty coasters, the next transition from the kitty coasters. And these coast these coasters I'm gonna be talking about, no particular order. We're gonna be doing ranking videos later on this year, RMCs, inverts, the whole nine yards. We'll do those, we're gonna update our list and stuff like that. Those are rankings. We're gonna tell you which one's the worst, which one's the best. These are just ten that caught my eye, that kind of separate themselves from the group. And because they separate themselves from the group, we figured let's talk about them here. And the first one we're gonna talk about right off the bat is last time we started off with joust over at Dutch Wonderland over in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Not Langcaster, Lancaster. All right, Lancaster, get it right there, or Amish Town, whatever you want to call it there. And we talked about joust. This time we're gonna talk about what at one point was called the Sky Princess. I kid you not, it was the Sky Princess. It was a light blue, white kind of coaster, and it was called the Sky Princess. Well, I guess they realize that a lot of young boys don't want to ride on the Sky Princess. I can go in a different direction. We keep this a family-friendly show. So, with that being said, they kind of changed the name to the Kingdom Coaster. Now, this is a very unique coaster. This is one of the first ones that um came through. Uh who was it? Who was it? Who was it? Was it it was um RCA or something like that? Uh, let me know in the comment section because I don't know offhand here. But this was an original, and Alan Schecky from RMC Um fame here was one of the designers. So this is a wooden coaster, and it is kind of the flagship of it. I know they recently got Merlin's, but this one, when I think about roller coasters here, and you see it from the highway, you see right from Route 30. The Kingdom Coaster is definitely a marquee ride. It is a wooden coaster, and they're keeping it in really good shape. And I'm thinking that now that Hershen is in charge of Dolly, uh the Dollywood people are in charge of Dutch Wonderland, that this might get a little bit more maintenance love than it does. It is a typical up and back. It's it's basically a PTC that's not a PTC. Philadelphia Toboggan coasters, it's kind of their kind of layout. Up and back, a lot of hills, back and forth, not much airtime. So it definitely fits into the Dutch Wonderland brand there of being family friendly. The kids are not going to be bouncing out with extreme airtime on this ride. However, it is a great introduction coaster. Uh, like I said, I love the fact that I used to be called the Sky Princess. To me, that just is hilarious. But all in all, this one is the marquee ride at Dutch Wonderland, which for some reason always wins the golden ticket award for best family park. Let me know if you think that's correct. I personally don't. I think there's some better parks nearby than Dutch Wonderland. But with that being said, Candle Coaster is one of the family coasters I definitely wanted to highlight in this video. All right, so next one up is going to be over at Sesame Place, which might be one of those, for lack of a better word, better um parks that I was just talking about there. And that one, they do have Oscar's Wacky Taxi, which is a modern wooden uh coaster, not like Kingdom Coaster, but you know, it's more modern in uh everything. Well, for me, that's a good one. But the one I want to highlight here is called Vapor Trail, which is themed to Grover. Uh Super Grover, actually, to be uh specific here. But this is an old intimate family coaster. You don't see many of these. And what I really love about Vapor Trail is first of all, it's it's themed to Grover, so yeah, it's theme to Grover. All right. But second of all, this one kind of goes out into the woods. And for a family park like um uh Sesame Place, Philadelphia, this is kind of an aggressive ride. It's got some pretty wicked um helixes there that you wouldn't expect on most family coasters. Uh, you gotta remember these Vacoma family coasters were actually uh you can find them at Cedar Point. So, you know, yeah, this one is at Sesame Place here, but it's definitely an aggressive, more aggressive ride than you would expect uh for this uh kind of thing. So, with that being said, that's a positive because it is a little bit more aggressive. But also, like I said, it it goes out into the woods, it's in a part of the park that is kind of isolated. As soon as you go into the park, you go over to your right-hand side, and there's the entrance. And when you're actually walking into the park, is where you actually get the best views of Vapor Trail. Not from the when you're looking at the entrance, you don't see much of the ride. You see it when you're walking into the entrance of the park, is where you can see it all. But yet again, anything themed to Grover is always a positive for me, and that's the case here. Number three, now, a couple episodes ago, we had uh episode called Mouse Ears or Devil Horns. If you heard that episode, you know I am not a big Disney fan. I don't like Disney. I I I think they're overpriced, I think they're elitists, I uh think um you know the creativity has died from them a while ago. However, with that being said, I gotta give them props for sleek Slinky Dog Dash. And this is all about the theming. Now, this is over at Disney World, over at the Hollywood Studios, yep, Hollywood Studios, uh, near the back of the parking. It always has a huge line. But I gotta say, they really knocked the theming out of the park. Now, Slinky Dog is, of course, themed to uh Toy Story, all right? So it has all everything to do with the Toy Story, and the way they made the trains look like the Slinky Dog. Fantastic. Fantastic. I yet again, I actually have physical pain right now saying this positive about Disney, but this was definitely creative. Uh, you know, you got the dog head there, you got the tail in the back, you got everybody there. It looks like a slinky dog. And then you throw in a launch, which yet again, it's a launch. It's not the most intense launch, it's not King Dakah shooting at 120 miles an hour, but the launches are a nice little change, and it is something that's very unique for a family coaster. And with that being said, like I said, because of the theming and everything, I literally have to give them thumbs up there, and that's why I made this list. Yet again, not a Disney fan, but you gotta call it the way you see it. And I literally have to say that they did an amazing job. Now, of course, they have the budget to do this. You got a huge budget. When you're building an attraction like this, they can dump some money there. So that's number three. Number four is what you can do theming-wise when you're not Disney. When you're not rich, when you're not Six Flags, when you're not there, when you are a ma and pa trying to survive in this whole amusement world things, you gotta step up your game. And here I'm talking about storybook land right near Atlantic City, uh, basically right off of 30 there, uh, not 30, uh, the uh Atlantic City Expressway. This park is incredibly themed. Everywhere you look, they got amazing theming on a budget, which means they had to get creative, they had to use talented people to build the facades. And if you're going to have a roller coaster at Storybook Land and you don't have the budget, and yeah, they they did do an amazing job with Cinder Coaster, Cinderella Coaster, but I'm talking about bubbles. I'm talking about Bubbles the Coaster. Now, theming wise, there's a sign out front that basically has a dragon. I'm assuming the dragon's name is Bubbles. That's what that's an assumption I'm making here. But what makes this theming amazing to me is it's not just a clever name, people. When you go up the lift hill on Bubbles the Coaster, there's a bubble machine under that lift hill blowing bubbles up the hill. So when you're going up the hill, you are surrounded by a sea of bubbles. Not an expensive theming thing, not slanky dog dash. But you know what? It is a fun thing. Now, of course, I'm a realist, I'm an older man. For me, I'm just getting bubble soap in my face. All right? I mean, I'm just getting bubbles pop into my face. But if you're a little kid, which is what this park is all about, and this is why I think this is better than Dutch Wonderland. This is the one I think should actually be the best one, is Storybook Land. If you're a little kid riding your first coaster and you're going up the hills and you have bubbles blowing your face, you're smiling before the drop. You might not even be worried about the drop because you are getting bubbles in your face. And that's why this one made the list is it's not an intense ride. It's actually pretty brutal. Uh, this is one that actually bruises me. This is one that I slam against the side, and it should be a kitty coaster. However, the way for some reason I put it as a family coaster, because I always see dads in there in the train with the kids. But it is a rough ride. Don't get me wrong, it is something that needs to be retracked and it is brutal. But this made the list because it proves that you don't have to build a slinky dog dash to come up with a fun little concept and something that's going to put little kids smiling. Now, the next one is a tie. Now, why is it a tie? It's a tie because it's the same coaster. It's the same coaster at two different parks, but the theming is great. It's Harley Quinn's Crazy Train over at Six Flags Great Adventure and Catwoman's Whip over at Six Flags New England. Now, these are literally the same coaster. All right, same layout. The big thing about these is the trains are huge. We're talking 20 plus seats on these trains. When one's going down the hill, the other one's still going up the lift hill, the the end of it. It is crazy how big these trains are. Um, I love the fact that they are both themed to female villains. I thought, you know, it's not every day that, you know, Harley gets a lot more love, but the fact that Catwoman, and of course her whip, is actually uh in the DC world there. I love the fact that they're both themed to um, you know, villain fatales or female fatales or whatever they call it and stuff like that. So I love the theming on that. Uh they actually changed Harley Quinn, used to be just the crazy train. It used to be, uh, black uh it was a pirate theme. I think it was Blackbird's pirate uh something train or something like that. Uh but once they put Joker in, they kind of themed her to Harley. They're kind of killing the pirate area there. They still have Buccaneer uh in that area, but really the pirate part of Six Lives Great Adventure is pretty much disappearing. But both of them, the theming is fantastic. But second of all, I love how big the trains are because it definitely makes it a lot easier to get on and off the thing. You know, you get you know more time, the um, you know, the trains are bigger, more people can ride per unit. And uh they usually send them around twice. You know, first times, you know, hey, we did want to go again. Yeah, I want to go again. Uh we're gonna go again, you know. You're going to go again either way, but I guess that makes it a little bit more uh you know, more fun for the kids. But like I said, both of them are the same. Uh both layouts are great, uh, a lot of helixes, and just a lot of fun. So that's why they both make the list not enough to separate them out because that's that's one, two, three, four, five. So that's number five there. I was going to make five and six that. So we're about halfway done with our list. Are you agreeing so far? Is bubbles just too tame for you? Uh are you more of a Disney hater than me? Let me know in the comments, guys. We read all the comments. And the next one, number six, right now, is probably the best. It was the best until recently. It's Fire Chaser Express at Dollywood. This one, calling it a family coaster is really a stretch because it's got so many elements. You go forwards, you go backwards. Uh, you got helixes, you got kind of a launch with the uh the pinwheel thing shooting you up. It is a greatest hits album of everything. And it's theme to fire trucks. What kids do not want to ride fire trucks, right? Great theming by Dollywood. Uh, but like I said, this is borderline. This is almost a steel coaster or the next level up. Uh I have it under family because of the theming. But like I said, not many coasters go backwards, let alone a coaster themed for kids and for fire, um, fire chasing and all that kind of stuff with fire play uh firemen and all that. So, all in all, it is a really good um, you know, over all-around coaster. And like I said, I call it family. It's always one of the top, top or top five family coasters, just because of the fact that it is such a good ride with a lot of elements. It actually got me motion sickness when I wrote it just because of all the different changing and all that kind of stuff there. So um, all in all, um, just a really good overall ride, not just family ride, overall ride. Uh, the next one here is basically it's a highlight and it is the big draw for this small park. And we're going back to Quasi. Now, if you listen to the past episode Child's Play, uh, we talked about uh their their small uh coaster uh making the list, and that was because I was able to do the POV, because most people don't go there to ride that coaster. People go to Quasi to ride Wooden Royer. Now, just like with Oscar Wacky Taxi, uh, this is Gravity Group uh family uh coaster here, and this was one of the originals. So this was for the one that was like, all right, let's see if they can do a wooden coaster, a modern wooden coaster, which has some intense elements, not just an up and back, but also has some turns and some adjustments, and also has the really unique restraints. Um, and they did it. Wooden Warrior was a huge success, and it is a marquee ride there. I love the fact that uh the only thing in that area by Wooden Warrior is their train. So you got that isolation aspect there. Um for kids, it's for kids and adults, it is a fun one. There's so many times when you are an adult and you just ride some of these rides because you know, you have to do it for your kids. And they're boring. You know, you get on, you know, PTC, um, Woodstock Express, and they're an up and back, small-scale wooden coaster built years ago. Here, you've got one that's modern, that's actually going to bump you around a little bit there, give you a little bit of airtime. It's going to actually be a coaster experience for not just the kids, but also for the adults. And Wooden Warrior was such a success that it bred Oscar's Wacky Taxi, um, Kentucky Flyer, all those that have come uh since then have thanks because of Wooden Warrior and how well it did for Quasi. So we mentioned, you know, Gravity Group and how they started uh the Wooden Coaster families. Well, it's not gonna be long before other companies like, hey, that's a market we can get into. And the next one here, we got three more to go. Next one's over at Buschgards, Williamsburg, our number one park people. In case you didn't know that, we love Busch Gardens, Williamsburg. And when they had a gap in their lineup, they had no family rides. They had a kitty ride, a Grover, of course, because it's they own the uh property. Um, well, they did. We don't know what's going on with Sesame Work Workshop right now. So who knows if they're still going to have Grover on everything here. But when they needed a family coaster, not just a kitty coaster, GCI, Great Coasters International, stepped up and said, you know what? We see what Gravity Group's doing here with Wind Warriors and Oscar's wacky taxi. Let us take a crack at it. And they created Invader. Now, this is located in the New France section of the park. Um, we all know it's Canada. All right, we know it's Canada. I know you're a European-based um themed park. You're Canada. We're okay with that. And um, it's very, very weird spelling. The theming is kind of neat, it has a big um um one of those medieval um devices in the front uh of the the queue there. And it's about, you know, the uh Vikings and all that kind of stuff there. Uh, but as a ride, yet again, the theming is kind of dead. The only thing back in that area is the logflume. So it kind of took away from the logflume being isolated because now you have a roller coaster going through it. But Invader is a fun little ride. Now, I don't ride it much when I go to Bush Gardens, mainly because kids can ride it, Lions equal bigger. But all in all, it's got a great drop, it's got quick transitions. It is kind of the answer to the Gravity Group's wooden coaster, family wooden coasters, by GCI. And they knocked it out of the park. And I'd like to see more of these uh showing up at parks instead of these um uh the one thing I've been noticing at the Bush Garden Sea World Parks, the United Parks, I guess they're called now, um, is they're doing the uh the junior inverted coasters, uh kind of like Merlin's Mayhem, where they have Phoenix Rising, and they also have um Big Bad Wolf Wolf's Revenge, which are those. I'd rather them not do that and create some more invaders, but you know, you know, different layouts, of course, but play around with that a little bit more. We've got two more to go, guys. And the one I'm gonna I'm not gonna end with the best one because the best one, say the best for last, right? I think that's what you're supposed to do. This one, very basic ride, very basic ride, but the theming knocked it out of the park. And we're going to Maury's Piers. Now, when you think about Maury's Piers in Wildwood, New Jersey, especially the Wildwood Boardwalk, what do you think about? Watch the tram car, please. What what watch the tram car, please? It's their trams that go from one end in North Wildwood all the way to Wildwood Crest. They go up and down that entire thing. And when you get near it, you are going to hear the iconic watch the tram car, please. Well, Maurice Pierce, when they came up with their next family coaster, was like, you know what? People know us about the trams. And they themed one of their newest coasters to a runaway tram. And they actually have watch the tram car, please. And they actually have on the back a guy, a plastic guy or ceramic, on the back, looking like one of the attendants. It is magnificent of knowing your brand and then branding a coaster perfectly towards it. You know, Invader is great, but doesn't really have it. You know, Grover's great. You know, bubbles, not much theming, but you got bubbles in your face. This is Wildwood. When you think about Wildwood, New Jersey, it's watch the tram car, please, and this knocks out of the park. And the last family coaster I need to talk about is one of the last coasters I've ridden, new coasters I've ridden, and it is Penguin Trek over at SeaWorld Orlando. And calling this a family coaster was kind of rough because this one does have launches. And it's not like I guess it's kind of like Slinky Dog, but the launches are intense. Uh, you got some turns, you got some twists, you got some flying bys, but you also have the whole penguin element in this, where in the beginning it's like you're going through the Antarctic caves, and then at the end, when you leave the ride, they dump you right into the middle of the penguin. You cannot escape the penguin experience here. Theming, you got the actual animals, you know, and the smell that comes with the animals, because that's one part I do remember. But the ride is just magnificent, well themed, not what I expected at all. Going into it, I was expecting a dark castle in the penguin area where you might be indoors, you might have to go around twice, you know, and you look at windows and you see penguins and stuff like that. Not at all. This ride is 90%, 80% outdoors. And it just really, really takes it just takes to a new level. And this is to me the top family coaster that I've been on. So with that being said, let me go down the list real quick here. You got Penguin Trek at SeaWorld, Orlando. You got Bubbles over at Land of Make Believe in New Jersey, Fire Chaser Express, which is also another amazing coaster over at Dollywood, Runaway Tram at Maury's Piers and Wildwood. Uh Dollywood is actually in um Tennessee. So sorry about that. Uh Slinky Dog Dash. Believe it or not, I can say some nice things about Disney when it's warranted at Hollywood Studios there. Vapor Trail, Sesame Place, Harley Quinn, Crazy Train, and Catwoman's Whip at Six Flags Great Adventure and Six Flags New England, respectively. We've also got uh Kingdom Coaster over at Dutch Wonderland. We have Wind Warrior over at Quasi, and we have Invader at my favorite park, Bush Gardens, Williamsburg. Guys, thank you so much for listening. Make sure you like and subscribe, and I cannot wait to see you in the queue in 2026.