The Lido Loop: Cruise & Theme Park News + Caesars Entertainment Bought by Tilman Fretitta

This week on Lido Loop, we dive into the latest developments from the cruise and theme park industries.

In cruise news, we discuss the announced opening date for the new water park at Norwegian Cruise Line’s private destination, a lawsuit filed against Carnival after a guest allegedly suffered burns from hot deck surfaces, Royal Caribbean’s crackdown on stateroom door decorations, Carnival’s latest data breach concerns, and new enforcement efforts regarding food being brought into cruise ship staterooms.

On the theme park side, we cover Universal’s decision to remove Express Pass access from Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure beginning July 1, the upcoming opening of Universal Kids Resort in Frisco, Texas, and an incident that left riders stranded for hours on the Iron Shark coaster at Galveston’s Pleasure Pier. We also share a bonus update on Tormenta testing at Six Flags Over Texas and discuss Six Flags Fiesta Texas revealing the name of its new 2027 roller coaster, Werewolf George. Plus, we talk about Cedar Point banning a guest after they were caught eating chicken nuggets while riding a roller coaster.

Finally, we wrap up the episode with discussion of Tilman Fertitta’s reported acquisition of Caesars.

Join us for all the latest headlines, analysis, and commentary from the worlds of cruising, theme parks, and attractions.

Transcript

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Welcome to this week's episode of The Leto Loop. I'm your host, Jack McCraw. With me as always, my good friend, Jesse Barboza. Hey, we're recording on a weeknight. Doesn't it feel a little bit different? Yeah, uh, yeah, we're definitely busy this weekend. So today's the only day we can pretty much record. And I'm just now getting over a sickness, so my voice is a little raspy. You could say that we had technical difficulties, especially, you know, with your sickness and busy schedule. But luckily, you know, we're back for you guys and we have a lot of news to discuss. So starting on the cruise side of things, Jesse, what's the latest and greatest in the cruise world? Yeah, so uh with NCL, they have a water park. Uh they have released the opening date, and we'll talk about the pricing on that. Uh, customers sues Carnival after their feet got a little too hot, and Royal Caribbean has a crackdown on their door decoration. Also, Carnival had a data breach, and you may be impacted. And a particular cruise line can find guests for taking food out of the food areas. Yeah, that food story is going to be certainly interesting, and I can't wait to discuss that with you. On the theme park side of things, it's been a very busy week in the theme parks from Hagrid's magical creature motorbike adventure no longer having the express pass to Texas essentially being the theme park capital of news lately, with Universal Kids announcing an opening date. Tormenta has started testing at Six Flags over Texas, Six Flags Fiesta Texas has announced a brand new attraction for 2027 they've been teasing at with now ride footage and a name. The Iron Shark at Pleasure Pier had gets guest stuck for hours. And then, of course, Cedar Point bans a fan for one of the dumbest reasons you could think of. And also, a surprised person with Houston ties has bought Caesars Entertainment. We will discuss the whole transaction and what it means for your future casino experience. That and much more on this week's episode of the Lido Loop. So kicking off the show, like we always do, we like to talk about the latest and greatest in the cruise world. And starting off, Jesse, a water park at NCL private destination has an opening date and a not so friendly price. You want to tell us a little bit about that? Yes, so on NCL's private uh beach, uh Great Stirrup Key or K, however you want to call it, uh they officially announced the date that they're gonna be opening is September 4th, 2026. The name of the park's gonna be uh Great Tides Water Park. And this park is actually supposed to have 19 water slides, a seven 170-foot tidal tower with multiple slide experiences, a 800-foot dynamic river. I think it's gonna be kind of like the lazy river and wave pool at like they have at like Slitterbahn. They have cliff jumps, which are like their only kind. You know, no one else really has them in the Bahamas. Uh they have a 900, not or let me get right, 9,000 square foot splash zone. They have uh multiple swim-up bars, food trucks, and of course you can get a bunch of private cabanas that include uh water park emission when you buy them. So apparently NCL is gonna have dynamic pricing, which means it's gonna fluctuate throughout the year. Um it seems like the low end is gonna be about $79.99 per person per ticket, uh, and it can go all the way up to $120. But I even did see on Reddit some people saying $180 a ticket, which I don't know. What do you think? Do you think it's kind of pricey? That's insane for a water park. Even at $100, I I mean I would like to think that most water parks shouldn't cost more than $50. And I imagine when you go to this island, you get off the ship, you know, you only have a certain amount of a lot of time before you have to go back to the ship. The crazy thing is that people are still gonna pay for this no matter what, just because they're already there. But I think that's insane that you would pay $120 to you said $180 for a water park. No thank you, NCL. And unfortunately, NCL kind of has this brand image that there's a lot more older people on this ship. So at first, I don't really think that they're really gonna get their money's worth because there's probably not a ton of kids that are expected to be on these cruise ships. So I mean, I mean, it's good for the kids, they're not gonna be packed at all, but I don't see too many grandmas and gr and grandpa's going down these slides. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say too. If you're trying to change your image and change your, you know, customer base from you know the older people to the younger, you know, families with small children, the water park is a great way to do that, but you're also putting it at a price point that not a lot of people can afford. I mean, you're it cruising is already expensive as is, you know, Norwegian cruise line, it's up there. There's definitely more expensive cruise lines in Norwegian. It's no carnival for sure, but I imagine that people are not going to be really willing to shell out that kind of money. And you know, I get the sense that you're already there and like that's the cost of a quote excursion nowadays, anyway. But I would rather like do anything else than spend $180. I'd rather sit on the beach for free or you know, pay sixty dollars for that margarita like you got last time. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Uh so apparently, so it when you purchase a cruise from NCL, they do if you buy the free at C package, they do give you a $50 excursion credit you can use. But for some reason, as of right now, as we're recording this, they will not let you use it towards the water park. They'll let you rent like a cabana on Grape Stirrup Key, but they will not let you get a ticket, which I don't know why. I don't know if it's just a glitch in the system right now. I would say maybe it's too new. Maybe they want to really try out the pricing to see if that actually is going to work out. I imagine not. And that eventually the prices will go down and down. But you know, we've seen in this economy things go up, up, up, and just stay up. Hopefully, this one will go down so that way more people could actually enjoy this water park. Yeah, I'm sure like that when it first opens, it's gonna be packed for the first couple months, and then I think it's just gonna die, die, die, die, and then the price was gonna drop significantly. Until NCL can actually get a good image of being family more family friendly friendly than not just for the older crowd. I mean, I remember we had this conversation on one of our first episodes about the sl cost of the slides at Celebration Key, and there were only two slides, and it was a $15. You know, I feel like you do get a little bit more of your quote, money's worth with these 19 slides, giant wave pool, and you know, river, you know, lazy river, but still that that price point is just so astronomically high that it it might have some sticker shock and people would stay away from that. And they might go to Carnival instead. You have sensitive feet, which is what happened to one guest who now they're suing Carnival for the their feet were too hot. I'm reading the notes and I just want to make sure that's right. Jesse, you want to explain this a little bit? Yeah, so apparently this happened on Carnival Magic. Uh, a Florida resident. I'm not gonna say his name because it's probably too hard to pronounce, honestly. It has to be a Florida prime man, huh? And uh he apparently walked 20 steps from the pool back to his lounger. This is back in May of 2025. He said that the Lido surface was so hot that it caused second-degree burns on the soles of both feet within seconds. He was reportedly hospitalized, missed work, and claims injuries cause lasting pain and financial losses. Why is why do you think he's sewing? Well, I'm assuming to one, make a quick buck. Number two, dude, you're on a cruise ship. Where are your flip-flops? Where are your crocs? Where are your sandals? Like, we did a whole episode about what to bring on a cruise ship, and those were definitely in stuff you should pack. Where are your regular shoes, dude? Well, what I want what I want to know is, of course, we won't know until after the lawsuit, you know, takes place, whatever happens, is was this guy drunk? You know, because you know, sometimes when when you're intoxicated, you don't you're kind of unaware of what's happening in until the next day. And and like one thing I know being from Texas, you never walk on the concrete, you know, especially in May. I was gonna say, and this guy's from Florida, so uh Florida is just as hot as Texas, if not the same level. And one, you're on a cruise ship in the beaming sun. I mean, I I've gone barefoot on a cruise ship before. It's not that's not an uncommon practice, but at the same time, if it's really hot outside, dude, go in the shade. There's so many preventable measures to prevent this guy from getting burned. And you know, glad he's okay, but at the same time, this is so preventable. And I really hope Carnival, you know, settles with this guy and out somehow out of court, just here, give a free cruise and stop suing us because you burnt your own feet. I definitely think this is definitely uh uh falls under the personal responsibility, you know. I definitely it's just like with alcohol too, you know. That's why a lot of times uh people that sue for over drinking don't win because it's all about personal responsibility. Uh, you know, it's like Carnival also doesn't say go in the kitchen and put your hand on it, you know. They don't they don't have to they shouldn't have to say all this stuff, you know, they should just say, hey, use common sense, you know, and which they can't really say that, but I mean this this reminds me of an old story of like a woman suing McDonald's because she spilled coffee on herself and there was no sign that said caution hot. I mean, I I think that's what Carnival has to do now. Like, hey, the Lido deck's going to be hot, the sun is out, we're in Florida, we're in the Caribbean, use some common sense people. And so apparently the lawsuit claims that at least 25 pastors already suffered similar burn injuries over the previous six years. Another 42 guests reported complaining about excessive hot deck surfaces. Apparently, the uh I don't I've never heard this happening, but apparently the filing stated also that two prior cases where burn injuries alleged became so severe that amputations were required. They are allegations in the lawsuit, and uh they haven't yet been proven, but but I don't know. I don't I that's kind of crazy to get unless you were like standing there like trying to have some contest of who can stand on the hot deck the the longest. I don't see how you get amputated. I don't either. I you know, I without knowing too much of how or why that was necessary, it's really hard to imagine just you know having a burn would be that bad, especially just standing in the sun. I mean, we it's one thing if you fell into you know fire, but we talked about this earlier. If it's hot, just get out of the sun. You know, we don't know the state of these people, you don't know if they fell asleep on the deck or you know, alcohol was involved, like you were saying earlier, but I just don't see how it gets that bad. And I think one of the best ways to avoid being out of the sunshine is going into the casino. You know, you're not gonna get burned down there. You might get on a heater on a machine, but you're definitely not gonna suffer any third-degree burns. Yeah, so apparently most cruise lines I use this synthetic decking around the pool areas because it's like durable, slip resistance, but it's dark or synthetic surfaces can reach very high temperatures, you know, under you know, when direct sunlight's hitting it. Um many experienced cruisers, of course, they of course wear flip-flops, or um, you know, me personally, I wear crocs. So a question I wanted to ask you though, Jesse is there a way for cruises to add more shading, maybe have more, you know, covers over certain chairs? I know certain hot tub areas are covered. You know, most of the back of carnival ships have, you know, the the translucent roof that over the indoor pool and hot tub. Could more elements of shade be added on the Lido deck to prevent people from being burned? Uh I definitely think that there is possibilities, but a lot of times like they don't like to put like umbrellas out and all that because I mean you know how windy it gets on those decks. Uh a lot of things. They'll probably fly just right off. Yeah, exactly. Uh a lot of times they don't open the umbrellas like on the back of the ships, uh, stuff like that. A lot of times they don't open them because they they like you said they fly off. But I think there's other options I think they possibly could do. Like have a uh designated spot for your shoes, so as soon as you get out of the pool, you you can pick up your crocs or your uh flip-flops right next to it. Uh they could also have like misting uh stations that you know kind of uh I guess cools the temperature down a little bit, but like we were kind of saying earlier, um they probably start suing for that. What do you think? Yeah, especially imagine if you miss the decks next to the pool and all of a sudden some kid's running, he slips and falls, and a parent wants to sue, or a grown adult slips and falls because they've had too much to drink. I mean, the best way to avoid that, I guess, is put the wet floor signs and have the you know, caution hot signs all over the deck, just so that way all cruise ships can sort of cover themselves. And speaking of signs, Jesse, you and I have talked in previous episodes about certain door decorations, you know, upside-down pineapples that are banned on stateroom doors. But now I'm hearing Royal Caribbean is cracking down on other kinds of door decorations. What else are you not allowed to put on your door anymore? Well, Royal Caribbean actually have not said that they're cracking down on upside down pineapples like Carnival has. Uh, but what they are cracking down on now is any decorations that cover the peepholes, um, use lithium power lights, um, anything that creates a fire hazard. Um, it says something about it touching the door frame, but a lot of times that's kind of the only way you can hold stuff up because sometimes the door is the only thing that's magnetic. Uh also you're not allowed to use adhesives that can cause damage to doors or walls, so you have to use magnets only. I was gonna say, are people actually putting like lights like Christmas lights or you know, any kind of like LED strips? Because more most oftentimes I just see you know fun little decorations on the doors, but are people actually going that above and beyond to decorate their door? Yeah, I I have definitely seen, especially a lot of people with kids. I see they like to put a lot of lights. Um, I mean, I know me and you decorate a little bit differently. I was gonna say, I don't think I've ever decorated my door once in my life. Honestly, I never decorate either. Um I think your daughter maybe put ducks in front of the door, but that's like the most decorating I've seen your family do. Yeah, I'm definitely, if I do decorate, it's more just throwing a magnet on the door. And you probably know the reason why I do that, right? Why is that, Jesse? Hey, whenever you're you're, you know, hanging out at the Tides bar and you had a few too many uh alcoholic beverages, you know, all the state rooms start looking the same. So when you walk in, you see, oh, that's my magnet over there. I know that that's my room. I I think I did remember seeing like you had like an American flag or something on there, and I was like, oh yeah, that is Jesse's room. But yes, you be careful with how you decorate your doors because you know there could be a certain crackdown on certain decorations, but other cruise lines that are in trouble are Carnival because there has been a pretty big data breach that could be affecting a lot of Texas residents, Jesse, and cruisers all over the country. You want to tell us a little bit about yes, so this actually didn't happen not just with Carnival itself, but act acted like under the Carnival umbrella. They didn't specifically mention what Carnival entity actually got like hacked, but apparently six million people were impacted. Uh data was apparently reported later leaked online after the ransom negotiations failed. I guess they I'm sure they tried to extort Carnival to um were they just trying to get a free cruise out of this? Probably something like that. But apparently the things that may have been exposed is your full name, address, email, phone numbers, date of birth, loyalty slash membership details, uh government ID, like passport, driver's license number. Uh this is kind of considered high-risk data because it can be used for identity theft or fraud. Uh Carnival confirmed the breach publicly and notified uh reg regulators. But honestly, this was kind of late because people were talking about this like a month and a half ago, and they were silent for a long time. I I definitely reported hearing people talk about this because they s a lot of them have their own identity um you know software to make sure that they, you know, no one steals their identity. And Carnival was silent about it for a long time until they absolutely had to report something. I mean, that's not exactly good PR right there. Yeah, I don't know why they were silent. Maybe because they were unsure about it or they knew they did they wanted to get a good statement, I'm guessing. But apparently now they they did email all the people that were affected. Uh me and you both weren't one of them. No, I just get on their spam email. I luckily was not one of those people affected, and thank goodness you weren't either. Yeah. Uh but they apparently are offering two years of free credit monitoring uh through Transunion. They also uh brought in a cyber security firm to investigate and make their system more secure. Yeah, I mean that's definitely a scary you know story, and especially in this modern world, because you know, anytime your data leaks out there, anytime you put post really anything on the internet, you're subject to you know people getting that information and putting it out elsewhere. So it is scary, and I'm you know, hopefully Carnival can you know rectify this, especially those people that identities were potentially corrupted and stolen. And it's is yeah, it's just one of those scary stories. But you know, thankfully, if you did not get receiving email, you will be fine. And then another thing Carnival has to worry about, well more so Costa, Jesse, tell us about a crackdown on food not being allowed out of the dining rooms over there. Yeah, so Costa is now not allowing guests to take food from the buffet or the restaurants back to the cabin. They also cannot take food to pool decks, lounges, or other non-dining areas. And apparently you will be charged 60 to 70 pounds uh cleaning fees, uh, which is about 70 to 80 dollars uh in American. Um so you can only now eat in the buffet or main dining room, or but for some reason they do let you still order room service. Okay, that was gonna be my first question. If you can't have food bring food to your room, but at least you still get it delivered via room service, but you know, that's just gonna cost extra, so they don't want to lose money that way. You know, something I thought of with this, you know, because Costa's more of a European brand, correct? Yeah, so definitely not American brand. I was gonna say Americans are dirty. Um we leave food everywhere. You mean imagine not only just the Lido deck where you see plates and everything everywhere, you see bus boys come in and clean tables like in an instant. They'll leave them on chairs, they'll leave them in the casino, they'll they'll literally leave food anywhere that is possible. I wonder if Europeans started picking up that habit and that's why they're starting to find them, whereas this is just more of a normality here in the United States. Yeah, it definitely is, and I definitely think that I don't think that this is gonna spread to Carnival or any other any other entity under Carnival umbrella. Um But what I do definitely can see this happening is that I think that they're just trying to get extra money in a one another way. Uh because I mean now the only way to get food to room is through room, you know, now to pay for it, right? So maybe they're trying to see if they get a little extra money that way. But according to them, the reason that they're not allowing people to do this is because of hygiene and sanitation, prevent food contamination, avoid dirty plates left in the hallways, reduce pest control, and controlling food handling. Uh because only trained crew delivers can bring food to your cabin. See that that's lip service. I mean, it yes, everything they say makes perfect sense, but um I'm sorry, that's part of the crew's experience going to get your pizza at midnight and then going back to your room to go watch a movie. Like it or or you said that you can't even bring them to the deck chairs. So what's to stop someone from going from the buffet when Which you know, buffets could be upstairs on the Lido deck, too, just right next to the pool. I guess they're just roped off, or they have someone guarding it. I don't think that they're really having to guard it, and I'm uninsure how they enforce it, you know, because you know how good they are at forcing, you know, chair hogs like we talked about last last week. So I doubt they're gonna be big enforcers on this. Um, but it is something that we definitely want to keep an eye on and just make sure it's not gonna carnival because I know my son, he goes down to the pizza place like 20 times every day. And I'm not gonna lie, man, there's sometimes they're big 10 stacks of plates, you know, of his pizza that he's gotten. Uh, and so hopefully it just does not affect carnival down the road. What I think, you know, kind of glad you brought up the you know chair hogs story that we talked about last week. The rules are in place in case they need to enforce it. And I think this could be something that Casa is doing as well, where maybe they're just tired of seeing how dirty it is, and they're warning guests, hey, if you do this, you could be subjected to a fine. And they could use the fine, but that's rule more so there that they can enforce it when they need to, not when they want to. Yeah, I I I definitely think I think that's the zero reason. I think that there's a fine line of like if someone just brings one plate and just some snack food, they're not gonna say anything. But if you if they come in your state room and it looks like a pig sty, I'm pretty sure they're gonna definitely use that, you know, use that fee and get a little bit extra money out of you. Obviously, I do feel for those, you know, you know, houseworkers that come in and you know have to clean the room on a, you know, some I mean we talked about this off air, sometimes twice a day, and they just see like so many plates. This will definitely make their jobs a little bit easier, and I think that's what another reason they could be doing this is more so for the morale of the workers and also to keep the ship looking from like a college party that just happened in the hallway. So that kind of covers all of our uh cruise news. So in theme park news, Jack, so what's going on with Haggard's magical creature motorbike adventure? I'm glad you did that all in one take and said the whole name. Very good. So remember we went to Universal last time and everyone wanted to go on Hagrid's, but it was close to a three-hour wait. Yeah, yeah, I do remember that. Well, that's because I believe it was starting last year or the year prior, Hagrid started adding Express Pass, which you know that's basically Universal's version of FastPass. And Hagrid's up to that point had not been part of the FastPass, but now they are no longer going to be part of Express Pass just because the wait is just getting ridiculous. When we went, it wasn't even a busy day, and there was still a three-hour line. When the sh the second longest line I think we waited for was 45 minutes for Spider-Man. So Universal is now taking away the Express Pass starting on July 1st, so that way more guests can ride the ride. Now, there's two schools of thoughts here. The people who don't pay for the express passes are incredibly happy because you can actually ride Hagrids for a decent weight, and you know, today, you know, summer day, Monday in June, I saw the wait time hit about 75 minutes, which that's understandable for Hagrid's not three hours. But the other people who are upset about this are the people who are paying those premium prices for express pass or who are staying on the luxury, you know, hard rock hotel and other universal resorts that get these express express passes. Because you could still ride everything in the park with Express except this right now. Now, where do you kind of lie on this? I mean, I personally don't do the express passes at Universal just because they're expensive. The last time when we tried to get them, it was like $200 for the day, and we really didn't even need them. Yeah, I mean, I know Disney's Express Pass is definitely a lot better than Universal's. Um, but man, I definitely I definitely as a person who never really gets the express pass, I definitely like this, definitely 100%. Because you're right, it was uh really long, and I mean don't get me wrong, it was a fun ride. And for people who do ride it, make sure you take motion sickness. Because I'm I'm usually not that bad, but man, that's the only ride that I definitely needed motion sickness. Yeah, it's with those all those multiple launches, and uh it's definitely I would say it's up there with VelociCoaster as far as the best roller coaster. I still prefer VelociCoaster over Hagrid's, and then you know Hulk. I mean it's it's a great, you know, one, two, three for Universals, Islands of Adventure, but knowing now that more people can ride this will definitely make a lot more people happy. So speaking of Universal, so what's with this new resort that's opening on July 1st? Yep, we finally got an opening date. Universal Kids in Frisco, Texas will be opening July 1st to the general public, and they've been sharing a little bit more details about the park. Uh Jesse, what were your initial thoughts? I shared some you know drone flyover footage and it showed some of the lands. Do you have any initial takeaways from what you've seen? I mean, of course, the biggest thing we saw was the lack of shade. Especially here in Texas. Here in Texas, we're 100 degrees and the shade as it is, is is already gonna be crazy. And I'm pretty sure that this clientele, which is what's the age range going for? It's saying it's supposed to be from kids ages four to ten. So maybe they're not too worried about shade, but I'm sure parents are definitely gonna be upset about that. Yeah, honestly, because I'm not gonna lie, as I usually take my kids when they were that young to places where I like to enjoy too, like at least hanging out where it's comfortable for me to hang out and watch them, like in an air-conditioned building or uh or like universal islands of adventure. I love that because the amount of indoor waiting areas they had, right? Yeah, we talked about that a little bit on our summer tips and tricks when visiting Universal, Hulk, Spider-Man, King Kong, uh Hagrids, like we just spoke about, Velocicoaster, Harry Potter Forbidden Journey, even Cat in the Hat, they all had indoor cues that you could like stay cool during the summertime. And a lot of these rides look like off-the-shelf attractions, more so like you know, your typical kitty coasters. I saw there was a SpongeBob bus that was spinning around. I mean, there it's definitely a park made for kids. So, I mean, I hopefully I feel like this is a common theme in theme parks too. When Toy Storyland opened at Hollywood Studios, there was no shade, and there's still very little. Epic Universe also has very little shade, and those are in Florida. You know, but this park here in Texas, especially with it opening in the middle of the summertime, it's definitely going to be hot for and you know, feel for those parents, but just a little bit more details about the park. Uh, so it's gonna have areas themed Shrek Swamp, Jurassic World, Adventure Camp, Bikini Bottom, Big Spongebob area, big Spongebob fan you are. Hey, if they they could have an adult park, I think, and I would still go to that. I think it'd be funny. I I right, I I I'll I think that could be in the future, and I'll get to that here in a moment. But Trolls Fest, Gabby's Doll House, Puts and Booths, Del Mar, and a minion themed attraction. So, yes, this this resort is definitely ta catered towards children, but I think this is also a testing park for Universal because there is still a lot of undeveloped land around where Universal Kids Park is opening, and I think this is more of a blue sky concept, but I think depending on how successful this park is, a actual universal park will be able to open in Texas. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, let's hope, but it seems like that they're uh like the age range isn't really that great, honestly. It seems like because if you're building a park like Universal Islands of Adventure or Epic Universe, to be honest, I think adults on down would enjoy that park. And when you're it seemed like when you're narrowing down on just a particular age group, it seems like you're kind of cutting your 'cause what happens when those kids grow up? I mean, you're just having to hopefully replenish, recycle just these young kids going there. I mean, yes, there will still be adults that go there, but it's probably incredibly few and far between, not not even close to what you would get at an actual Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, or Epic Universe. When this uh park was first announced, I was pretty excited because oh, we're finally getting a Universal here in Texas, but and this type of park has been done. I know uh SeaWorld owns Sesame Street Place, which that you know recently filed for bankruptcy. And so this could be a i it seems like it's just such a niche market. And you know, families with young children, great for them. But other theme what you know, me with no kids and you with you know teenagers, when exactly are we gonna ever go to this park except to review it? Yeah, exactly. Well, I I mean I'm probably never going. I might take my nieces and nephew there. That's about it. It's like I'll get a friend to get the footage for us so I can put it on the channel. Yeah, but um, I definitely hoping that this will grow to another actual universal park. I think it'd be awesome having a universal park uh here in Texas. I mean, it it's a perfect location if you think about it, because we got it on the East Coast and West Coast. Why not put it on in the central coast? Yeah, so Frisco is for the people who don't live in Texas, is actually near Dallas. And actually, speaking of Dallas, uh, what's going on with Tormento? So it started testing, and it happened the day after I got the footage, you know, of our magnificent short that I put on the YouTube channel. Uh, they started testing a few days ago, and the ride seems to be gearing closer to opening. Now it's a little weird because in the foot the footage I showed, there's still a lot of dirt around the coaster. There's still, you know, train cranes and tractors on site. So I think there's we're still a little bit of ways away. If I had to take an educated guess, I think this is gonna open sometime in July, maybe even early August. It might have just been a little bit behind due to weather, due to you know what any kind of certain factors. But yes, Tormenta, the record-breaking coaster that's going to break six records, including tallest dive coaster at 309 feet, the fastest dive coaster at 87 miles an hour, the longest dive coaster at 4,199 feet, tallest vertical loop at 179 feet, and then highest Immelin inversion and highest 95 degree beyond vertical drop will be waiting for us soon here in Arlington. Now, how do you I know you like Dr. Diabolical. How do you feel about riding a roller coaster like that, but double in size? Uh, me personally, I would love it. I love the the drops. Uh man, I I'm definitely looking forward to this. This is definitely a reason to go up to Arlington, right? Yes, I've never been on a roller coaster that's taller than 300 feet tall. The tallest roller coaster I've been on is Titan in Texas. So, you know, the fact that you know Six Lags Over Texas initially had the tallest coaster in Texas, and now they're getting one that's more than 50 feet taller than that is gonna be astounding. And you know, I can't wait to get that kind of footage. And you know, hopefully I could be there on opening day when Tormenta opens. Do they have official opening day yet? They do not. Uh I'm my gut says late July, early August, just because I do think that they're still working out some things. But you know, maybe to compete with the opening of the Universal Kids Park, they could announce it closer to that date, like maybe a little bit after, just so that way once the hype dies down for Universal, those you know, same families will go back to Six Flags over Texas. So speaking of Six Flags, uh, but now Fiesta, Texas, what's the name of this new coaster? So we've been teasing it for a little bit, and it's going the ride that Fiesta Texas has been teasing us since the start of the year has officially announced a name. And you ready for it? Werewolf George. Now, initial thoughts. It's a kind of a silly name for a coaster, don't you think? Yeah, uh yeah, definitely. I don't know who I don't know any werewolves, and I don't know George. Uh I was gonna say I don't know any werewolves named George either. Though some research I did on this, uh apparently George was a pseudonym for a popular werewolf werewolf rider. That's a fun thing to say. So that could be it. Maybe it's just some sort of public domain werewolf that they could use without paying any kind of licensing fee. But the new ride at Fiesta, Texas will be a family launch coaster by Vacoma. It'll be the longest family launch coaster in the world with 4,120 feet of track, and it's gonna apparently go through the quarry wall just like Iron Rattler and just like Superman does. So and it's supposedly, oh, it's it's a two-minute and thirty-six second attraction, by the way. So there's gonna be four launches, multiple airtime hills. So, and apparently there's a little bit of theming too. I posted on the Facebook group, but there is wolves that are gonna be there, and it sounds like there might be some audio. And the big, you know, spoiler at the end, the big werewolf gets you. I mean, I like how Fiesta Texas is starting to like theme up their attractions, don't you? Yeah, I definitely think. I feel like they're trying to get stuff that where they don't have to pay like branding fees or anything like that. Um, I definitely I mean, watching the video did seem like it's definitely uh I guess scary themed in a way. I'm I I guarantee you this is great during Halloween time for this. Oh, absolutely. I imagine a night ride on this would be phenomenal, especially with, you know, oh assuming the effects work, you know, the wolves don't fall down and they never get replaced again, like what happened at Roadrunner. Yeah, watching the video, I mean, it was kind of dark, right? You would think that they would try to keep this ride open into the evening, right? Absolutely. And you know, that new that section where they're building it is you know in Crack Axle Canyon, which now is gonna host, I would say, four of you know, four of the top ten coasters there with Roadrunner, this new werewolf George, Iron Rattler, Iron Rattler. Yeah, of course, you gotta mention that one, and then Dr. Diabolical, all like within you know a stone's throw of each other. So I'd like to see that Fiesta Texas is continuing to invest in new rides in the park. And their last big you know attraction was Dr. Diabolical almost five years ago now at this point. So I it seems like you know, every other year it's Six Flags over Texas, Fiesta Texas. I'm glad to see Six Flags is keeping Texas uh as a priority park. And you know what? I'm sorry, but this show, Texas is definitely on top of the theme park news. I know y'all probably tired of us talking about our home parks. Well, Texas is the leader right now, don't you think? Well, we actually got one more for you, too, actually. So, what's the story about someone getting stuck on roller coasters for how long? Uh apparently it lasted four hours, and this happened in your favorite city, Galveston, at Pleasure Pier. So that is kind of the only one of two major roller coasters here in the Houston area. So Iron Shark is a Gerslauer Eurofighter, 100 feet tall, you know, only sits about eight passengers per cart. It got stuck on the chain lift hill, and it left guests stranded for about four hours. And you know, firefighters had to go up there since since this is on a boardwalk, so you know, it's not just you know, hey, a fire truck can just drive on there. They had to evacuate the park, they had to get the fire truck onto the boardwalk, they had to get the lat, you know, essentially like take everyone out one at a time while they're stuck on a 90-degree angle just facing the sky. You know, I feel for these kids. Luckily, no one was hurt, and you know, they were only treated for you know dehydration afterwards. Yeah, so the people who don't live here in the Texas area, Pleasure Pier is pretty much a uh a pier that used to be a hotel, am I right? Yes, it used to be the flagship hotel from 1965 until 2008 when it was destroyed by Hurricane Ike. And then, of course, you know, a certain millionaire, or excuse me, billionaire who we'll talk about here in momentarily, bought that and turned it into an amusement park. And, you know, it's been open since 2012, and we've been there a couple times. It's it's solid. It's, you know, think Santa Monica Pier, but on a much smaller scale and in Galveston. Yeah, it's something you're not gonna spend all day there. It's something you'll spend a hey, I got a couple hours just to kill. You know, here's a you know, they got definitely got food places to eat, like bubblegum shrimp, and stuff like that. Hey, don't forget the greatest rainforest cafe in the world. I don't know if you've been to that one, but that one actually has its own amusement attraction in a river raft ride that rivals Six Flags. Not at all. But, you know, it's definitely a good place to spend five bucks to go see some bad animatronics. You know, it could be worse. You could be, instead of at Pleasure Pier, you could be banned from Cedar Point, Jesse. Did you see this story about a guy who got banned for eating McNuggets on a roller coaster? I don't know if they're actually McNuggets, but they were they were nuggets, right? Yes, I don't think that the nuggets were confirmed, so you know we're not giving any free publicity to McDonald's, Wendy's, or whomever's chicken nuggets, but yes, there was a YouTuber named Alan Farrell who had you know one eight 1.8 million subscriber posted a stunt where he smuggled in a box of nuggets, and I say smuggle because he literally put it in his pants, took it out on the ride, and started eating them on Millennium Force. Now, to those who don't know, Millennium Force is a 310-foot 93 mile an hour giga coaster at Cedar Point. So not only was this stunt pretty dangerous, but he also got banned from the park. Now, first things first, would you do do anything this kind of crazy? Uh, not really. I mean, I know the craziest thing we do is like, you know, when we do have like serious faces, like whenever we're like the camera comes by, we just act like we're we're not excited. You know, I know me and you have multiple done that multiple times. And I've I've definitely seen other YouTubers like play chess. Remember they they have multiple people do crazy stuff like that. Yeah, uh like those like famous like Splash Mountain photos where they just bring like stuff on there just so that way they can have the good shot. Well, this guy took it to another level, and the person sitting next to him, I'm assuming which was his cameraman, was filming him, and at one point he's even holding a packet of sauce and he's dipping the nuggets while he's on the roller coaster eating them. Sadly, he only got through seven of his ten nuggets, and this all happened because he was a dare. Someone put in his comments and said, eat 10 chicken nuggets on a roller coaster. How did they catch them? That's what I want to know. I mean, they probably just saw it on social media and like, oh yeah, let's just go ahead and ban this guy. But he wasn't just banned from this park, am I right? No, he was banned from not only Cedar Fair, but all other Six Flags and Cedar uh Cedar Fair parks. So, you know, I mean, hope you got your clout for that dude. You know, if you guys want to comment Darius Russ on roller coasters, we're probably not gonna eat nuggets, but you know, we'll do the stair challenge or so I've seen that that's popular. But yeah, this one is definitely one of the weirdest theme park incidences I've ever seen. And, you know, I'm kind of siding with the park on this one because all jokes aside, he could have choked or something like that. Yeah, he could have put himself or the ride or others in danger. He did it in the back seat so that way he wouldn't hurt anybody. But I mean, this is just stupidity at its finest. This guy's really not that popular. I mean, I know he's got like 1.2 or what do you say? It's 1.8. Let's say you know, give him a little bit of credit there, I guess. 1.8 million. Um, how do you think they're gonna enforce this ban on him? Like, there's no way that because they don't check IDs or everyone that goes in there. They can you can easily change your name and no one checks that. Am I correct? Yeah, if you buy a I mean, I'm not advocating this by any means, but if you do buy a ticket to a theme park under a different name, I guess technically they can't stop you. I mean, I guess if security recognizes you, I mean, but that's such a very low chance unless you just ha unless you are famous or just have some sort of clout where you know you can be seen in a crowd. Uh there was a YouTuber, Adam the Woo, God rest his soul, got banned from Disney, but because he was so popular, you know, they recognized him and then they kicked him out as soon as they noticed him. And I've seen other celebrities that have been, quote, banned from Disney. But I feel like Six Flags will they'll they'll definitely not enforce a ban like that as as to the level of Disney. They Disney probably has facial recognition and stuff where Six Flags, it's like, no, that doesn't that doesn't look like you, you're good. So I know this may not be cruise news or even uh theme park news, but we kind of like casino news. So apparently there's a new owner of Caesars Entertainment, am I right? Yes, and that owner is local Houston billionaire Tillman Fertita. Now, those of you in Texas might under know him as the owner of the Rockets and owner of Pleasure Pier, like we just talked about. Yeah, we all bring it, we're bringing everything back together. Landry's Rainforest Cafe, Bubblegum Shrimp, two mentions of bubblegum shrimp. But yes, so he also owns casinos like the golden nugget, and now Tilman Fertita has purchased Caesar's Entertainment for $17.6 billion. That's right, $17.6 billion. So I didn't realize this. Caesars had about $11.9 billion of debt, and Tilman essentially eliminated that debt when he purchased it. So, you know, Caesar stock has rise at this point, and he now owns not one, not two, but eight casinos in Las Vegas alone, in addition to other local Caesars properties around the country. Now, you and I have been to Caesar's properties, horseshoe in Lake Charles. There's also a horseshoe that we went to in Baltimore. You know, we've even been to Caesar's Palace, which, you know, I heard you were kind of disappointed by uh Caesar's Palace. Am I right? Yeah, I'm definitely disappointed. I'm pretty sure he bought this for the same reason I did. They thought Caesar lived there. Yeah, and apparently Caesar doesn't live there, and the hotel is not very pager-friendly. So I hope Toma Fertita changes that. But this does make him a pretty major player in the casino industry because if you really think about it here in North America, the big two is MGM and Caesars. And now Caesars is expanding their reach, and now they're gonna be inquired by you know, the Golden Nugget is now gonna be a Caesars brand hotel and casino. So that could be a game changer in the gambling industry, and it's something to look forward to to see how Caesars will change overall. Yeah, I mean, definitely, because they definitely got a lot of debt, and so um, I'm guessing that he's definitely gonna make some policies to change that to get out of debt. Well, the main reason I think he bought Caesars is because how else is he gonna be able to afford Kevin Durant for another year? But that'll do it for this week's episode of the Lido Loop, and as always, you can find us anywhere on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, wherever you get your podcasts. We have the Facebook page and the YouTube channel. We are the Lido Loop. I'm Jack, that's Jesse, and we will see you on the Lido Day. Trying not to burn our feet.