Coaster Trip 2026: Cedar Point, Kings Island, Dollywood & Carowinds

For Your Amusement: A Theme Park Podcast

The hosts recount their ambitious five-day 'Coaster Tour 2026' through several major regional theme parks in the American Midwest and South.

Key takeaways

• The tour covered four major parks across multiple states in just five days.
• Cedar Point's Hotel Breakers provided an unexpected highlight with its boardwalk atmosphere and on-site hibachi dining.

Main topics

• Cedar Point Trip Report
• Theme Park Hotel Experiences

Notable quotes

It feels like you have made it to the Mecca of roller coasters.

Conclusion

A high-energy, personal retrospective that highlights the excitement a

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) I honestly I can't wait to be done. Are we rolling? Perfect. I can't wait till this episode is done. Speaker 3 (0:12) He's just sour because we built this piece of shit. Speaker 2 (0:18) What do they call these things? Coaster cutouts? Coaster cutouts. I've seen some, yeah, coaster YouTubers. They like collecting these type of things. We Speaker 3 (0:27) tried building it, and it was not for us. Speaker 2 (0:29) For those who enjoy building these things and can successfully build them without pieces breaking off as, well, you probably can't see. There's a wheel Speaker 3 (0:38) grade. Speaker 2 (0:39) I'll film an insert shot that we'll plug in here. But the upstop wheels are, well. Half of them are gone. They snapped off. Yeah, well, it's because you have to snap these pieces and then the Speaker 3 (0:49) wood is very, very thin. Not the kind of wood you like. Speaker 2 (0:52) You like some thicker wood to Speaker 3 (0:53) get the job done. No, Speaker 2 (0:54) this is Speaker 3 (0:54) extremely thin wood and it cracked in half. And each time it cracked, it felt like I got stabbed. You Speaker 2 (0:59) can't have delicate material that requires a heavy amount of force Speaker 3 (1:06) to be applied. It's crazy. It's not exactly a Lego-like fit for these bad boys, but... Hello, welcome to another episode. Yeah, anyways, thank Speaker 2 (1:14) you Cedar Point for having us Speaker 3 (1:16) out. Speaker 2 (1:18) Welcome to For Your Amusement, Speaker 3 (1:20) a theme park podcast that aims to exhaustively evaluate the world's most popular theme park attractions to determine if they are world class. I'm Ryan Bergara. I'm Byron Morin. And today we are going to be going over our grand... coaster tour. We are going to be going over each of the parks that we went to in their own episode, but this is much like a trip report, if you will. We've done kind of episodes like this where we've gone over media events and stuff like that. When I was out on the prowl for content to consume myself, I always liked when people did trip reports, especially back in the Mice Age Forum days. Speaker 2 (1:55) That's Speaker 3 (1:55) what Speaker 2 (1:55) we're going to be doing. We're just going to be recapping the entire trip. In short summary, Just in case, if you're not interested in any of these parks, you don't want to know about any of these parks. We landed in Cleveland and we did Cedar Point. We worked our way down to the Mason, Ohio area for Kings Island, then to Dollywood and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and then eventually over to Carowinds over on the border of North and South Carolina before flying back out of Charlotte. The span of roughly five days did four parks. And that's kind of what we'll be covering today. Not in like extreme detail off each part, but just kind of going over the whole trip and what that whole experience was like. That's correct. But Speaker 3 (2:33) if you want to know what the hell we were talking about at the beginning, we got a coaster cut out of Steel Vengeance, which, spoiler alert, might be my favorite roller coaster in the world now. I bought a shirt. I don't know if it was my favorite ride, like my favorite on-ride experience of the trip as a whole. And I did get a shirt of that on eBay. I'm not sure if... We did do a top five. You know, I'm not going to get, I'm not, I don't want to spoil too much, but there, there were, this trip was amazing. We had been wanting to do this trip for a very, very long time. And I just can't stop staring at this coaster cutout. That's destroyed. Speaker 2 (3:09) I'm going to get a shot of this because I don't, I don't trust punching in that much on the wide shot. It's really, really bad. You're going to see Ryan's bare legs here. That's right. And on the foreground, we do have. The Steel of Vengeance. Here are the two... The Steel of Vengeance. At least the wheel assemblies on one side look like they work. Yeah, but they look... It's all fucked up and slanted. I fucking broke them. I fucking broke them. I Speaker 3 (3:32) mean, look, he was trying to get a tighter fit on one of these things, and I was like, just careful on the push. And then I just heard this snap and a Darth Vader no come out of Byron. Speaker 2 (3:43) No! Speaker 2 (3:46) It was Speaker 3 (3:47) really... We started sweating making this. It was like, we thought this will take us five minutes and it took almost an hour. And it broke at the end. Speaker 2 (3:58) Yeah, this is so us. What are you going to do? But, you know, to you coaster heads out there that have successfully built these things, they do look extremely authentic. Look, I thought they looked really cool. They look... Great, I you know maybe you're better at building the stuff than we are I mean, Speaker 3 (4:14) I think that's highly possible. They probably have more patience Wow We were supposed to Chris. We're there. We're so Speaker 2 (4:22) you guys we were about to shoot an hour ago And Just on the floor Do Speaker 3 (4:34) mice on a glass of milk and killed themselves Speaker 2 (4:39) They couldn't build a coaster cutout. Speaker 3 (4:41) Upstop wheels. It's really rough, dude. We can't let this derail the podcast. We've already derailed a coaster cutout. Speaker 2 (4:52) Yeah, we did RMC, A Great Injustice. Yeah. They don't do that in Speaker 3 (4:57) real life. But where do we start on this? Because we're also going to be cutting in video clips and audio bites from the trip. It really was a magical trip. But why don't we start at the top here with the inception or the conception of this trip? Speaker 2 (5:09) Well. It was two days after the live show. Well, Speaker 3 (5:13) I mean, even before that, like we had been wanting to go on this trip for. Oh, Speaker 2 (5:17) for sure. I've wanted to go to Cedar Point since I was like 10 years old. Yeah. So why don't Speaker 1 (5:22) you Speaker 2 (5:22) talk, speak on that a little bit? Okay. Well, I wanted to go to Cedar Point since I was 10 years old. Back when I was like watching all the Discovery and Travel Channel documentaries as a kid, I would get dropped off at my grandma's house. perhaps even younger than 10. And, you know, this is during the time you don't have like internet or anything like that or smartphones or lily pads for the kiddos. And so I would watch either the Twilight Zone or Discovery Channel or Travel Channel. And then they'd have like these Samantha Brown travel series that were on. And that's like really kind of what hooked me into the nitty gritty of these regional parks that were not Disney. Speaker 3 (6:00) So Speaker 2 (6:01) you'd get a lot. I remember seeing early coverage of Raptor, which was a coaster we went on Cedar Point. Millennium Force was a huge one that opened in 2000. So yeah, Cedar Point had been on my radar as a little kid, but it just, what can I say? Ohio. Speaker 2 (6:18) is it's just not a place I've ever been to. You've been able to go for like the ghost shows and whatnot. I've been Speaker 3 (6:23) in Ohio plenty of times for Ghost Files or Buzzfeed Unsolved back in the day. So Ohio and I are very familiar with each other. And Speaker 2 (6:29) as a kid, I wasn't planning the vacations. So when we did trips to any sort of park with our family, it was going to be Disney World. Makes sense, yeah. And then in my adult life, it wasn't like I was going to be like, hey, buddy, do you want to go to Sandusky, Ohio? Speaker 3 (6:44) I guess that's true, yeah. And ride these roller Speaker 2 (6:45) coasters because every average folk is like, Like we have Magic Mountain right here. That is true. But Speaker 3 (6:51) it's not, it's Magic Mountain is one of the best collections of roller coasters, but it doesn't have the best coasters. I mean, I guess X2 would be up in a lot of people's top five. Speaker 2 (7:00) When we started this show, once again, I was in a situation, and there was a couple of years actually where I even booked flights to Cleveland. I Speaker 3 (7:07) do remember that. Speaker 2 (7:07) And then for example. Top Thrill 2 didn't open the season that it was supposed to, or I guess it, I think it very briefly did. And then they shut it down for the rest of the season. This was last year. So I actually had flights with my brother to Cleveland. with the intention of going to cedar point finally yeah only to be like well a top thrill two's not open like let's wait and i also really wanted to go with you well Speaker 3 (7:30) there was also a chance that i my shooting schedule for ghost files or my tour for ghost files was going to line up and be in the ohio area so like there was a possibility that i could join you guys for that but all in all we've had a couple different times where we either were going to do this byron in one case like you mentioned did book flights then had didn't Speaker 2 (7:50) cancel them and Speaker 3 (7:50) then uh my wife and i uh had the news that she was pregnant and that we were gonna have a kid this year and then as the year went on it just became more and more apparent to me that if i was going to get all of these parks in the rolodex and they'd always been on my radar especially a place like cedar point even me i'm not a coaster head but like it was known that that is coaster mecca um I had to make my way out to these parks before this baby was born, because once the baby's born, it's going to be a little harder to travel, at least in that first year. And I didn't want to wait a whole nother year to not be able to talk about all these rides. And, you know, now having done the trip, Cedar Point. We Speaker 2 (8:29) can all thank Ryan's unborn child. At Kings Island, Carowinds, Speaker 3 (8:33) Dollywood, all four of these places. I mean, the vast amount of rides that we can now cover for this show, including like. Things like adding them in top five episodes, but also just like reviewing each of the parks as a whole. I'm just so stoked that we did this. Also, just the Speaker 2 (8:51) amount of rides that have been taunting me for so many years. Yeah, yeah. I mean, gosh, I haven't heard about the Beast since I was a little kid, too. Yeah, that green goblin mask. I even read the, I think R.L. Stine wrote this. I think it was R.L. Stine. In elementary school, I wrote. Goosebumps guy, right? Yeah, yeah. He wrote a book called The Beast based off. kings islands the beast i read it in elementary school yeah i did not know Speaker 3 (9:15) that so Speaker 2 (9:16) that was when i first learned of the beast and then i'd heard about the whole like you know once again the doc like the specials covering the beast were a big thing back in the day even though it was built like i believe in the 70s that's Speaker 3 (9:28) cool so Speaker 2 (9:28) once again another coaster that's been on my radar for the majority of my lifespan Speaker 2 (9:35) It was really cool to finally get to experience a lot of this stuff. Speaker 3 (9:38) Everything aligned. Byron sent me a five-day itinerary that he drafted up for four parks, five days, four states. Speaker 2 (9:47) Well, Carowinds was kind of like the last second add-on because I realized that, well, we have to drive, what, eight hours to get back to Cleveland at the end? I'm like, well, I mean, Charlotte's more like three hours away from Dollywood. So it just made way more sense to... dropped the rental car off there. And the flights were way cheaper back from Charlotte than Cleveland for whatever reason. So it was an easy sell, luckily. I mean, look. And Fury 325, come on. It Speaker 3 (10:14) was an insane itinerary, but it was totally doable for us. And we put on our best walking shoes and we flew out from LAX. I believe we flew out from LAX at what time? We Speaker 2 (10:24) flew out at 9.30 a.m. on Wednesday, a couple days after our... Well, actually, it was a few days removed from our live show. Yeah, because our live show was the Saturday prior. We really had no time to slow down because we finished the live show on the 29th. Yes. And then we shot some episodes. Correct. I believe Monday and Tuesday. Yeah. And then the flight was Wednesday. That was essentially a travel day. So we didn't do any park. I Speaker 3 (10:52) mean, let's be honest. If we had tickets to, if Cedar Point was open that night and we had tickets, we would have went to the park. Cedar Speaker 2 (10:58) Point, yeah. Oh, 100 % because we were staying at Hotel Breakers. Yes. Which was really cool. And once again, the convenience of being there. But unfortunately, especially since we're kind of out of the prime time or the prime season. Yeah. For a lot of these parks, you're kind of at the mercy of them being, well, either reduced in hours or just not open at all during the weekdays. Luckily, Cedar Point was open on Thursday and even Wednesday, the day we got there. But when you land at 6.30 p.m. and the park closes at 8 p.m. and it's still over an hour drive away from the Cleveland airport, there's just no way. So Speaker 3 (11:35) we fly into Cleveland and then we drive over. to, I guess, what, Sandusky? Sandusky, Ohio. And on the road over, pick up some whiskey. Yeah, and some cold ones. Well, picked up some beer, some whiskey. Harder to find whiskey in Ohio than I thought it was going to be, or just hard liquor. Got some barrel-strength whiskey. It was very delicious. Some barrel-strength Angel's Envy, not sponsored. This stuff is battery acid, by the way. You really got it. I've had some barrel strength whiskey before where it's like, oh, you could barely even taste the upage in percentage. You tasted every percent here. It's an A to B move. It's definitely, it's definitely a get you there kind of drink. Drive over. Lovely drive. Speaker 2 (12:13) Yeah. Sunset hour. It was completely dark by the time we made it. Yeah. To the point. Speaker 3 (12:19) Damn, that water. There it is. Speaker 2 (12:25) Fuck yeah, dude. Just sitting on that water, looking beautiful. Speaker 3 (12:28) Now, that was another thing. I really did everything I could to not look into any of these parks so that I could be completely surprised, which was a battle for me. And you could chime off in the comments about this, but I'm always torn when I go to a brand new park of... Do I do all the prerequisite research so I could navigate the park like a pro and know the logistics and not fall into the tourist traps and things like that? Or do I really want to experience it with fresh eyes and get all the surprises, not know what the layout is, not know what the design looks like? Speaker 3 (13:04) I usually, when I'm going on a trip with my wife, I will look into the logistics. But for this trip, Byron was like, should we game plan this? And I was like, honestly, I don't really know if I want to game plan. He's like, okay, I'll game plan. And I was like, fuck yeah, I could just be a passenger princess this entire time. So I didn't know anything for any of these parks. And all four of them were parks I had not been to. Byron had already been to Dollywood and Carowinds. For me, this was a brand new experience for all four parks. Cedar Point, this is embarrassing. I had no idea it was called Cedar Point because it was on the point of a peninsula. I had no idea. I thought, so I'm so Magic Mountain coded that, you know, Six Flags, Magic Mountain, great coasters, but it's very much in the middle of a parking lot surrounded by desert. Not a lot going on as far as scenery goes. And I just assumed, because I've been to Ohio before, that it was going to be kind of like that. Like, I wasn't thinking. tropical vibes for Cedar Point. But when we got there, it was incredibly humid, almost Florida-like weather, but it was also on the edge of this peninsula. So when we got to Cedar Point, to Hotel Breakers, as we were driving down that bridge that goes to the end of the peninsula, I was so confused by what was happening and so delighted to see that, oh my God, this is basically almost like a boardwalk, like a beach, like the world's greatest boardwalk. And so I was stoked about that. And then Hotel Breakers heavily plays into the beach theme. It has this kind of like old, almost like what California Adventure Buena Vista Street is going for kind of aesthetic to it. Very old hotel. Very beautiful. Could even fit in like a Hollywood Tower Hotel kind of vibe. Hotel Breakers, by the way, also was something that you were aware of. I was not. So what were your preconceived notions going into Hotel Breakers? Speaker 2 (14:58) Not a whole lot. Just like it was. Kind of the move just for convenience. And it's great that if you, I guess you've, if you stay at a Cedar point hotel, you get in an hour early. And Speaker 3 (15:09) this was how much a night for us. It was like three. We got Speaker 2 (15:11) it around like two 60 or something. I mean, I, it's not always that price. We were, since we were staying on a Wednesday and Thursday night, it was a bitch a bit cheaper. So I think I found a decent deal on Expedia. I did upgrade us to the balcony. Which was only like, I think it was only a total of $40 more for the two nights to have the balcony. By Speaker 3 (15:33) the way, that balcony had like this bug net on the outside of it. You Speaker 2 (15:36) have Speaker 3 (15:36) to, yeah. Which is awesome. Yeah, Speaker 2 (15:38) there's a lot of bugs out there. Speaker 3 (15:39) You're going to eat it alive if you didn't have that. But like we were able to enjoy some whiskey on this balcony. It was just great. Like there's nothing like the first night of a trip, especially if. You're forced to not go to a park that night and you just have to check into the hotel. You unpack your bags. Byron, because he's a weirdo, puts Speaker 2 (15:57) all his clothes in the drawers. If you're staying multiple nights. Speaker 3 (16:01) I'm not a put my clothes in drawers kind of guy. Why Speaker 2 (16:04) else are they there? Speaker 3 (16:05) I don't know. For people like you. If Speaker 2 (16:07) it's one night, I don't do it. Yeah. Even two nights, I'm like, maybe. We were there for two nights. Yeah. Which is why they ended up in Speaker 3 (16:15) the drawers. Speaker 2 (16:15) Which is why they ended up in... I think you even said... But Speaker 3 (16:17) sometimes Speaker 2 (16:17) it's like a 50. Sometimes two nights I'm on the fence. You even Speaker 3 (16:19) sang your little I'm putting my clothes in drawers song. You're like, oh, I get to put my clothes in drawers. Is that how it went? Yeah. You do a little hum every now and then. No, actually, you did your noise. When Byron gets really excited, he does this noise when he goes, oh, Speaker 2 (16:32) yeah. Speaker 3 (16:35) And he was doing that as he was folding his clothes and putting them into the drawers. And I was like, mine are going to stay messy in my suitcase. They weren't folded to begin with. I really was excited about Hotel Breakers as Byron was telling me about it when we were driving up because he had mentioned like, okay, if we're going to do Cedar Point, you want the full Cedar Point experience. You got to do Hotel Breakers. Yeah, Speaker 2 (16:53) I Speaker 3 (16:53) want Speaker 2 (16:53) to be right there on the shore of Lake Erie. Which Speaker 3 (16:55) has a park entrance dedicated, much like California Ventures Grand Californian or Helios at Epic Universe. This is kind of like the coaster. park version of that, the regional theme park version of a Grand Californian. And I think that price point, I mean, you know, still pricey, $260 a night is still like a pretty decent priced hotel. But when you compare it to Grand Californian, which is $800 a night. On a good day. It's, you know, kind of, it feels like a deal. But the biggest surprise about this hotel. Speaker 2 (17:27) Oh, yeah. I was going to say, how in-depth do we want to go here? Because I know Ryan immediately discovered. That there's a hibachi restaurant right next to the lobby. To the check-in desk. Speaker 3 (17:38) They got a hibachi restaurant here. Let's go. You could toss a stone and hit the hibachi grill from the check-in desk. Like we were at, we walked in, first drop, beautiful lobby. Incredible. lobby there's a second floor in the lobby that has like a balcony all around like a square kind of like overlook into the lobby a Speaker 2 (17:57) lot of historical photos and they have Speaker 3 (17:58) photos like basically like a walking museum kind of thing in hotel breakers and then Speaker 2 (18:02) like god with the checkout desk they they have like a an old school portrait or like photo yeah of i think it was either late 1800s or early 1900s like the earliest days sure yeah of the point and that was really neat and it really makes you feel like you're like stepping into history you're like you're you're you're coming in for a collective like awesome amusement park experience and Speaker 3 (18:23) to be clear we were not we were we were not hosted at this hotel no Speaker 2 (18:26) no no like i said i booked this on expedia Speaker 3 (18:28) expedia.com and we are not sponsored by expedia either Speaker 2 (18:32) i'm Speaker 3 (18:32) just i'm Speaker 2 (18:33) just you know you know who we are sponsored by coaster cutout 3d Speaker 3 (18:38) No, we aren't because there's no way we would show this on the set if we were. Look, it looks fucking ridiculous. Yeah. You know what? We would show it if we were sponsored by them. They would just ask for their money back probably. But either way, we walk into the lobby and I get caught up by looking at all the photos. And as I'm panning around the room, I see what looks to be a hibachi restaurant. And I was like, there's no way. Because I thought, okay, this is the hotel you have to stay at when you go to Cedar Point, if you're lucky, right? Otherwise, you could holiday in it. I've stayed at more holiday inns Speaker 2 (19:10) in Speaker 3 (19:10) my life than any other hotel. Fuck it. I stayed Speaker 2 (19:12) at a Speaker 3 (19:12) lot of holiday inns, folks. I stayed a lot. I'm probably there at least five to ten times per year. Anyways. I bet those blacklight Speaker 2 (19:22) checks are, like, awesome. Speaker 3 (19:23) I don't even. You know what? I like the holiday inn. I've said it. They don't sponsor. anything we do but for unsolved damn well Speaker 2 (19:33) should Speaker 3 (19:34) unsolved and ghost files i've stayed almost exclusively at holiday inns and never really had a problem except for one and that one was really bad but other than that it's a pretty good success rate then right but the one that was bad was Speaker 2 (19:45) really really bad like Speaker 3 (19:47) really really bad like this is the one i was telling you about about the the bloody towels and the boogers I told you about this, right? I was taking a shower. Boogers is just always a funny word. There was four piles of towels, you know, like they have the folded towels outside of the shower on like the little rack. And I was like, oh, great. Nice hot shower. Pull out a towel, open it up. Blood. Dried blood. I was like, hmm. Open up Speaker 2 (20:10) the Speaker 3 (20:10) next one. Blood. Open up the next one. Speaker 1 (20:13) Blood. Speaker 3 (20:15) Oh my God. And then the last one, boogers. Boogers inside. Dried boogers. And it almost to the point where I was like, these... Who fucking like they must hate. They must hate BuzzFeed Unsolved or because this was a BuzzFeed Unsolved trip back in the day. Anyways, that's a fun Speaker 2 (20:31) review. Two words, boogers and blood, Speaker 3 (20:32) boogers and blood B &B. This is an Airbnb that there's boogers and blood and not a lot of air to breathe. But I was saying that like a hibachi restaurant. So this is the place you're supposed to stay at. I imagine people also stay off property because Speaker 2 (20:47) I'd heard. coaster heads or like theme park yeah like vloggers talk about hotel breakers i had it the like hotel breakers like that's like see i had not heard that that's the spot and like there's a tgi fridays how could that's the Speaker 3 (21:02) spot you and that's what Speaker 2 (21:03) i'm saying like i think we operate differently ryan because crazy i had no idea there was a hibachi dude i feel the point but i had heard there's a tgi friday doesn't Speaker 3 (21:13) get me that doesn't move Speaker 2 (21:14) me and Speaker 3 (21:15) fridays Speaker 2 (21:15) yeah we were doing Backflips of Speaker 3 (21:18) excitement. I took a video of it and sent it to my wife immediately. And I was like, you'll never guess what is in the hotel lobby. I remember one time we checked into a holiday in Washington, D.C. And in the lobby was a Johnny Rockets. And I thought that was crazy. Just because I've never really seen like a chain restaurant in a lobby. The Hotel Breakers is exclusively like chain restaurants for the most part. Because even Speaker 2 (21:41) the hibachi restaurant is a chain. Speaker 3 (21:43) I forgot what the name Speaker 2 (21:43) of it was. Speaker 3 (21:44) It starts with a T. It doesn't matter. The Ohio folk, they know. I'm agnostic when it comes to any sort of like branding or chains for hibachi. If it's not Speaker 2 (21:54) Benihana, we don't know. I don't give a shit. If there's a nice cool table where they Speaker 3 (21:59) could, you know, make like a fucking onion train, I'm all in. But I had not heard much about this hibachi grill. And I would have thought like. Surely, if other creators and people are staying here, like people would be doing backflips about there being a hibachi grill. You mean to tell me I could get on coasters all day, just mainlining coasters, and then I get to wash it all down with hibachi? That's like an experience that truly has really only been reserved for Tepanedo over in Epcot. Speaker 2 (22:27) Speaking of Tepanedo. I do not like the slander that I occasionally hear from Disney World heads that bring up Tepaneto or Tepanito as this restaurant that you don't need to go to because, oh, it's just a hibachi restaurant. You can get a hibachi restaurant anywhere. It's like. Well, what are like, so you're like, oh my God, don't eat the chicken tenders in the park because there's raising canes down your local, like in your local neighborhood. Whatever, dude. Like, teppanado is like perfect for a theme Speaker 3 (22:52) park vibe. Speaker 2 (22:52) Go eat your Speaker 3 (22:53) overpriced steak at Le Cellier. I don't care. Hey, I fucking love Le Cellier. I wouldn't, I would, I would, if you had, if I got to choose between teppanado and Le Cellier, I'm choosing teppanado 10 times out of 10. I Speaker 2 (23:03) mean, if I have enough days at Epcot, I'm definitely doing both, but. If I had to choose. Because that poutine at Le Cellier. And I'm a ribeye slut. I'm not going to lie. I fucking love a steak. Either way. This is a really compelling theme park podcast. No, it is. I think Speaker 3 (23:19) this is like part of the trip. You want to know what the food is around. Hibachi's so nice. We did it twice on this trip. We did. We hated it. Back to back nights. We Speaker 2 (23:26) hated Speaker 3 (23:26) it back to back nights. Both nights. Speaker 2 (23:28) Because what. Well, we came back and like, if we're going to use that Teppanetto logic, what, we're going to go to TGI Fridays? No, why would I do that? No, we're going to do hibachi twice. I did steak and shrimp the Speaker 3 (23:37) first night and I did chicken and shrimp the second night. It was really good. Both nights, very delicious, seeded very fast, which you can't say for Benihana. And they fucking blast sake in your mouth. Oh my Speaker 2 (23:47) God, you're right. We were hammered. I forgot about that. We got fucking hammered. More on that in Speaker 3 (23:52) a Speaker 2 (23:52) second. Speaker 3 (23:55) Oh, there was also two other Cedar Point hotels that we saw driving in. There was the Cedar Point, like it looked like their budget version. And then there was one that looked like mid-tier that was like on the bay of like, and that one looked really cool. Speaker 2 (24:07) And Speaker 3 (24:07) these are all on the peninsula. But Breakers is the only one that you could use to actually walk into the park. Has its own dedicated entrance. And as Byron says, one hour. early entry what i Speaker 2 (24:17) from what i've gathered though it seems like all the cedar point run hotels you get the hour you get the hour but Speaker 3 (24:22) you'd have Speaker 2 (24:22) to get make your way over there at hotel breakers you enter near where magnum xl 200 is your favorite roller coaster we'll get that we'll get to that one day anyways it's kind of in the middle of like the park near also where top thrill 2 is sure so it's not anywhere near the front gate yeah Speaker 3 (24:40) but Speaker 2 (24:41) if you want to rope drop top thrill 2 hotel breakers Fucking awesome. By Speaker 3 (24:45) the way, another thing, the drive up to this, I was telling Byron, and I think we have a clip of me saying this in the car. You could make an argument that Cedar Point may be the best bubble, like in the game. Dude, Speaker 2 (24:58) the approach is fucking awesome. The approach is top Speaker 3 (25:00) tier. It's Speaker 2 (25:01) a Speaker 3 (25:01) top, if not the best approach in all of theme parks. Once you see that big Cedar Point signage that's at the end of the peninsula and you're now on the peninsula, it is just all... About the coasters. You see the coaster skyline. You're driving over the beautiful water. It's just nothing but you and the resort. There's nothing else to even distract you. Do Speaker 2 (25:22) you know what inspired the term approach for me? What? Your favorite park, the Magic Kingdom. Why Speaker 3 (25:28) is that? Speaker 2 (25:28) My favorite thing about that park is the approach. I think that's what sets it apart from any other theme park. I would like to hear this argument. The parking lot is so far removed from the park itself. So you have to take either a monorail or a ferry, but the anticipation that it builds up leading to the Magic Kingdom. Everything about approaching the Magic Kingdom to me feels special. Honestly, more special than... almost everything else in that park for me it's still a great park like if i'm gonna give magic kingdom like one big point is that it doesn't have anaheim hovering around disneyland doesn't Speaker 3 (26:01) have a bubble disneyland you have people like trying to get you to take pictures of the parrot right outside harbor boulevard Speaker 2 (26:07) but for like them having the foresight of that in the 70s and pulling out i think it's one of the most special things about magic kingdom the approach but Now back over. You have to do all the transportation center bullshit, though. Oh, whatever. Dude, Speaker 3 (26:20) there's Speaker 2 (26:20) logistics. Speaker 3 (26:21) I get Speaker 2 (26:21) it. Like, as a local, if you're always going to Magic Kingdom, that would be fucking annoying. Yeah. Speaker 3 (26:26) It's annoying. It's annoying. But for me, Speaker 2 (26:27) every time I go, I fucking love the approach to Magic Kingdom. I'm like, I have to get on how Speaker 3 (26:31) many different forms of transportation? Oh, I love that shit, dude. That's annoying. Speaker 2 (26:35) I Speaker 3 (26:35) fucking love it. I think it's incredibly annoying. Speaker 2 (26:37) But anyways, the approach at Cedar Point, also amazing. Probably the most epic approach for, let's say, an amusement park. Sure. Yeah, Speaker 3 (26:45) because we're talking amusement parks, which would be like the four that we've... Oh, Dollywood's theme park, but Cedar Point, Carowinds, and Kings Island, all in the amusement park category, I would say. Speaker 2 (26:55) Because once again, just... Speaker 3 (26:56) Without that, and that's not like derogatory, by the way. That's just like they're Speaker 2 (26:59) both trying to do different things. Cedar Point is just completely separate. from the rest of Ohio in a way, just because it's on that peninsula. You have to drive over a bridge basically to get to it. Speaker 3 (27:09) It's a resort though. That's what's crazy. In terms of amusement parks, there's no other amusement park that has a resort feel. It's Speaker 2 (27:16) on the water. It lures you in with that incredible roller coaster skyline. I Speaker 3 (27:20) don't know if this approach can be beat because look at, you see this reveal of the park at the end of the peninsula. That shoots off to the side of the shore. Speaker 2 (27:30) No, it's kind of like when you like approach like New York City or something for the first time and you see all these skyscrapers and you're just in awe. Speaker 3 (27:37) Or when you're making that trip to Vegas, you're driving from LA. Oh, yes. You could see all of the lights in the distance when you're on the freeway. It's a very exciting feeling. You Speaker 2 (27:47) get briefly duped by Prim, rest in peace, essentially. Yeah, Speaker 3 (27:50) Prim. Speaker 2 (27:50) That's right. And then 40 miles later, it's like, ooh, there it is. That's the real- That's the carcass of Buffalo Bill. Speaker 3 (27:54) It was a very, very nice approach. And one thing that struck both of us as we were driving up was just the size of this resort. Not only the three hotels, but just the actual park. gates themselves like we when you get in to get to hotel breakers or even get to the to the parking lot you basically have to drive around the perimeter of the park oh Speaker 2 (28:14) this is so cool wow Speaker 3 (28:22) that is a unit holy moly and this place is huge and you are just like right next to these roller coasters from the outside like it gets you so excited Speaker 2 (28:32) oh my god dude i'm getting so Speaker 3 (28:35) excited Speaker 2 (28:35) that's Speaker 3 (28:37) my the number one i'm most excited to get on that Speaker 2 (28:39) was fucking crazy for me just because i had known about these coasters for so and you were seeing them right here and like finally seeing it there like this is that it feels Speaker 3 (28:48) like it felt like a Speaker 2 (28:49) dream Speaker 3 (28:49) no that was really cool as like your friend to watch byron light up seeing these coasters and and i have him say like yeah like what he just said i've been watching these on travel channel and since i'm looking at pictures of these online and now to see them in person for the first time that's probably cooler than you know just not knowing any of them exist. That like, I was walking completely blind and driving under Magnum XL to get to Hotel Breakers. Like you go under like the supports and everything. Speaker 2 (29:17) Wait, is that a fucking coaster right there? This is the original. Holy shit, dude. This is where Speaker 3 (29:22) the hypercoaster got its name, Magnum XL 200. That's so cool that you get to go under the lift hill. Speaker 2 (29:27) This is where we're going to enter tomorrow morning. Speaker 3 (29:29) Dude, that rules. Hotel Speaker 2 (29:31) entrance. Speaker 3 (29:32) Because there's early entry, right? Speaker 2 (29:35) Yeah. Dude, I'm fucking so stoked. It Speaker 3 (29:37) feels like the whole layout of it all is made to celebrate this coaster culture and to get you excited. Speaker 2 (29:45) It feels like... You have made it to the Mecca of roller coasters. Now Speaker 3 (29:50) imagine all that and then checking in and singing hibachi. Singing a hibachi grill that was still open because we got there at nine like we closed at ten. Oh yeah. Speaker 2 (29:57) We could not wait to go plop our stuff into the hotel room and get down there. Yeah. Took a big squiggle whiskey, walked back down. Yeah, that is true. Speaker 3 (30:03) And then had a great dinner. A little bit of foreshadowing here. We noticed when you were at the dinner. The table next to us, I just assumed it was some sort of birthday party or something. But we saw the sushi chef pull out a pistol, a water pistol. And the pistol was full of sake. And he was shooting it at high velocity, I'll say, right into these people's mouths. for a long time until they called on goal essentially. And I remember thinking, I'm not doing that. Speaker 2 (30:30) I think you stepped outside for a minute. I went to the bathroom. Because the pistol came around our table. And you said you had done it. I didn't know it was sake. I didn't know that was a thing you were allowed to do, to be honest. Did Speaker 3 (30:42) he ID Speaker 2 (30:43) you before he shot sake into your mouth? No, that's why I thought like, yeah, there was... So he was just going around with this thing. It's the one place Speaker 3 (30:49) we Speaker 2 (30:49) didn't Speaker 3 (30:49) get ID'd. Speaker 2 (30:50) And I was thinking maybe it was just like a bit. So... I was like, yeah, fire it up. Here we go. And it's just hitting the fucking back of your throat. Yeah. My kind of Friday night. Sure. Sure. Exactly. And like about like five to seven seconds of just like, like, fuck. Yeah. I start to realize, oh, this isn't fucking water. This is fucking sake. And it was like 10 seconds in at that point of gulping down. And yeah, Speaker 3 (31:16) you're pretty drunk. So we finished this delicious meal, go into the pool at night, which closes, by the way, at 11. So sick. Which is important because the park closes at 8, which means if you don't want to go back to the hotel to get some pool time in because you want to keep coastering, you could do coasters all day, clock back into, you know, Hotel Breakers, and then immediately hit the pool after some hibachi. You know, nice and, like, rotund after your steak and shrimp. And it was lovely. Like, just like the, you could hear. Like the ambiance, like the critters outside. Speaker 2 (31:51) Eventually thunderstorms. Thunderstorms. Which Speaker 3 (31:53) may Speaker 2 (31:53) have had a bearing on this trip. Well, Speaker 3 (31:55) when we were watching these this night, we were like, oh, this is glorious. Speaker 2 (31:58) Yeah, but also we started joking about, hey, this is also what we said when we were in Fort Lauderdale before the Disney Destiny. Speaker 3 (32:05) Precoaster lightning storm. That's a good omen, right? Speaker 2 (32:08) This is the second Speaker 1 (32:09) time in less than a year that this has happened to us. Speaker 2 (32:12) The night Speaker 1 (32:13) we got into a place. Speaker 2 (32:14) Yeah, Speaker 3 (32:14) but Speaker 2 (32:15) the last time we were on a boat Speaker 3 (32:16) and the boat did in Titanic, Speaker 2 (32:17) so. That also Speaker 3 (32:18) had Speaker 2 (32:18) a bearing on that Speaker 3 (32:19) trip. It did. And it really did on