This week it's just Allison and her good friend John Mike, who has grown up going to Holiday World, coming at you with another park deep dive! We talk about all the things we love about Holiday World, where it might be headed next, the marketing sensation that is Good Gravy!, the park's holiday theming, and more. Plus, a quick recap of Allison's trip to the Golden Ticket Awards at Carowinds! Jungle Jike's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junglejikes/
September means it's officially spooky season!! (Unless you're Disney, then it's August.) But, we're joined by our friend Kelli—who knows way more about HHN than all of us combined—to talk all things spooky season at parks! What makes a good park halloween events, what events we've been to, and those little creative touches that make a huge difference in the guest experience. Plus a couple trips recaps, a couple rants, a roast of an opening, and more! Thrill Chills and Spills Podcast: tinyurl.com/TCASSpotify [https://l.instagram.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2FTCASSpotify%3Ffbclid%3DPAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAacFYn0UTxvqvT6w_BLjY53YyTxo2VYxUFjp3-0cBW4zd9BFo77gN2RYFeKw8A_aem_ixfw8vIA_sTTegOLl-690A&e=AT1GgnVuVVtRSME1Vl3ayBt--icPO043qFDAtATZHZrLnz5FYNi1deF8l4952rkgMLVhYFOzbKsaK8Ko-1Vmj0OqH9RkH6fgdxduiG5PGw]
We had such a blast talking with our friend Airtime Myke! He has his hands in a bunch of difference creative coaster outlets, and we covered them all in our chat! We have a few trip recaps across the board, Myke talks Japan and his first true international travel experience, and we discuss Myke's YouTube origins, Coaster Cuzzies podcast, his pure love of freespins, and the start of the Blusiast coaster club. Check Myke out all over the place! https://www.instagram.com/airtime_myke/ https://www.instagram.com/coastercuzzies https://www.youtube.com/@ElToroRyan https://www.instagram.com/theblusiast
Now that we've all been there, we can finally have our first park deep dive on Phantasialand! **Spoilers abound if you don't want to know a lot of Phantasialand details!** We're joined by our good friend (and favorite British Canadian) Mikhile as we finish up a few Europe recap questions (Great Trip Recap Pt. 3-ish?), have another little trip recap, and then go into all the best parts about that bucket list German park, Phantasialand. Plus, find out why Allison wrote a note of "AKA no glasses and a random Dutch man" in her notes because she definitely doesn't remember why. Make sure you check out Mikhile on the Chain Dogs Podcast! https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChainDogsPodcast
The entire gang is back together again finally, with even more trip recaps! Bryant goes through his full Europe trip, including a stop at Energylandia and a long-awaited visit to the Coaster365 Zadra plaque. Plus he got an extra special surprise at Europa Park—Jenn! Jenn goes over her stops at Emerald Park and Schwaben Park, where she may have a new Talon at Dorney Park? We also answer so many listener questions about all of our European experiences and takes!
Bryant and Allison are both back from their big Europe trips, and there is so much to talk about!! (spoiler alert, Jenn surprised Bryant in Europe as well and she's still there, which is why this episode is only 2/3 of us.) They dive into Bryant's Colorado and Utah trip, Allison's full 10-parks-in-10-days Europe trip, and her NYC/NJ/east coast cred run trip. Oh, and her engagement?! Stay tuned, because Part Two will be Bryant's full Europe trip, and Jenn's surprise trip!
We were thrilled to talk to Mr. Richard Pretlow for the finale of our accessibility mini-series! Morgan's Wonderland focuses on accessibility and inclusion for individuals from all walks of life to enjoy a day at the theme park. We touch on the Morgan's properties mission, Richard's theme park history, the most rewarding and most challenging parts of a park like Morgan's, innovations and creativity in accessibility, and more. You can learn more about Morgan's Wonderland—as well as all of the properties on their campus—at https://morganswonderland.org/
We welcome Nate back to help us talk through our Accessibility Deep Dive! He tells us the background for his experience with accessibility at theme parks, and we talk what systems work best, where parks can improve, and what parks are seamlessly tackling creative accessibility so that every guest can enjoy their park as equally as possible. Check out Nate (and his brother!) on socials: https://www.youtube.com/@Coaster_Focus https://www.instagram.com/coaster_focus/
Welcome to the first of three episodes in our Accessibility Series, taking a look at creative, inclusive design at parks! We're joined by Katelyn, founder of Unleashed Access and experience service animal handler in the world of theme parks. Plus, more have-you-been-listening trivia, some trip recaps, and lots of puppy cameos because Allison refused to edit those out this time. Check out Unleashed Access! https://www.unleashedaccess.com/ https://www.instagram.com/unleashed_access/
We had a last minute change in plans, so on the fly we decided to talk about our summer trip plans! Bryant and Allison both have big Europe trips coming up, and Jenn just got back from her latest Europe trip. Take a listen to what bucket list parks we'll be able to talk more about later this year!
This interview gets really Inverted as we talk with Australian YouTuber Riley of That's So Mid!! SPOILER WARNING: We will be discussing the Season Finale of Riley's GeoGuessr Tournament!! Skip ahead to 4:19 if you don't want to know the results yet! Riley is a growing channel in the theme park world, and we have all had a blast watching his Mystery Wheel series and GeoGuessr Tournaments! He shares some of his trip stories, inspirations, and behind the scenes of his channel. Visit Riley on socials! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@THATSSOMID. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatssomid/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thatssomid_
We're time traveling, and not just on the extreme spinner trains! This episode's deep dive is all about the good, the bad, and finding the balance in both in terms of train design aesthetics and ergonomics. We battle a lot of tech issues that we hopefully edited out well enough (also Allison's audio kinda sucks for some reason), Allison went on multiple trips recently and talks about those for awhile, Jenn has some thoughts about an unexpected train design, and one listener (hi Alex!) wrote us a novel of a comment that none of us read in advance, naturally.
Who knew park layouts could be considered creative? We talk about some of the best and worst park layouts we've experienced, and why they left an impact on us. Lots of listener comments, plus Flash Vertical Velocity recaps from Jenn and Allison, Jenn's massive rant on a coaster she hasn't been on yet, Bryant's recovery milestone, and more!
It's been a while since we've had an interview, but this one was worth the wait because Gina's watercolor artwork is absolutely incredible!! Literally we spent half of the interview just scrolling through her art in awe. We talk with Gina about her artistic process and inspirations, how she got into using watercolor and expanding her craft, her exciting upcoming coaster trip, and seriously just go look at her Instagram page and see for yourself. Also - a few minor podcast tweaks, Bryant's ridiculous Sabrina Carpenter trivia revealed, a Coaster Madness update, and Allison did a whoopsie and now has a trip report. Go support Gina!! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gcartwork/ Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/GCArtWork
Queue lines are a necessary evil of this hobby...so we break down the best and worst ride queues, plus ways to make the experience better! What are the most innovative ways to improve the time spent in queue lines? We're also joined by our friend Ethan, who calls himself the Queuemeister. We're clearly opinionated on this topic because it's our longest episode yet...oops. Ethan's Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/boilercoasters/
It's Allison and Bryant's favorite time of year to collab...Coaster Madness is upon us! We're joined by Nathaniel (aka hawkvandelay), our new official Coaster Madness historian, to give a behind the scenes look at Bryant's annual Coaster Madness tournament. How does seeding work? What's the graphics process and how far behind is Allison on graphics this year?? (spoiler alert...she's very behind.) But more importantly...Bryant reveals every matchup of the 2025 bracket, with analysis and predictions from Nathaniel. Plus, Jenn is back, we have a couple extra cameos, finally some new trivia, and more! Coaster Madness starts on March 1 on Coaster365 socials! https://x.com/coaster365 https://www.instagram.com/coaster_365/ Nathaniel's socials: https://x.com/hawkvandelay https://www.instagram.com/hawkvandelay/
Jenn was busy in Orlando and Bryant was about to board a cruise, so we recorded a quick episode centered on roasting each others' Top 15 lists—blind! We didn't know each others' official rankings before getting into this, and we quickly learned...Allison is not good at roasting. We're joined by Mike with the Mullet to help give some (questionable) opinions on our lists!
We have a surprise first international guest for our latest deep dive! We're joined by our friend Joey, a Voltron ride op from Germany (and also Jenn's bf) to talk about color schemes on roller coasters! Bryant blindly gives us his Top Ten coaster paint jobs to discuss, and we go through SO many listener comments on what is everyone's favorite color scheme, what doesn't quite work, and what people would want to change.
Bring your appetite for this one! We are joined by our friend Alex (aka Rides and Bites) to talk about culinary experiences in the parks. We discuss creativity in culinary, some of the best meals we've ever had on a park visit, how food quality versus immersion and theming can impact a dining experience, and a quick trip recap from Alex! Go follow Alex on socials! X: https://x.com/ridesandbites Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ridesandbites_/
We're joined by analog coaster photographer Laurel for a talk about her unique theme park photography methods! And if you know Laurel, of course we talk a ton about Magnum XL-200. Plus recent trip recaps, more trivia, and of course our usual shenanigans! Follow Laurel on social media! https://www.instagram.com/thrills_on_film/ https://x.com/laurelxl200