Episode 280 - Child's Play

Let's talk kiddie coasters.  Are they all the same?  Well these 10 are pretty unique so let's discuss what makes them special

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the 125 Roller Coaster Challenge, Trims and Staple Podcast. And guys, we are going back to something that we've done the last few seasons, but we haven't done in a while. It's been a while. And uh that is not quite rankings today, but basically talking about different types of coasters and giving you our opinions of the best or the worst, depending on which one we're doing here. And this one is called Child's Play, because believe it or not, we have no shame when it comes to coaster credits. And we will, at one point, we did ride kitty coasters. Now, we don't do that so much anymore. Uh, you only do so many wacky worms and um these fair rides uh before it gets kind of pathetic there. But we have written 36 that we would consider um kitty coasters. And uh in this episode here, we found 10 that we thought were a little unique. It might be a cool name, a cool little aspect to it. So, with that being said, that's what this episode is all about. But before we get started, people, we've been getting a lot more listeners here, and we greatly appreciate people listening to this. We pride ourselves as being once or twice a week dropping a um podcast episode on a subject like today's Child's Play and giving it to you in 15 to a half hour. We don't want the long, four-day long. We're not doing the Joe Rogan experience here, guys. We're not here to fill up a lot of dead air, even though a lot of people probably think that's all I do. We are here to give you nice, concise things on the coaster world, on amusement parks and stuff like that. And if you like what we do, make sure you follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podbean, wherever, Audible, wherever you're listening to us right now, definitely make sure you follow us. And if you wandered into the visual world and going to YouTube, we are on our quest to get to 10,000 subscribers this year, and we need you uh because um you know it's it's after a while it slows down a little bit there. Uh, we we do two to three days a week full-length content. We drop in a couple shorts every once in a while. We have a small membership program here, but a subscribe, a subscription, a um, you know, hitting that like button. That means a lot on YouTube, and we greatly appreciate you if you're willing to do that. Now, without further ado, guys, we're here to talk about kitty coasters and what are kitty coasters? Well, it's kind of like um Bill Clinton. I'm I'm old. Bill Clinton, when he was doing his um family-friendly stuff, and somebody asked him what's your definition of pornography, and he said, You know it when you see it. Uh, kind of like the same with kitty coasters. You know a kitty coaster when you see it. Now, of course, if it says wacky worm, you know it's a kitty coaster. But there is a fine line between kitty coasters and family coasters. And kitty coasters, you can kind of just tell that they are geared towards kids. Uh, and we wrote 36 of these that we categorize as kitty coasters. And in a couple uh episodes from now, we're gonna go over the family coasters. There's gonna be a we'll give you our 10 that caught our eye as family coasters. Because let's be honest, these are not intense rides, they are brutal, though. I did notice that when you are riding a kid's geared coaster, they don't care as much about the smooth transitions. I have been beaten up and bruised more by what they would call a kitty coaster than any other kind of roller coaster that I've ever been on. And uh some of those actually made this list. But um, so without further ado, we're gonna talk about 10 kitty coasters that caught our attention and why they caught our attention. And the first one we got to start out with is uh one of our home parks. Uh it's now a Hershen park. Uh, so welcome to the Dollywood family there. It's Dutch Wonderland. And we're not talking about the uh Sky Princess, uh, or now as it's known, the Kingdom Coaster. No, we're talking about the little forgotten one there. Not Merlin. Merlin, and it's nestled between Merlin and uh the sky princess. Uh yet again, Kingdom Coaster, but you'll always be a sky princess to me. It's joust. Now, this is a bare bones coaster. And what I love about it, love about it, love about it, is their theming. It's basically a typical up and back. It's a you leave the station and you bounce up and down, up and down, up and down, you go around in a big circle. Their theming for this ride is a night. Not not nighttime, a night, like the round table night, just in the middle of the circle. That's it. That's the theming. It's still better than Pantheon, but that's their theming. And I think it is just so hilarious because the line for this ride is always packed. You can walk on Kingdom Coaster, you can usually, you know, 10-minute wait for uh Merlin. But this coaster that the incredible theming is a night in the middle of it, gets one of the biggest lines ever. And it just warms my heart that little kids are just like, I want to ride that. And sometimes less is more. I wonder if they had this elaborate theming and stuff like that. It probably wouldn't have changed the line. You're still gonna get a solid line. So why bust the budget and just put up and put up a night? Just put up a night right in the middle there. So that's one of the 10. That's number one. Uh not not in any rankings, but that's the one that caught my eye there. Going along with theming, we got to go to the Jersey Shore and over to Casino Pier. All right, that's the one that's over by Seaside Heights, all right. So if you're familiar with the Jersey Shore, there's a lot of boardwalks, Jenkinson's boardwalk, Keensburg, uh, Maury's Piers, of course, uh Castaway Cove. This one's at Casino Pier. And it's called Hot Tamales. Hot Tamales. And their theming is a little bit cooler. Um, it kind of looks like Speedy Gonzalez. Now, if you're not familiar, Speedy Gonzalez was a character, is a character, I guess, uh, with Warner Brothers in the world of uh Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and those guys, Elmer Fudd, is Speedy Gonzales. Now, I'm sure they don't call him Speedy Gonzalez, because I'm sure there's probably some kind of trademark, considering right down the road is the Six Flags that actually has Warner Brothers uh theming with uh Bugs Bunny in them. But it's a cute ride, the trains look adorable, and the whole theme is you know, Endele, Endele, Reba, Riba, or whatever uh Speedy Gonzalez used to say there. So, but it's not Speedy Gonzalez. Okay? Don't say that.

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But it is.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Alright. So that one comes in number two because of the cute theming. Number three is over at Guazi. Guazi is a small park uh located, I believe, in Connecticut. It's in that whole general area by Lake Compounds and over by uh Six Flags New England uh is Guazi. And it's funny because when you're driving, when I drive the Six Flags New England or Lake Compounds, I'll be on this one highway, and I don't know the name of the highway right now, but I look over and I just see a sign for an exit amusement park. Doesn't tell you quasi or whatever, just has a sign amusement park with an arrow. And I'm like, okay, I guess there's an amusement park there. But they've got their big boy there is Wooden Warrior, that is their flagship coaster, and it is a fantastic um wooden coaster, it was one of the original family coasters, um, you know, the new style, uh, just like the one over at uh Sesame Place. And that's a great draw. But they have this smaller one over in the corner called Little Dipper, and this one to me made the list for one reason. I went to the ride attendant, it was only me on the train. I said, Do you mind if I film it? And he was like, knock yourself out. So it's actually one of the only POVs that I have on a roller coaster because that's not what we do. I don't have the harnesses and the uh strapping it to my forehead and you know, meta glasses and all that stuff. I don't have that. So the fact that it was empty, nobody was around, I looked at the attendant, he goes, knock yourself out. That is my only POV. And because of that, I'm feeling pretty good about putting that on this list there, right? Number three. Number four, yet again, no particular order, is a coaster that I hope survives. Um, there's been a lot of park closers, closures over the years, and we all know about Six Flags America, and this is not Great Escape at Six Flags America. I think that one's going to find a new home. I I really don't think that Six Flags is just gonna, you know, it might show up. Yeah, they might sell it off to China Parks, who knows? But here I'm talking about Marineland. Marine land is up right by Niagara Falls, but on the Canadian side, eh? And um it's defunct. Uh their big draw and their big negative was they had a lot of sea animals, and of course the blackfish group came in there and oh my god, oh my god, I can't do that, they're the animals, and um gave them a lot of bad press, and over time they just you know they couldn't keep up anymore there. I hope that the domesticated beluga whales find a home because um just want to tell you, I I know you have a warm heart, guys. I know you got a really warm heart there, blackfish guys. But when an animal's been domesticated, I'm not I'm not an expert here, but kind of can't put them back in the wild. Kind of can't can't really do that. Um they tend to not have the skills to survive and they tend to die pretty quickly. Um just think about your dog. Think about your poodle, think about your little doggy there. Now dump them in Montana with nobody around. And see how long your dog lasts. That's what happens when you close down these parks. Now you can make it so, hey, maybe we uh don't get any more unless they're rescues, kind of like what SeaWorld's doing. Pretty good idea. But now you have all these beluga whales that people are trying to find homes for because they can't go back in the wild. So good job killing marine land there. Doing a great job. Anyway, that was a divergence there, and I'm sure I'm gonna get some hate mail, which I'm okay with because yet again, uh being kind of stupid people, and you know, like I said, animals can't go back in the wild once they've been domesticated. And another little secret here, guys. A lot of these animals were born in captivity, which means um they were never in the wild. They, you know, like my cat. I love Harper. I love Harper. Harper cannot go outside. Harper would be smushed by a car. Harper would be beaten up by birds, harper would get his butt kicked by shades of grass. He's domesticated. So if you're an animal lover, truly are an animal lover, truly hate this connectivity thing, you might not want to own a dog, a cat, a guinea pig, a gerbil, a bird, anything that you own. Which, yet again, can you really own an animal? But but what whatever the paperwork says that you have there, um, you know what? Kind of the same thing with his beluga whales. Okay, I'm done with that. We're talking about ladybug. So this was a cute ride. Uh, the one thing about I remember about Marineland is I walked for miles. I walked for miles to get anywhere. I tried to I I did a explore and I had to cut. I never cut. Usually it's here I am walking through the entire park, blah, blah, blah, blah. There was so much space with nothing. There was nothing there. Um, but what I remember about Ladybug was around the corner, and there it was. And it had a line, people liked it, and it was a fun one. Of course, you know, it looked like a ladybug and all that kind of stuff there. And it was well maintained. It was it was in this little section that when you come in, they had the big show area where they used to have dolphins before black fish people got there again. Um, but um, right past that there was this little alcove and they had a couple kitty rides. And this was a fun credit. I remember it uh I actually remember as it I had it marked down here. The only one I really remember that gave me some airtime, which is kind of weird because you're not used to airtime on kid rides, but it was a fun little ride, and uh it was a fun credit to get. Um, and hopefully it finds a new home, uh, just like the beluga whales and every other animal they had there. Uh hopefully they can find a home for ladybug so other people can enjoy it. The next one is it's on here because of its name. I'm not gonna lie to you, it's here because it's nothing special about the ride. It is a typical kitty ride, but the name was so adorable that I just had to put it on here, and it was the first kitty coaster that we actually added in. And it's over at Adventure Park over in Maryland. Uh, they have a couple rides, uh, you know, mice and jet stars and stuff like that. But they have one called Tumbleweed. And I remember that it was me and Devin at the time, now Aerie, but Devin at the time, and we were uh walking around the park and we got on the the two coasters, and this was before we filmed, this is before the podcast and all that stuff. It was our second year, and Devin looked at me and said, Why don't we ride Tumbleweed? And I'm like, Well, that's a kitty coaster. He goes, So it there's no line, it looks fun. Let's get on it. So we jumped on Tumbleweed and we counted it, and that started our two years, our second year and third year of us jumping on kitty coasters to pat our stats, and that's why we have 36 kitty coasters now. Um, and don't get me wrong, I did Little Phantom last year because I needed that credit, but um, we don't seek them out now. So Tumbleweed's on here because it's such an adorable name, but also because um it was the first kitty coaster that we said, you know what, we can add that into the list. All right, we're halfway done. So if you're listening so far, make sure you hit that like and subscribe or follow or depending on whatever it is there, so you don't miss an episode, guys. And let's get over to the next one here. Next one is over at a park we only got to visit once, and that's a cry and shame. And I'm hoping to change it, but it's just one of those parks that's so hard to get to, and it's Holiday World. And Holiday World's got a great coaster lineup. You've got Raven, you've got The Voyage, you've got uh Legend, um, of course, you've got uh Thunderbird. Just a great line there. We still gotta get on the gravy coaster, good gravy, we still have to get on that one. But we did jump on Howler, and Howler to me is a unique name, but yet again it goes back to the theming. It's like a hound dog. I love it. It's basically all about a hound dog, and it's such an appropriate um name for this coaster and the way it themes in with everything with Holiday World. That yet again, nothing really special. We did have a good time. I think I got bruised a little bit. It was a little bit rougher. I don't know if they fixed it or not, but all in all, it was a good little uh ride, and that's why I made our list here. Number six, or number seven, what are we at here? One, two, three, four, five, six. This is number seven. I can count. Math is our friend, it's over at Silver Dollar City, and this one was one of the gray areas for me. It's called Grand Expedition. So, first of all, when it comes to the name, you know, it's grand expedition for a kiddie coaster. I guess they're playing off voyage, but it's not even the same park. But this is at Silver Dollar City, and what I liked about this one was this one I had to ride and run. So, to me, some of these, it's more about the story, like Tumbleweed was our first ever. Little Dipper, let me film it. Um, when it comes to Grand Expedition, we were doing a mega trip our uh second year, and we had it all the way out. The first year we ended, or the farthest out we went was King's Island. For the second trip, we started at Kings Island, then we went to Kentucky Kingdom, then we went to Holiday World, then we went to Worlds of uh Six Flags over St. Louis, uh yeah, over St. Louis, a midway. Uh then we did Worlds of Fun, and then we ended up at Silver Dollar City, and we were still planning on hitting Beach Bend and Dollywood and then hooking back home. But I got a phone call. And I'm a wedding photographer, and we are closing in on our 1100th wedding, guys. Yeah, slow clap, slow clap, that's pretty good. 1100 weddings. And now that time we've only had four bridezillas. And this was one of those bridezillas. I got a call from one of our friends uh in the bridal show, and we did the wedding uh the week before, and then we're heading out. Now, my contract says within a month. All right, usually it's within a week, sometimes in a couple days, sometimes two weeks, but always within a month, they got their photos. You know, that that's my job is after the wedding, I gotta get them their photos. So I I have a philosophy in life, get off my plate, get off my desk. So we'd knock it out. But we had that mega trip there. Well, apparently, this woman, older woman, did not like first of all, did not like my brother, uh, who was one of the photographers, which there's days I don't like him either, but yet again, okay, she started calling bridal shows, saying, How dare he not have my photos done by now? You need to ban this guy, he's a fraud. Yeah, that's what I had to deal with. Less than a week from the wedding, the woman is already going nuts and calling bridal source. So we were at Silver Dollar City, and out of the blue, halfway through the day, I get a call from um the person who runs the bridal show saying, uh, you got a problem here. I'm like, what are you talking about? She's like, Well, the this lady, how long has it been since you uh did her wedding? Because she's complaining that she doesn't have her photos left. I'm like, uh, about five days ago. They're like, wait, really? I'm like, yeah, it's been about five days. And she got a sneak peek before I left. So it got to the situation where I had to run through Silver Dollar City with Devin and then halfway through the day, jump in my car and start driving all the way back from Branson, Missouri, back to Pennsylvania. It took two days. But this one was the last thing we jumped on before we had to go. And literally it was let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, jump in, go in. I don't remember this ride at all. I know we did it. I know we did it. But the memory of our third bridezilla, who which I thought was going to be the worst, but I did have one that I had to get a restraining order on, which is hilarious. But um, with that being said, you know, that's why Grand Expedition goes on here because I gotta get back to Silver Dollar City and I gotta ride it just so I remember it. So three more to go. And number three, kind of a cute little ride again. It's over at Steel Pier over in Atlantic City, and it's locomotion. I just love the name. Come on, baby, do the locomotion. To my surprise, they actually don't have that music playing, probably because it's licensed. But this is um themed as a little train. And I filmed it a little bit last year, just you know, as background. We didn't jump on it again because I don't I don't do kitty coasters unless I I do it once. My philosophy now is you do it once, get the credit, then you're done. So there's no reason to jump online, even though I was at Steel Pier uh for the crazy crab. Um, I took video of it, but it is well themed. That front car looks like a train and it it it's just beautifully themed. So tipping my hat, physically right now, I am tipping my hat to Steel Pier for maintaining this and making it look so awesome. So the next one we got here is over at uh Castaway Cove over in Ocean City, uh, New Jersey. So there's a lot of these uh kitty coasters in New Jersey, and this one is Pirates Gold Rush because I love where it's located. So if you go to Cassaway Cove, first thing you're gonna notice about Casaway Cove when you get there is my god, did they pack a lot of stuff on that pier? I was hoping they were gonna buy Gillians so they can expand it out and lessen how they have everything packed on this pier. It's a you got coasters intertwining with each other, and in the case of Pirates Gold Rusher, they have a rised up area, a deck, and they Have it underneath the deck of the um I forget what's above it, it's some kind of flat ride that's above it. Uh, but they and it's right near the log flume, too. But the way they nestled Pirates Um Gold Rush into that area to me is so amazing. And then they did a little bit of theming there. You got some water features and stuff like that. So I give them credit on the theming, but to me, this one made the list because wow, how creative do you have to be to pull that off? And last but not least, it used to be called Roadrunner Express. It's over at I still consider my home Six Flags Park Great Adventure, especially since they killed off Six Flags America, and it's the Little Devil. And what I like about it is this used to be Roadrunner Express, and it was part of an expanded uh Looney Tune section. So if you're familiar, they had a Looney Tune section over on the right-hand side, and then they still have um Bugs Bunnies National Forest over on the left-hand side. Well, they re-themed the area uh over on the right-hand side to now junior thrill thrill seekers. So they got rid of all the DC um theming in that area. They made it more generic and all that. However, when it comes to this one, they put in the Jersey Devil that year that they did this flip over, and they decided to flip the name and the theming to Little Devil. And yet again, it's just an amazing theme. Uh the ride's still the same. Nothing, nothing crazy with the ride. I mean, maybe they should put a knight in the middle there, or maybe a little devil character in the middle, like the Jersey Devil, kind of like what they do with Joust. But it's well themed. I like how it ties into the new area, the Pine Barrens, I guess it would be. Um, so all in all, that's why that one made the list here. So going back through it, the 10 kitty coasters that caught my eye might be the best, might be the worst, but you know what? They caught my eye. Number, uh they're in no particular order, but uh one is Joust over at Dutch Wonderland, two is Hot Tamales at Casino Pier. Little Dipper is number three at Quazi, Ladybug, and my little random tangent there with uh uh Marine Land there. Um Tumbleweed over at Adventure Park that started our whole kitty coaster thing, Howler at um Holiday World, Grand Expedition, can't wait to ride you finally and actually enjoy the ride at Silver Dollar City, Locomotion at Steel Pier, Pirates Gold Rush over at um over at Castaway Cove, and then you have Little Devil at Six Flags Great Adventure. Guys, thanks again for listening. Real quick here. Make sure if you uh like what we do, you make sure you follow so you don't make it miss an episode here. And if you're over on YouTube, like and subscribe, trying to get to 10,000. And one more time, guys, can't wait to see you in the queue in 2026.