Episode 283 - The May Queue for You

It's the end of the month so we have to kick off May with our queue episode where we discuss what we did the previous month and what our plans are for the next.

Hersheypark, Knoebels, Six Flags and Sea World parks are in the plans so let's see what we have coming up.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the 125 Roller Coaster Challenge Trimmed and Staple Podcast. I'm Paul, and today we are dropping a little bit early our May Q episode. So if you're not familiar with our podcast here in the beginning of every month during the season, not in the winter and stuff like that, but during the season, we'd like to do what we call the Q episodes, where we actually discuss what we did generally in the bat in the last month and what we plan to do in the upcoming month. And you know what? April, we did a little bit more than we thought. And May, oh my God, we got a lot of stuff we want to do here. But before we get started here, we want to do a little bit of, I guess, housekeeping stuff going on here. We want to make sure that uh you know that we are striving to get to 10,000 subscribers. Uh, we're at about 7,800 right now as we record this, so we have 2,200 more to go. So if you like the podcast, jump on over to our YouTube channel, 125 Roller Coaster, and um, you know, show a little bit of love there. Um simple click for you, but it means a lot to us. Also, we dropped a lot of videos. Uh recently, we did a full park walkthrough of Six Flags New England, something we haven't done in three or four years. So that was uh that's doing really good right now. And then our what's new at Hershey Park. We finally got to Hershey Park, and we'll talk a little bit more about that during this episode here. But we just dropped a what's new, and uh it's very thorough. The one thing about uh Hershey Park is we know Hershey Park. So um we're walking through and we say, Oh my god, that's a new sign, or oh my god, that's uh a store that uh flipped over, or wow, there's a new coaster dog. We know Hershey Park that well that we could actually do that. So our what's new is pretty thorough, but of course, if you see something there that uh you know you think we missed, or something you're like, that was there two years ago. What are you talking about? Let us know in the comment section. So without further ado, let's talk about what we did in April uh for this channel. So um pretty much right at the end of April going into um uh end of March going into April, we hit King's Dominion, and that was the first uh full amusement park that we got to hit this year. Uh before then, we did DreamWorks Water Park, we did uh Sahara Sam's, uh, we did Zoo America, Chaco World. We did a lot of um, for lack of a better word, filler uh locations, ones that weren't, you know, what we usually do, or we're doing them because of the 125 water slide challenges here. But King's Dominion was finally the first park that we were like, you know what, we're going there. This is a full-fledged amusement park. And we went there during spring break. And the one thing I definitely gotta say is thank God for the spring breaks, because if we didn't have these spring breaks for uh New Jersey or Virginia or even New England uh the other day, um, we'd have no content right now. And it kills me because it seems like the weekends when they're open, the weather around here in particular has not been great. Uh last Saturday, total washout. Um, I had the day off too. Total washout. I know some people went over to Kennobles because it was their 100th anniversary. For me, if I'm doing a video, I went to look nice. I I'm not the guys, there's a lot of guys out there who do uh vlog type of uh videos. And we do those too. We do the uh our park days, I call them, uh vlog-wise. But most of our videos are what they call in the business, I guess, uh evergreens. Uh they're they're ones that people can watch throughout the year, two years, three years later, uh, especially the the walkthroughs or the let's eat and all that kind of stuff there. So we kind of wanted to be a nice day. Now, if I'm heading out to Cedar Point or heading out on a trip to Carowins or something like that, and I get a bad day, you get a bad day. But I went to local park like Knobles, Hershey Park, Dorney Park, Great Adventure, uh, even King's Dominion and those guys, I kind of want a nice day because I can go back there the next day, or I have plenty of time to go there and film it. So with all these uh weekends that have been washouts, I mean Wednesdays have been magnificent. You know, when I'm filming this right now, it's not a bad day. But it seems like this time of year, they're only parks are only open on the weekends. Hence, you get a bad day. Is there even worth going? So thank God for the spring breaks because it gave me opportunities to check out the weather and to go to King's Dominion. And that King's Dominion day was like 85, 90 degrees. And right now it's like 50 something degrees out outside. So got lucky on that day. The water slide, I mean, the water, uh, the log flume was going, which was fantastic. Uh, we didn't get a chance to do POV, because to be honest with you, I didn't think I would need the meta glasses by then. Um, so that's something that's uh you know still in the works is the meta glasses. But um just want to do log flumes, not looking to do the roller coasters, other people do them, they do them better. Why shoot the same thing that somebody else has, right? But log flumes, that's that's gonna be my jam here with the POVs. So it was open, didn't get a chance to do that. But we wrote three coasters, got on Pantherian finally. Man, that thing really kicks. And uh the older I get, the more I get worried that this could be my last uh ride on that bad boy, but still going strong. Um really enjoying that. Jumped on Reptera. Uh the back row, I thought it was a lot better than the front. Last time when I wrote it, it was just the front. The one thing that's a huge benefit to me right now is the Six Flags uh Diamond Elite VIP pass that I have gives you four front of the line passes for any park you go to. Before that used to just be for Legacy Six Flags parks, not anymore. So when I go to King's Dominion, I go to Dorny Park, I go to Cedar Point, I'm gonna have these in the arsenal to get coaster credits uh quickly and stuff like that. And believe me, when I go to Cedar Point, I'm using it for uh Top Thrill, I'm gonna use it for Sirens, I'm gonna use it for the mouse, unless the mouse is really low and stuff like that. Of course, you have Millennium Force and all that. There's a lot of great coasters at that park. That's a three-day trip. But um, all in all, um King's Dominion, fantastic. I was able to knock out the let's eat and the what's new, and those are two very popular videos right now. So glad I got those. Uh later on in the month, uh, we did we try to do what we did with Virginia. Virginia, we were able to get on this the spring break and we're able to do a lot. So my thoughts were I want to go to um Island Water Park, pad the stats for the water water rides and stuff like that. Um but it was the exact opposite. It was way too crowded. There's too many small kids, and uh, I'm not anti-kids, but I am anti-um what's the word I'm looking for. I'm anti-filming kids uh when I can avoid it. Uh all in all, I really don't like to um um you know film children just because of the fact that, you know, they're kids. So if I see a day, and especially in an indoor water park, you're so confined that it's really difficult to uh maneuver uh if you have a lot of kids. And also I'm looking to actually film film uh where I end up with a situation where I want to get on these slides, you know. So when I went to Iron Water Park, it definitely was way too packed for me to do anything. So I actually pivoted and went to Six Flags Great Adventure, did not film much because most of the stuff I want to film at Great Adventure um is Safari based. So I didn't want to jump on the safari that day. I I got it a half day, so hopefully I'm gonna go back and be able to do that. But I did ride and I did ride uh El Toro, of course, I jumped on uh Medusa, I jumped on uh what is the other ones I jumped on? Nitro, of course, and then I think I finished it off with uh Flash, Flash and uh Jersey Devil. So I got a couple good rides there. None of those were new credits for this year, but um, they're just fun rides. And then last but not least, and we're not gonna touch on this one much because the next episode is gonna be all about this trip, but we actually headed out to uh Six Flags, New England, which I'm really thrilled about because I hadn't been to that park in three years. It was one of the first parks that we ever filmed, and um the funny thing about it was back then I broke the park down into the sections because my thought was oh, no one's ever gonna sit by and watch an entire uh 45-minute hour video on uh park tours. Well, you know what? I was wrong because the reality is a lot of people are gonna watch it and they are our most popular videos, and that might be a um uh episode coming up. Next one's gonna be King's Dominion, but after that, we might do an episode on the numbers. Because I actually sat down and at the time we had 520 uh full-length videos, and I broke it down by video type and um how many views they each one's gotten and then their average views. And I find it very interesting. So we might do that um a a quick little episode on that uh inside the numbers or something like that, because as somebody who um is trying a lot of different uh what's the word I'm looking for? I'm trying a lot of different uh types of videos. It's interesting to see if your perception is truth. And there's a couple things when I looked at those numbers that really threw me for a loop. Uh I was like, what, really? Why am I wasting my time doing these videos when nobody's watching these videos? Hey, you know what? Maybe I should do more of these videos because people seem to be liking those on average. So we'll do that episode there. Uh, let us know in the comment section if it's something that you're interested in. Um, you know, hey, let me hear the numbers and stuff like that. Now, that is what we did. Now let's talk about what we are going to do in May. And guys, May, there's going to be a lot of travel uh near the end of the month because I do have weddings. I do have some Saturday weddings, uh, but I'm going to cut myself down on, for lack of a better word, um, the day job. It's funny because I always tell people, I don't have one job. I have five, four or five jobs. Um, first of all, wedding photographer is the cake. I always say that's the cake. That is what pays the mortgage, that's what pays the majority of the bills, is the wedding photography. Number two is the YouTube channel. Believe it or not, the YouTube channel generates pretty decent uh money there. I get a little bit from Facebook and stuff like that. There's so much growth potential that I do invest a lot of time in 125 Roller Coaster Challenge because I do see a fact that I don't think it's ever going to be cake, but I think it could always become a better complement and um take some of the financial stress off me. Uh number three is I actually in November I was like, you know what? I need something because the parks are closing, I need something to occupy my time and um you know generate some money. And I actually started serving at an Applebee's. Um now, uh as of yesterday, I just got promoted to bartender. So I'm learning bartending and I'm looking forward to learning more about bartending because uh if you're a good bartender, you can make a decent living off it and it's a very flexible schedule. What's really important to me is the flexibility of my schedule, um, mainly because of you know the one, two, five roller coaster and weddings. I can't get a job where I'm working every weekend because I have weddings, and then during the week, I don't want to be trapped in an office environment when it's a beautiful Tuesday and I could be filming something. So the bartending at this point would be something that opens that up there. Also, I Uber. I Uber on the sites too. If I'm uh if it's um a day where I'm supposed to Photoshop, I have it scheduled, I'm gonna Photoshop, I'm gonna Photoshop, and I wake up and I'm like, oh my god, I have no desire to Photoshop. If I'm not in the mood to Photoshop, it is like pulling teeth to try to do it. Um, and I'd rather just jump in my car, turn on Uber, and make$100,$200 just driving around and meeting people and you know, being out and about as opposed to um being trapped in photoshopping. So a lot of different sources of income. But because of that, I have a couple trips planned. Now, first of all, in the next month, these are parks that we're gonna hit. All right. Number one's gonna be Kenobles. Um, last week they opened up for uh the 100th anniversary. I knew everybody and their grandmother was gonna be there. You know, a lot of I I can't I kind of call them flybys. I guess that's the best way to say it. When a park opens, like Hershey Park a couple weeks ago opened up and every YouTube channel was there. They were all there. Oh my god, my Hershley Park, oh my god, Hirsh Park. And you're not gonna see them the rest of the year. And then the same thing happened with Great Adventure. They opened it up, they all did their um press thing with Project Purple, um, which is, you know, hey, like I said, if you get those invites and all that, more power to you. But if you checked, because I follow a lot of these guys, because you know, I like seeing what they do, I like the creativity, but it was all the same video. Oh, here's Project Purple, oh, Project Purple, look, I'm touching Project Purple, and they all came in. How many are going to be going back there next week or two weeks, three weeks? The next time you're gonna see them is when the boardwalk opens. Uh, they're probably all hit that weekend, and then probably when Project Purple opens up the following year, they're the flybys. Um, so when there's the flybys are coming in, uh they zag I zag. So I hit Hershey Park last weekend to do the what's new because everybody else had their what's new out before, which is great, you know, sometimes first is better, but looking at my numbers, I don't have as much competition with my video that they did. If you did if you came there opening a week at Hershey Park and you're one of 40, 50 um content creators that are at that park, they're all gonna have the same video and they're all gonna be launching at the same time. Everyone's trying to be first. And what ends up happening is it literally floods the market that everything you see is that. Well, two weeks later, I'm the only new one out there. Uh, or there might be one other. So it's less competition. So I'm definitely gonna be hitting Kennobles probably next week or two. Um, along those lines, I'm also looking to hit Dutch Wonderland, who has been open every weekend, and uh Kennywood. Now with those, it's gonna be I'm kind of going through a crisis, not crisis, but uh the original plan with the website, uh with the uh channel was first year would be an explorer, complete walkthrough. Number two would be a what's new, where you're just highlighting what's new. Number three would be revisited, which would be kind of a what's new, just a different title to it, and then complete the cycle. But I'm noticing that the what's new really kicks butt. The k the King's Dominion one did really good, and so did the Hershey Park. So now I'm thinking about pulling revisit it back into a um smaller park. So say a perfect example would be Land of Maple Leaf. I haven't been to Land of Maple Leaf uh in about three years, maybe four years. But the park never changes. So I don't see the need to go there and do another explore, because the explorer's doing good. You know, people look up Land of Maple Leave, they see our explorer, they get a full park walkthrough. It's not gonna change much there. So now I'm thinking about making the revisit it, the smaller parks that don't need a new explorer, but we're going back there after a year or two or three, uh just doing a highlight. So that's what I'm looking to turn revisit it into. Uh before it used to be the third year, now it's going to be smaller parks. So perfect example, I'm not planning on going to Del Grosso this year. But if I go back the following year, I don't think I'll need to do a new explore. I can just do Del Grosso revisit it and do highlights uh of what's new or highlighting some things that caught my eye. So that's where the direction I'm going with that. So that being said, I'm probably going to do a what's new for Kennywood and what's new for Dutch Wonderland. But if I end up going to Land of Make Believe or some of these smaller parks this month, they're going to be more revisited. If that makes sense. Now, the big things that I want to do, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to pull it off yet, because a lot of it has to do with when these parks open up. Like Dorney Park, I got so many ideas for that water park this year. I want to do a um uh challenge accept it there with the log flumes, I mean with the water slides, you know, can you do them all in one day? Uh, that kind of stuff there. How long does it take? But Dorney Park's not open yet. And a lot of these parks right now are just weekend only. And I'm either if you're a bartender, you make decent money on weekends, so I don't want to give that up. And also, I have weddings, uh, the 9th, the 16th, the 23rd. These dates are off the board because I have weddings those days, and that is the cake. No matter what, that's always going to be the cake. But I would like to get out to Cedar Point because I have noticed that they're going to be opening up some Thursdays. And also, another one I would want to definitely hit again. And for me, the big one is let's eat, and it's Busch Gardens, Williamsburg. Um, that uh the pass automatically renewed. Uh, in the past, um, when I would get my pass, every year I'd have a new pass number and I have to buy a new physical pass. They're like, Oh, it's on your phone. I want it physically in my hand. Well, this year they finally got smart, which I I give them 100% credit. It was an automatic renew. But, and it gave you like a month notice. It was like 30 days, 15 days, three more days. Um, but the way my life works, I didn't know what card they were going to hit. So I ended up not getting it the first time it bounced, and then I was able to shift it, and then when I finally had money in the account, all of a sudden out of the blue, boom,$300 gone. I'm like, oh my god, you know, but I'm good for another year, which means Sesame Place and all those places. If Sesame Place opens up there, depending on the children's television uh network there, um, I'm all good to go. So I'm excited for that. Very excited for that. Um so Busch Gardens is another one there. So those are the big ones there. But let me know in the comment section what other parks do you think I can knock out in May? Um, and you know what? Um, I'm definitely looking forward to getting your comments because um you might be thinking about parks that I'm not thinking about right now. Uh and I want to travel. I want to hit 50 parks this year. We're at eight right now at filming this, and I'm excited for the new season. So once again, guys, thank you so much for listening to the queue. Let me know what parks you want us to hit. And guys, I cannot wait to see you in the queue in 2020.