Nothing says summer more than a trip to your favorite regional theme park. Whether with friends, family, or alone, a trip to a theme park can be either super expensive and tiring or a blast. So that’s why our friend from Theme Park Insider, Robert Niles, is BACK to help us all kick off summer on the right foot, spending money wisely on experiences that will be memorable and fun. Not only will he help you save some money, but he’ll also share tips on the hottest parks and attractions around the country. We’ll talk food (best food AND deals), thrill rides, family attractions, and more.
In our headline, OG and Joe dive into the exchange-traded fund (ETF) craze. People are pouring money into ETFs, but are they doing it wisely? In many cases, no. We’ll share how exchange traded funds work, which types are the best to choose from, and how to avoid getting caught investing in something that sounds great…but truly is not.
Of course, we’ll also share Doug’s trivia question about the biggest stock market drop of all time and FINALLY wrap up our 2024 “Joke Off.”
It’s another day of fun on the Stacking Benjamins show. As always, thanks to our sponsors, and enjoy another show where we’re ad-free the ENTIRE second half of the show (as always!).
Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Our Headlines
- Active ETFs are on a roll (InvestmentNews) – Questions we address: what are “active” ETFs and how are they different from “passive” funds. Which is better? Why are people switching?
Robert Niles
Big thanks to Robert Niles for joining us today. To learn more about Robert, visit www.robertniles.com/.
Keep up with everything theme park-related by visiting the #1 rated theme park website, Theme Park Insider.
Watch on our YouTube channel:
Doug’s Trivia
- The single sharpest one day drop in the S&P 500 occurred on October 19, 1987. What is that day known as?
Have a question for the show?
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Other Mentions
- Don’t miss the top-notch food at these 10 theme park restaurants (usatoday.com)
- Chinese zoo under fire after dyeing dogs to resemble pandas (nbcnews.com)
Join Us Wednesday
Tune in on Wednesday when we take a look at trends in the kitchen and give you some tips to reshape your wallet.
Written by: Kevin Bailey
Miss our last show? Listen here: Our 7 Rules of Happiness (SB1519).
Episode transcript
Guys, today I’m the one in a remote location recording, getting ready to meet people in Boston. But you boys, I see in the basement, are you playing nicely? You guys playing nicely together? – We’re playing.
- He keeps touching my stuff. – And Doug, why are you going through OG stuff when I’m not there? You know, leave the Doritos alone. – But he ate all of my Cheetos, the good crunchy ones too.
- All the crunchy ones are so good, OG. I’m with OG on that one. If you’re hoarding the crunchy ones. Speaking of the crunchy ones, you know what’s crunchy? you know what’s crunchy? When you spend a lot of money, When you spend a lot of money, there’s men and women out there cut off from the granola.
No idea they’re, they’re keeping us safe. So I think it’s high time that we raised a mug and salute these people keeping us safe so we can party all weekend on behalf of the men and women making podcast and mom’s basement,
the men and women at Navy Federal Credit. Union, look at that big salute to our troops to make the day go. Oh, look at even you got the Navy Federal. Oh, gee, is rocking. That is a great mug,
by the way. That is a great, fantastic, great mug. Yes. Yes. $1 ,500 a month. The mortgage gets you a free mug. What is rungle, Joe? Here’s to our yes.
A rungle rungle. My sister’s a rungle. Bye. by the way, for people listening to the audio podcast, it’s Run CLE. We’ll let everybody else butt -dug, figure out what that is. Here’s to our troops.
Hey, this is Joe’s sister, Nikki. I think I might be the only girl in the world who has a brother who spends his entire day in the basement pretending he has an internet radio show.
show. Live from Joe’s Mom’s Basement, it’s The Stacking Benjamin Show.
I’m Joe’s Mom’s Neighbor Doug. Today you’ll learn how to have fun with the whole family at Theme Parks this summer without breaking the bank from the man behind… theme park insider Robert Niles.
In our headline, actively managed ETFs are in the news. If you’re wondering, why would that be? We got you covered. Heck, we even got you covered if you’re wondering what’s active management mean or what the bippity bop is an ETF.
I mean, we got it all covered. Plus, we’ll answer a question from one stacker who thought, you know, I’d better call Saul. “Sea -hi and OG. “And then I’ll share some dark,
dark, dark trivia. “And now, here comes a guy named Joe “and a guy who’d make a great carny. “It’s Joe and OG -ge -ge -ge -ge.” (upbeat music) – I had to think about that one for a second,
Doug, ’cause that’s because the guy working, the tilt to world is always kind of surly? Just kind of– – And there’s that little hairy look in their eye, like you’re never really sure what’s coming next.
That’s OG all day long. – You don’t know. One of my favorite comedy bits is from Emo Phillips talking about the carnival. You remember that one, Doug? – I don’t. - He said, “So I was babysitting my nephew “while my sister went to the carnival.” you know, to look for the father. Happy Monday on the Stacky Benjamin show.
That joke works because we got Robert Niles here. Oh, gee, you know, it’s the start of summer. It’s the start of either a continuation of winter or the beginning of spring early of Puxitani Phil sees his shadow.
But you know, damn well, Robert Niles shows up in mom’s basement. Summer’s coming. We did our first Cedar Point trip last year with the boys And they are already Hankering to go again I was so inspired by you doing it last year that my sister and I are going to do Cedar Point this year Neither one of our families love that stuff,
but Nikki and I totally do so we’re like okay ditch the families It’s a sibling day at Cedar Point. I saw a video of the new. It’s a top thrill dragster,
too. Is that what it’s called? Yeah, yeah – I couldn’t, I mean, I want to go on that badly. That looks amazing. And I’m looking at all these comments online and everybody’s like, oh, hell no.
And I’m like, are you kidding me? That looks amazing. And I think I said that pretty accurately, but that looks amazing to me. – I think you did. – There was no part of that that I thought, oh, I don’t know. I thought I need,
that’s not fast enough. – Anybody who’s like, I got a comment on this, needs a hobby. Like, needs– to the knock. – Yeah. Robert, not only will take us on his usual tour of all the new fun happenings,
if you’re gonna go to a theme park this summer with a family, with friends, you better make it worth your money ’cause that can be an expensive day out. He’ll tell you when there are discounts and if there’s not discounts, how to plan better so you make it a great time.
I will see these families around 4 .30 in the afternoon where somebody’s having a meltdown and you’re like, could’ve maybe planned for that. It was OG. It was OG having the meltdown. His kids are like, one more ride and he’s like,
I’ve had enough. I’m done. I’m just going to sit there. Where’s the craft beer card? Yes. Should be great. But before that, we got a great headline. But before even that, we make this show free with the help of some great sponsors.
Let’s hear from them now. Robert Niles waiting in the wings. But first, a big headline. Hello, darlings. And now, it’s time for your favorite part of the show, our stacking Benjamin’s headlines.
Our headline today comes to us from investment news written by Emile Halas. Emile writes, OG, that, well, this is interesting. As money’s poured out of actively managed mutual funds industry -wide for most of the past decade,
investors have gravitated to another category that until recently was on the fridges. Active ETF. For eight of the past 10 years, investors pulled money from active mutual funds,
which have seen an average annual growth rate of negative 2 % during that time, data from Morningstar shows. As people favored the lower cost passive funds, there was a total of $1 .6 trillion in net redemptions from active mutual funds from 2022 to 2023,
showing that the decline of active mutual funds picking up steam. But since 2019, the number of active ETFs on the market has increased threefold with well over 1 ,000 products,
according to Morningstar has come. And now we’re seeing money come in $530 billion, OG, at the end of 2023. Pocket change to guys like you.
Yeah. Well, what’s $530 billion between friends? Yeah. Surrounding error. Isn’t it funny how people just replace the same thing with a different thing, and then call it better?
Same thing, but different. Yes. It is so, so, so, so, so sad. To start off this discussion, I want to pivot for just a second, oh, gee, because I have other news out of China,
which will make sense in just a second. This comes to us from NBC News, written by Larissa Gao. a zoo in China has been accused of trying to deceive visitors with a pair of dogs that they dye black and white and called them panda bears.
Video circulating on Chinese social media show, the two “panda dogs” in exhibit at the Taizhao Zoo in the eastern province of Jiangsu. I’m sure I pronounced both of those right.
Open on May 1st so the animals are patterned to look like pandas, which are endemic to China and international symbol that country. Their wagging tails give them away. They’re chow -chows, a fluffy dog bred originally Northern China.
Who’s going to know? No one’s going to know. The reason I bring this up, I feel like active ETFs, active ETFs are like, hey, these say ETFs. We just spray painted them to say ETF.
So isn’t this great? I mean, there’s some differences between mutual funds and ETFs. around taxes, and we’ve been trained to think that ETF means less expensive, although that’s not always the case.
It generally is, that’s most of the time. But people use the term ETF, and index, and index fund, and factor fund, and all that sort of stuff synonymously,
and that’s really not the case. You know, there’s only a handful of actual ETFs that are index -based and are trying to replicate the outcome of a specific index.
Just a handful of companies that do it well, and by well, it’s having low tracking error. The rest of all the other products, even from the companies that are index -based companies,
are some way, shape, or form active management. That doesn’t make it bad. I think I think you have to know what you’re getting yourself into. It’s the proverbial frying pan or fire type of thing when you’re looking at,
well, this active mutual fund is so awful, I’m gonna swap it out to this awesome ETF. And then you go, well, it’s the same thing. You know, maybe you saved a few bucks on the cost,
which would be a good idea. But if your main goal is to, you know, have some simplicity around your investing or… you believe, like, I think we’re trying to get people to believe in that it’s very difficult to predict outperformance in advance,
let me say that a different way, it’s impossible to predict outperformance in advance. And yet people keep on trying, it doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. It’s just generally is a pretty expensive gamble to see if you’re right most of the time.
And the question always is, is the juice we’re the squeeze and trying to predict that, or trying to be in that thing that’s the outperformance when in fact, just investing across all the different asset classes in a reasonable allocation based on your,
you know, your goals and your timeframes, trying to get a return that you need to reach your goals is a far better option, I should say, you know, than just throwing money into whatever’s hot right now.
There’s something on the news this morning. Guess what stock is going through the moon this morning. God say it’s Lumen. Please God be Lumen No,
you picked wrong guess again Guess again you’re gonna laugh when I tell you That it’s game stop.
Yeah. Wow Wow, if you want to gamble and go do that go do that man. Like that’s fun too. – If you miss the first wave. – But don’t try to have your retirement outcomes,
your kid’s college outcomes based on, you know, whether or not the wind blows this way or that way. – Well, let’s talk about that. – Take all the return of all the stocks. It’s just so much easier. – You did say a phrase though,
G, that I think that we want to dive into for our younger stackers. And by younger, I don’t mean younger age wise. I mean, you have been invested that long. You said you got to know what you’re getting into. It doesn’t make active ETFs bad.
You got to know what you’re getting into. What are we getting into when we get into actively managed ETFs? I think there’s two different ways to think about investing. One is that you have some ability to predict or you think you have some ability to predict what’s going to happen in the future,
whether that’s because and get better returns because of that. Because you think you’ve got a faster computer, you’ve got better intel about a specific industry,
you have smarter mathematicians on your team that can create better algorithms. There’s some sort of pitch that you have. And as an investor, you’re looking at that going,
I believe that that person is correct. And so you give them money and you see what happens, right? So that’s active management trying to outperform because of whatever reason. And then there’s index investing or passive investing is probably a better way to say it.
And that’s saying, I don’t know whether or not Coke or Procter & Gamble is going to do better next year. I don’t really care because I’m going to have, you know, I’m going to have both of them. I’m going to have Ford and GM.
I’m going to have Apple and Microsoft. And I don’t care if Apple does better than Microsoft or Microsoft does better than Google or Coke does better than Pepsi because I own them both. And I’m going to take the results of the overall economy as my investment return.
It takes so much anxiety out of your investing plan because you literally own one of everything and you go, “I don’t really care as long as the economy does good. I don’t have to drink Pepsi because that’s where my money is and I really like Coke.
You don’t have to pick that.” The reality is, is that most of the time, about 40 % of the time, active managers out the index that they’re tracking. So if you look at a company that or an investment firm that’s focused on large U .S.
companies, 4 out of 10 of them do better than the S &P every year. The problem is, is that just because they did better last year, there’s no evidence to suggest that that is a predictor for future outperformance.
So you go like, hey, they did it five years in a row. That’s awesome. That’s like having heads five times in a row. That doesn’t mean that the next time you’re likely to get heads. In fact, probably you’re more likely to get tails if you’ve had five in a row,
is what it feels like, right? But statistically, it’s still 50 -50. You know what I mean? Every time you flip a coin, it’s 50 -50. From an investment standpoint, that doesn’t mean you’re not going to outperform.
That doesn’t mean you’re not going to do better because there’s plenty of investors out there who go, “Look, I invested in this.” and it is better.” It’s just hard to predict it and use that information in advance and it costs extra money to do that.
Now, those costs are becoming less and less, which is good. But pound for pound, it’s just as easy to just go, “I’ll take the results of the overall economy versus the stress and anxiety and the extra dollars it costs to maybe outperform when in fact,
outperformance is not a financial objective.” Your goal when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when
you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the
morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up in the morning, or when you get up start January 1st and you’re looking at your financial plan, isn’t like, “Hmm, I really want to outperform this year.” What are we trying to do? We’re trying to invest money in a manner that allows us to get to the financial goals that we need.
And nowhere, and I’ve been doing this for 26 years, nobody I’ve ever talked to goes, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, “I don’t need to retire. “I don’t need to send my kids to college.” My goal is to outperform my neighbor. How do I do that?
(laughing) that’s my only goal. I want to beat you. That is all I want to do. – That’s all I care about. It’s like, no, no, you need money to reach your goals. And so as you work through that process of what is the goal?
How much do I have saved for it? What do I have available to save moving forward if for that goal, then you can solve for what kind of rate of return does my assets have to grow on an annual basis to reach my goal long -term?
And then invest in the things that I do. average annual return. It’s super easy. Everybody can do it, but you do. There’s not the necessity to try to outperform.
You need to reach the number that you need for your goals. Well, I love this idea of looking at statistics and statistical probability and the statistical probability that you’re going to outperform to your point,
OG. gee, very low. And we’ve been saying this forever and yet, there are people who spend an inordinate amount of time on their portfolio looking to add alpha, which means looking to outperform.
And it’s swimming upstream versus you could spend that same amount of time ignoring your portfolio, being in broadly based index funds,
spend that same amount of time looking to increase your earnings. potential. And study after study shows, if you do that, that’s likely to come true. If you think about it,
if you focus on it, much, much more likely. Not 100 % certainty that that’s going to happen. You can still certainly mess that up. But man, of the two, if you’re going to spend time trying to get wealthy,
spending it on outperforming the market versus increase your earnings, we’re going with door number two. – And I think a lot of this comes from people feeling like they’re behind. You spend your 20s and 30s horsing around and then you get your fours,
you’re like, oh crap, I need to really swing for the fences on every deal. But the reality is, is that you don’t have to. You just have to have a consistent approach of saving and investing. And you can ask anybody who’s ahead of the game,
more ahead of the game than you are. Ask a colleague or a family member or somebody that you know is doing the right thing. with money. And they’ll all say the same thing, which is,
yeah, it doesn’t feel like you’re really doing a lot. And then you look back 10 years ago and go, holy crap, how did that happen? Or you look back 20 years ago and go, I would have never even thought those numbers were possible. You can do the math on an Excel worksheet,
but then you go, yeah, that’s not how it’s going to work. It does work out that way. That’s how it works. But you can only see that stuff in the rearview mirror. You can’t see it in advance. advance and And you have to it’s a very very hard thing to do But you just have to trust the process you have to go all right I’m saving $500 a month into my Roth and I’m actually at my 401k and I put money my HSA and
I’m going to do it And these three funds and I’m not going to touch it for the next you know 30 years We think like oh my gosh those three funds. That’s not diversified look at the inner workings of those things within those three positions you might have 4 ,000 different stocks.
That’s pretty diversified. That’s pretty representative of the global economy. And that’s what you’re trying to do. Just say, “Well, I think that in the future, the economy is going to continue to be strong over my lifetime.” And so,
why try to figure out if Kodak is going to be an investment that’s around in the next 25 years. That’s just as good as it is. as anything, frankly. Looking at the turnover of the stocks in the Dow and the S &P gives you proof that it’s hard to pick those things.
That’s another way, by the way, to be fooled into thinking that the dogs are pandas, right? Nope. That’s not what you’re looking for. We want the pandas, not the dogs,
spray -painted to look like pandas. We will link to both of those at home. panda article and this wonderful– -By the way, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of that happening in China.
-Somebody creating a zebra out of a donkey? -No, it was pandas in China. -Was it really? -It’s gone on before. Yeah. -So bad. -But that’s a great example, too. That helps the analogy even stronger.
-It just keeps going. -Be even stronger. -Yes. -Yes, it’s just like, yes, we fooled this group of people, they figured it out. -New zoo. -New people. New group. Yeah. Just because it doesn’t work before doesn’t mean there isn’t a different fool that wasn’t born yesterday.
We’ll also link to this piece from Investment News. And of course, we’re going to do a deeper dive tomorrow. And the 201 are amazing newsletters. StackinBedgements .com /201. It’s free. It is amazing.
Kevin Bailey dives deeper into all the resources we found that are responsible and online that can help you manage money better and understand. this more. Coming up next, the man who operates the biggest website about theme parks in the country comes here every spring to kick off summer with us because a lot of families out there,
a lot of people spending lots of money taking the family to theme parks and having miserable times ’cause they didn’t plan, we’re gonna help you plan better, save money and have just a better day if you’re taking the family this summer.
Where’s all the fun at? How do you score deals? Robert Niles coming up next, but before that, the carnival himself, Mr. Carnival Master himself, neighbor Doug got some trivia.
I know I have a ton of fun, aren’t I, Joe? Hey there, stackers. I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug, being the exemplary citizen that I am. I like to find ways to set a good example for the fine kids at Tech Sarcana.
They need to know early in life’s journey that a lot more goes into being a good person than just being charming and strong and handsome. So this past weekend, I volunteered to chaperone a middle school trip to our local water park called the Big Damn Park.
I know what you’re thinking, but it’s real and it’s spectacular. Well, so amazing, Doug, when that got renamed this spring, we were all like, what? There’s a story behind it,
but that’s for another day. Well, we weren’t there 10 minutes before some of the neighborhood kids started giggling at my water wings for the record I’m an excellent swimmer. I only wear the water wings,
you know to set a good example like I mentioned safety first kids I mean out of worn a helmet – if it didn’t give me helmet head after the wave pool We went on what must be the steepest water slide on the planet Of course,
I wasn’t scared wasn’t scared. Nope, not at all about halfway down the slide the water pressure tore my t -shirt off and I heard gasps from all the moms standing near that pool at the bottom.
So maybe I shouldn’t have been wearing that Dug 2024 t -shirt in the first place. – They thought the eclipse was bad. – They couldn’t believe their eyes. Now I gotta get a new neighbor,
Dug, campaign t -shirt for pool season. Speaking of scary drops, today’s trivia question is, the single sharpest one -day drop. in the S &P 500 occurred on October 19,
1987.” What is that day known as? I’ll be back right after I put more aloe on my sunburn. Who knew it could get that purple? Hey there,
stackers. I’m Bathing Beauty and Guy Who’s Dead. not Fred Heights. Nope, Joe’s mom’s neighbor Doug. With all its ups and downs, the stock market can feel like a roller coaster sometimes.
It can also feel like a water park ride too because when you buy Rivian and don’t sell it, that downhill never ends. Our question today was about a house. I like the original joke that was there before you changed it.
Oh, I didn’t even notice that. as a joke. What did it say? – If you can feel like a water park ride because when you buy Rivian, you just might feel like you got hosed. - I feel like my trivia is getting hosed right now. (laughing) – It might be. – Can I get back to this? – Sure. – I’m gonna do it. Wasn’t even gonna wait for an answer.
Our question today was about a hosing of the stock market. – Yeah, oh, that’s why the word. was in there. – Now I see how that works together. In fact, back in 1933, it was bad,
but then really, really, really good. How good was it? – How good was it? – I’ll tell ya, when after a long closure, back after the 1930s stock market crash,
stock trading resumed on March 15th, 1933, and the stock market saw its largest ever percentage increase in history. at just over 16 and a half percent.
What a cool thing for Joe to have lived through in real time. It must have been amazing to see all that show. Today’s trivia question is, the single sharpest one day drop in the S &P 500 wasn’t in the 1930s,
but actually occurred on October 19, 1987. What was this day called? The answer for the sharp drop of over 20 percent worldwide. were estimated to hit a colossal $1 .7 trillion in U .S.
dollars. That single -day drop has since been known as Black Monday. And now, here to help you drop the least amount of money riding roller coasters this summer is today’s mentor,
Robert Niles. Well, you know that summer’s here. When this gentleman joins us again, I don’t, we were trying to you know,
if only had a way to go back and look at this Robert It’s either your seven or eight that you’ve been with us. We’re not that old. No, no not at all clearly. That’s erroneous information We just met in high school homeroom like literally yesterday So I don’t know what you’re talking about seven or eight years I gotta tell you when I saw this interview is coming up I was so excited because as you know,
I’m excited about theme parks my sister and I are headed to Cedar Point this year. I just went to Disney. It’s like, I’m a guy trying hard to keep up and I’m not worthy.
You are way ahead of me, my friend, which is why this year I want to start with theme park food because of the fact that most people think, yeah, for people not watching the video of this, Robert just gave us a what,
what, you know, and I know that, you know, people that are brand new to theme parks are wet when they were kids. Just remember dropping by the hot dog stand, but there truly can be some pretty delicious food at theme parks around the country.
Absolutely. Parks have figured out that this is all part of the show. Obviously, the accounting people knew that they were making bank on this stuff for years, but at one point, the creative people realized, “Hey, this is part of the way that we can bring people into all of this.” I mean,
if you’re going to go visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, you’re going to want to go eat just like the characters did in Harry Potter. You’re going to want to go visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. a Star Wars, you want to see what the heck do they eat in the galaxy far,
far away. If you’re going to all of these different food festivals that Parks are doing all over the place now that realize you can extend the season into what used to be the off season by featuring cuisine from around the world,
all Parks have really gotten into the idea of food as entertainment at this point and it’s paid off big for them. – I gotta say, you know, people make fun of people like me. So I saw a group making fun of Disney adults,
and I’m like, you know what? There’s nothing I like better than going to a food festival at Epcot, because it’s just so fun. I don’t care about the rides. It’s just, it’s a really fun way to spend an afternoon drinking your way around. - Yeah, it’s a whole new way to drink your way around Epcot. I mean, you’ve got the traditional restaurants that have been there since the park opened in what, 1982. But now, with all these stands, it’s… more drinks that you could do.
I don’t know that anyone’s actually ever made it all the way around drinking all the stands on Epcot. I don’t think our livers as human beings are designed for that. I certainly know that our wallets as human beings are probably not designed for that either.
But this is how they get you to come back up for multiple visits because they know you can’t do it all in just one. You got to buy more tickets. I was telling my Dog on our team just how great the food is and how Disney has this whole operation,
which I’m sure you’ve probably seen the operation behind the scenes, Robert. I have not. – Sure. – But people don’t think about Disney and food. You mentioned expensive. Is there ever a way to score a discount on any of the food at any of these places that are in these top restaurants,
or is it just more maximizing the experience? – Yeah, it’s really more about maximizing the experience. These aren’t places that do daily specials. It’s like the chef today is featuring so and such, or there’s no group on that you’re going to be getting for theme park food.
Now, there are daily food passes that some places will sell you. Basically, it’s a pass for food for the day, and if you do it right,
you can find value in that. If you’re ordering the right things, the right quantity, the right quantity. do it right you just buy the Pass and then you forget that you had it no no you walk out of there with a big loss and well It’s a big win for the company because you didn’t take full advantage of it And that really varies park by park what the specific deals are and they’ll change up these deals over the
course of a summer as well So you really have to do some advanced research and see exactly what it is that you’re paying for because you might think oh Okay, I paid 50 bucks that doesn’t necessarily mean you can go into any restaurant in the park and get anything you want.
There might be specific restaurants, specific times. You can order and then you have to wait a certain amount of time before you can order something else. So you can’t just keep going back and forth again, rules again, sharing,
all of that stuff. It’s all in the details. But if you do it right, that can be a great way to find some value on your theme park visits this summer. – Well, I’ll tell you the way that– I like to find value with these things when I’ve tried it in the past has been,
I didn’t find that much in terms of discounts that I could get, but what I did find Robert was that I could prepay for this stuff. And you and I in past years have talked about, listen, this is an expensive day, no matter where you go.
So do a little bit of homework, make sure that you know what you’re doing so your family has a good time while they’re at the park. And man, if I can prepay for my food and just, you know, make that paychecks ahead,
then that makes the day at least today a little bit less out of my wallet right now. – Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s all about, Disney’s done this with their dining plan. That’s kind of probably the most famous one in the entire industry.
You’ve basically turned Disney into an all -inclusive resort at that point with the way that you’ve structured the payment for the vacation. And if you do it with the right credit card that you’re getting,
points off of, then you can maybe turn that into another vacation someplace else later down the road. But there are a lot of different tricks that those of us who have been into travel hacking for quite some time know how to play to,
maybe you don’t necessarily, like you say, find that bottom line right now discount 20 % off or something, but you find a way to pay for it, to finance it,
to structure it in a way that you can get a lot more. value for it than you would have been if you’d just come in as a cash buyer. – Yeah, make it much more budget friendly. I just read on USA Today,
came out the day before we record this, Robert. It says, “Don’t miss the top -notch food “at these 10 theme park restaurants.” For people that haven’t heard you before, our Stacker Nation, you and I are about to go around the nation talking about some of these fun places and what’s new at these places.
And I thought this year, with food, is our backdrop. Maybe we can attack this list as well and see what you think. First thing, Disney’s Epcot, you mentioned, really known for food. There’s lots of great restaurants.
And of course, they have some of those festivals you’re talking about. Number 10 on their list is a place called La Salleie Steakhouse at Epcot. That has been a fan favorite for a long time. It is in the Canada Pavilion there.
I’m not the type of person that goes to Disney and I’m thinking steak dinner. There are very few times of the year where I want something that big where I’m about to go out into that park and do all that amount of walking out in the summer heat out there.
I’m thinking probably I could go for something a little bit lighter than the filet mignon and the mashed potatoes, but there are a lot of people who really want that experience. So Lacellar has been a fan favorite there for decades.
What would you say at this point? Parks is your favorite restaurant? – Oh wow, favorite Disney Parks restaurant. That one’s gonna be tough.
If I’ve got a huge windfall or somebody else is paying for it, Montserrat Paul at the France Pavilion at Epcot is an amazing dining experience.
It’s a fixed price thing. It’s upstairs from the French restaurant. that you see on the street there, run by the same family as the family of the late Paul Bacouze, who was a legendary French chef.
If you want that amazing, fine dining French experience, that’s something that you’re not going to find anywhere else in the theme park, but that particular location.
If I’m coming back down to earth, though, at Epcot, I really like the Via Napoli pizza restaurant. I’ve always had good success there. Obviously, you’re going with the pizza there, but they’ve got some fun Italian sodas.
They’ve got some fun appetizers. Always been a nice experience there. They’ve got Sister Restaurant in downtown Disney at Anaheim. That’s a little closer to me personally called Napoli,
and I just love the way that they do pizzas there. So that’s another favorite of mine. And at Disneyland though, I’m just going to go with an old classic I love the Plaza Inn.
I love the fried chicken at the Plaza Inn. I usually split it with someone because it’s a lot of food, but that’s always been a favorite of mine, and it’s been there since, I think, almost the park opened,
so it’s been a favorite from a lot of other people as well. I think that’s if you start getting into food. I love the idea of splitting, too, Robert, because even if you’re not trying to save money, you can sample a lot of these cool things we’re talking about. Absolutely.
And a lot of the time, the portion of the food is gone. said, I mean, you’re out there in the park all day. It’s hot. You’re working. It’s kind of nice to eat a lot of little things rather than one big meal that’s going to make you want to go take a nap.
Hey, time is money in these parks. And if you’re not feeling like doing something, maybe that’s not the best experience to have. Well, we’re in Orlando. Let’s just go ahead and tackle the big boys.
Disney and Universal. Which part of town is the fun at in the town this year, Robert, if you’re going to one? It’s a fist fight like it always is in Orlando. June’s going to be a big month for new things at the theme parks in Orlando.
Universal Orlando has announced officially that their new Dream Marks land is opening at Universal Studios, Florida. It’s kind of a redo of that old Woody Woodpecker. kids area,
but they’ve turned it over to their top DreamWorks franchises. It’s going to be Trolls, How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek. A lot of great stuff that they’re putting into there and a lot of great character experiences that they’re putting in.
So they’re really going in with the kids. And of course we’re all waiting for next year in the opening of the massive Epic Universe theme park that’s going to have just Super Nintendo World, How to Train Your Dragon, Harry Potter,
Universal Classic Monsters. I think that’s going to be a huge hit for Universal next year. But this year, they’ve got DreamWorks for fans that are looking for something to do in Orlando this summer. And Disney hasn’t given us an official date yet,
but coming up relatively soon, Tiana’s Bayou adventure, the princess and the frog retheme of Splash Mountain is opening up this summer at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. I have gotten a sneak peek at the animatronics that are going into that.
They are amazing. It is just like getting up close, seeing the characters from that wonderful Disney animation film come to life. So I think a lot of people are gonna be very happy with this.
It’s a lot of jazz music, a lot of just New Orleans flavor in the entire thing. And there might be the smell of beignets piped into the queue. It’s just a rumor.
I can’t confirm it, but make sure you’re going in with clear nostrils. I’m in a quick package. I threaten this every year, Robert, when you’re here, I’m going to quit podcasting and come work for you because I want to go to these things.
Uh, number nine, number nine on this list. Okay. We’re still on the list. Wow. All right. Well, I just thought we pivot back and forth. And while we were talking about Epcot, let’s just pull that off.
And we’re going to pull off this theme park in a second every year. You say that this is one of the top regional theme parks in the country. Number nine on their list is trapper smokehouse at. Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia.
A park I know that you and I both love. Absolutely. If you’re looking for the best of the non -Disney Universal Parks because you’re like, “Okay, these guys are great. They lead the industry. Top nine parks in the country by far,” but it’s like somebody else is doing good work,
right? Busch Gardens Williamsburg. That’s a park you need to look at. Dollywood. Silver Dollar City. There are a lot of really great theme parks out there and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. It’s like if Epcot. were matched with a thrill park,
you know, because you’ve got the wonderful roller coasters that they’ve got there, but you’ve got the European countries all represented as well. So you can do the things like go over to Trapper’s Smokehouse and get that kind of that smoke barbecue meal.
They’ve got a lot of food festivals that they do as well. Sample food from around Europe. Do you like that pick, by the way? Do you like Trapper’s Smokehouse as a pick for this top 10 list? That’s a good pick. I mean, I can respect that pick. I don’t know that I would have it on my top 10 list,
but then again, my top 10 list is probably going to change every single day because I get so fickle about this stuff. So there are definitely days of the month in which I would have Trapper’s Smokehouse on there, but there’s probably 50 that could make up good argument to be on this list.
And again, a lot of times it’s how you catch them on a particular day. There’s some variance in quality always, but it’s always been a solid choice for me. I’ll put it that way. Bush guards,
you’ve said in the past, Robert, just quality parks, whether it’s the one in Florida or the one in Williamsburg. I don’t know if they have other ones. But number eight on this list is Zambia Smokehouse at Bush Guard. Somebody like Smokehouse is apparently in Tampa.
But let’s take that. Number one, do you like the Zambia Smokehouse? But also number two is anything going on at these Bush Gardens parks this year that’s new and fun? Yeah. Basically,
those two are like sister It’s just once in Williamsburg, once in Tampa. That’s basically the difference between the two. So you’re getting essentially the same thing about both of the parks this year are coming out with roller coasters.
Williamsburg is actually refurbying one of my all -time favorite roller coasters, Loch Ness Monster. Oh! That is a nationwide classic.
Please, I hope that they keep that ride open forever and they are doing the work to do that. which I am so pleased by. It’s a classic era double -looping coaster with those iconic interlocking loops.
It was the first, like, upside -down roller coaster I ever went on, so it’s a special place in my heart for that. And they’ve given it a lot of love this year with some retracking renovations on it, so it’ll be good for another 10,
20 years, and I’m so happy to see them doing that work on it. And in Tampa, they’ve got a new coaster called Phoenix Rising, which is a family… coaster. So that kind of broadens the appeal.
I mean, I know they had that, the wonderful coaster that they put in a couple of years ago that set all the records, and it’s nice that they’re doing something that’s, you know, for the beginning coaster, fiend.
So Phoenix Rising. I don’t know that they have an official opening date on that yet, but they’re getting close on it. Speaking of re -tracking, let’s go north to where my sister and I are going up there to the roller coast, Cedar Point.
They’re redoing the, what’s that called, the test drive? The top -thrill dragster. Top -thrill, thank you. Top -thrill 2 now. Re -tracking is, it’s almost a completely different experience at this point.
They kept the iconic top hat, the 420 foot straight up, have a little look, and we’re coming straight back down. They’ve kept that, but the rest of the ride really has changed. They went with a manufacturer called Zimperla that came in.
instead of having that one zero to 120 mile an hour launch, which was great when it worked, but it didn’t always work. So they’ve gone to, it’s a three launch system now.
So it’s going to take three launches to get up to that 120 miles an hour. And what they’ve done is they’ve put in another 420 foot tower back behind it. It’s a spike track. So you’ll go,
eh, zero to like 60, 70 or so forward. You’ll get a lot of, you’ll get a lot of, you’ll get a lot of, you’ll get a lot of to have if you’re a hardcore coaster fan because you really love it when coasters don’t operate 100 % like they’re supposed to.
You get that rollback coming back into the station and you’re going to pick up another reverse launch that’s going to take you up even faster. You’re going to go backward up that new 420 -foot spike so you’re going to be looking face down at the ground from about 400 feet in the air.
And then you’re just… going to drop straight back down to the station. You’re going to pick up that final launch to 120 miles an hour. That’s going to reliably get you up over that 420 foot hill for that wonderful view of Lake Erie and all of Cedar Point.
And then come rushing right back down into the station. Everyone I’ve talked to has been on and said, this is even better than top thrill dragster ever was. They nailed it.
They got the improvement. They kept that same. experience and just amplified it. So I think that’s going to be a huge hit for Cedar Point this year. Let’s stick with Cedar Fair because, of course, there’s the merger with Six Flags.
Six Flags parks are never once, Robert, that you and I spend a lot of time on. And maybe that’s my own bias. I’m not really a fan. I always kind of feel like it’s a money grab versus some of the other places I go.
Is this merger going to bring Cedar Fair, which I’ve got a lot of. respect for, down, or is it going to bring Six Flags up, which is, I think, what every theme park enthusiast is hoping for?
Yeah, and the fact that it’s going to be Cedar Fair CO is going to be running the new combined company, which is going to be called Six Flags because outside of the business community, nobody knows what Cedar Fair is.
Everybody knows what Six Flags is. They’ve got brand equity. But what they need to do is to improve that brand equity because it’s not been associated… with the top quality theme parks that they were once — I mean,
I remember as a kid, you know, Six Flags was better than Disney. That’s where you wanted to go. Fantastic fun. Disney was just kind of boring. Six Flags had all the exciting rides. So I think that there is equity in that branding that they can realize again,
and it’s going to be the Cedar Fair team that’s going to be in charge trying to make that happen. Now, the detail is this is going to be a huge I mean, we’re talking about 30 -some parks in it.
Are they gonna sell off any of these parks? Are they gonna, what’s gonna happen here? Because just managing something that big is gonna be a real challenge. And then what are the economies of scale?
What are the improvements that we might be able to see? It’s still a very capital -intensive business. That’s not gonna change with a combined company running these as opposed to two different places there. So there’s lots of opportunities,
but I think we’re all just waiting to see how this shakes out. They’re expecting the deal to close within the next month or two. They’re saying first half of the year end of Q2. But obviously,
that’s way too late to make any changes for this season operation. Everything’s just basically locked in. So it’s going to be a really interesting offseason this winter as we see how Cedar Fair and Six Flags get together for 2020.
I noticed that when my sister and I were purchasing tickets to go to Cedar Point, that because we pre -purchased, we got a huge discount on our day ticket. I mean, we grabbed them early and we got a monster discount.
I think I paid $48 for a day, which I thought was just a fantastic deal. And we’re going to have a lot of fun with that. Is that true for the whole Cedar Fair system? If we look at like Kings Island, Carowinds,
Knott’s Berry Farm? It really just depends on how things are going. Obviously, earlier in the season is the time to book, because you’ve got the opportunity there. But then again, later in the season, if they’ve got bad weather or something and they need to goose that attendance,
they’ll start dropping stuff later. But if you want to lock in a good price now, if you see it, go for it, get it. And also, if you’re thinking about visiting multiple parks multiple times, look at those annual pass options.
Particularly, look at annual passes that will get you into multiple parks. in the chain. That’s the thing everyone’s really excited about in the Six Flags. Cedar Fair Deal is if they come out with an annual pass product that gets you into all of those parks,
if I’m in Southern California, people want like a pass that gets me into Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain. And if I go across the country to Six Flags Great Adventure and Cedar Point and Carowinds and Six Flags over Texas,
I’m going to be running out of time, I’m going to be running out of time. lot of people are looking forward to see what kind of ticket products we get out of this deal. While we mentioned another beloved park that’s close to you there,
Knott’s Berry Farm, and you mentioned the Monster Park. I mean, Magic Mountain is just so huge. What a big park. Any excitement on the West Coast we should be focused on right now? Again, going with the kids this year,
Knott’s Berry Farm is redoing their Camp Snoopy. It’s just so huge. the original kids’ land when you think about it, debuted back in the 1980s. They’ve gone in there and changed things up every once in a while, and it’s time again,
so they’re giving it a big refresh and a relaunch for Camp Snoopy coming end of May, beginning of June this year. So we’ve got that to look forward to for Knott’s Berry Farm fans this year.
Six Flags is they’re not building up a big new coaster this year, but there’s some stuff in there. works, so we will see how that comes out. Also somebody who’s getting into the coaster game big that we haven’t had in this market before is Universal Studios Hollywood.
Really? They’re working on a fast and furious roller coaster. They just announced it’s going to be 2026 before they get it done. But this is going to be, it’s an intimate coaster, it’s got spinning cars on it that are going to be decorated to look like I from the Fast and Furious franchise.
And the whole thing it’s called Fast and Furious Hollywood Drift. The idea is these cars are gonna be drifting on the roller coaster track for a really unique experience. They’re building it on the side of the hill at Universal Studios Hollywood.
So you’re gonna have a view of the San Fernando Valley of all the movie studios in the area, not just Universal. You can see Warner Brothers and Disney from there as well. So it’s going to be an amazing experience. to Southern California car street culture that really I think gets to the heart of what those Fast and Furious movies were all about.
That’s so cool. And by the way, while you’re talking about cars, I have to mention when you were here a year ago, we at the end of that discussion had a discussion about you heading over to the Middle East.
Speaking of cars, you wrote the Ferrari coaster. I think the fastest. is that the fastest roller coaster on earth? Currently, the fastest roller coaster in the world, Formula Rossa at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi,
which is just, I absolutely love that park. I’m a big IndyCar F1 fan, so love open -wheel racing, love the Ferraris, love, it just, you walk into that park,
they just have Ferraris as decoration just all over the place, which is like, ah, are you kidding me? But amazing, right? amazing roller coasters, because you’re talking about Formula One, you’re talking about speed.
And of course, you’re going to have to have that. It’s like a 0 to 149 mile an hour launch outside. They actually make you wear goggles because there’s just no other way.
There’s a famous video that they had of the Ferrari F1 drivers on there who always come out every year before the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix in December. And they’ve always got a picture of them.
These are like these super like fit guys ’cause you have to be the Formula One, but they do a reverse point of view so you could just see their faces melting back. As like that 149 mile an hour launch hits them and it just pins them back.
That’s just a great resort there. They just had opened up a new SeaWorld Park there. It’s indoor park, which I think is the template for what a SeaWorld Park ought to be. (upbeat music) gets into a lot of the kind of the education that they aspire to do,
but with a lot of really unique technology, they’ve got a great extraction. They’re called Hyperspere 360, where you go inside this 360 -degree theater, and everything is projection mapped on the interior surfaces of this big ball that you’re inside.
It makes it feel like you are just going through the bottom of the ocean, exploring all of these different ecosystems in the ocean in a way that I’ve never seen before. And it’s just top notch creative work there.
SeaWorld was my kid’s introduction to theme parks. And we had so much fun when they were really young. And heck, we would still go today. I would just see it. It’s such a different experience than as an example,
Cedar Point. I want to get back to this list for a second. Number seven on the list. is Satuly Cantina, Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I think we’ve talked about Disney enough. Number six, back to Williamsburg with Das Festos.
I never thought that the food at Das Festos was great. I just thought that the experience in there with the Oompa -Pah Band and all the fun going on, that’s where that is. Number five. I mean, if you’re going to eat a bratwurst, that’s the experience to do it in,
you know, not just out from a food cart someplace, go in there with the band and the experience and all of that. And I think that’s helped elevate. that ranking. They might get you on stage. Number five on this list though is a part you and I have not talked about much.
Another one from the Cedar Fair parks, but this one’s in Virginia, Grain and Grill at Kings Dominion. Let’s talk about Kings Dominion for a second and Grain and Grill. What do you think about that pick?
Okay. They’ve got some fans. They came out, they voted. That’s good. That was I’m just like I’m a plank on that one I mean Look cedar fairs got some great restaurants.
That’s not what they’re known for Actually, no technically I mean the one that got really all started obviously is and this is not chicken dinner restaurant in Nottsbury farm But technically that’s outside of the park. So I don’t know if that would qualify on the list.
I haven’t seen the list yet So yeah, surprise me. They’ve got some talented food service people there So if they’ve got somebody who’s really hit on a good menu and the good customer service, then yeah, great. Welcome to the list.
Have fun. I’m going to have to try that one out myself because now I am curious. Kings Dominion, though, sounds like a nice day for a family. Yeah, absolutely. Particularly, it’s just right up the road from Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
So you’ve got a great one -two combination there. So if you’re doing that roller coaster road trip and then Colonial Williamsburg is just a must visit, I think, for anyone who’s interested in American history, then you’ve got a great one -two combination. Colonial Williamsburg,
Bush Gardens Williamsburg, King’s Dominion on that trip as well. At just great time, you could spend a week there in Southern Virginia doing all of those wonderful attractions. I’m laughing, Robert, because I remember when I first went to Bush Gardens Williamsburg,
my parents took us, and I think they took us to the theme park as a spoonful of sugar so that we would go to the Colonial part the next day and, you know… like, hey, we’ll take you on the thrill rides if you get some history.
So a little something for everybody. Absolutely. Number four on this list, Yakin Yeti at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park. So wow, that was out of the blue for me.
Yeah, I can see it. I can definitely see it. That is one of the parks. It’s actually one of the ones that’s run by an outside vendor. I think Landry’s got that one. But again, if you’re looking for here,
here’s one of the things that really ratings at Disney World restaurants. Sitting down inside an air conditioning. I cannot stress enough how wonderful that is.
And if you’ve got good customer service, you’ve got some good food there, even better. There’s a reason why table service restaurants at Disney World book up so quickly because they are really a wonderful little break to take in the middle of the day,
even not considering the food. And I’ve heard good things about Yakkinyadi as well. – Well, they’ve got Yakkinyadi. And I’ve been there a couple of times and I like it. I didn’t expect to see it on a top 10 list and a Satuli Cantina, okay?
But isn’t there another really, really good restaurant there that you guys at Theme Park Insider talk about? Is it Teppins or? – Okay, if I’m going anywhere at Animal Kingdom, if I can get into it, it’s gonna be Tiffins.
That I think is the best restaurant at the Walt Disney World Resort is absolutely wonderful. It’s kind of… Imagineering’s love letter to itself in a certain way,
because you can see a lot of the photos and art that Imagineers have collected while they were doing the research for the Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park. So if you are a real theme park insider like me and you’re interested in how was all of this stuff created,
Tiffins is just a wonderful curated experience to go in and just walk around, much less the food, which is absolutely wonderful. And like I said, among my favorite at Disney World,
so I would have had that near the top of my list. I’ve never been, but I spent enough time on your site to know that that is a top of a lot of people’s list. All right. The top three here. Aunt Graney’s Restaurant at Dollywood.
You’re a big Dollywood fan. Cannot complain about that. Number two is the Chocolatier at Hershey Park. We even spent a lot of time talking about Hershey Park. Okay. That’s another one that I think it’s…
Is it technically outside of the park? It’s right there at the new park entrance that they did. And obviously Hershey, this is a park about food, so you better expect that they’d have a decent restaurant at it. I have not eaten at the Chocolatier since they redid it.
I ate at the previous version of it. I thought this was a really solid theme park restaurant, but they improved it and took it up a little not, so I’m curious to get back out there. and see just how much they improved it over the previous arc and incarnation of the entry theme park,
of the entry restaurant, the theme park that they had there before. I love the fact you guys heard Robert say this earlier, but I’ll reiterate this. I ambushed Robert with this today. And the fact that you can go on and on about this stuff never ceases to amaze me,
Robert. It is clearly you don’t like your job at all. All right. No, absolutely not at all. Number one on this list out of all the places in the United States. the Alamo at Nobles,
Elliesburg, Pennsylvania. – Wow, okay, that one was, that’s not at a left field. That’s not out of the left field bleachers. That’s out of a bar behind the left field bleachers across the street from the stadium.
It’s like someone got up from Merf Bleacher Bar and just came in on that one. – I think there might have been some paid PR behind that one. No, I don’t know. I’ll tell you what. That park has got one of the most loyal fan bases out there.
If there’s anything that’s going to have reader input, they’re going to turn out for it because they love that park. And when people love that park like that, that’s something, hey, maybe you should go check out at some point. So I got another one on my list to do list for this year and maybe next.
That’s fabulous. And by the way, when you talk about loyalty, there’s two other parks that, uh, one you mentioned earlier. one you haven’t mentioned yet which have huge loyalty and if you’re anywhere near them i know our stackers of love when you talked about this park holiday world holiday world and splash and safari is santa claus indiana huge loyal theme base they’ve got a new family coaster this year called good
gravy it’s of a coma family boomerang coaster it’s themed to thanksgiving so you walk into grandma’s living room they put you on a roller coaster that looks like a gravy boat and they send you out into the yard where you go through empty cranberry cans and stuff.
We had a great video that we posted on the website. They did a test. When you’re testing water coasters, you put water dummies and things on there. They put a whole bunch of plushed turkeys on for their test.
So it’s just all of these plushed, which I guess you could call stuffed turkeys. But hold on a second. The roller coaster just like that. hilarious. I love it.
That park has got such a wonderful sense of humor. I highly recommend take I -64 west of Louisville when you get the opportunity and go visit Holiday World. I still got to go.
My cousin went. We had so many stackers go after you mentioned the first time and everyone came back with these rave reviews. And the last one, and you brought up this park the last couple of years, and whenever I mention it to anybody and I’ve never been to the one either,
everybody just goes, “Oh, I love it so much.” Silver City. – Silver Dollar City. I actually got out there earlier this year, another great new attraction they’ve got there, Fire in the Hole, which you’re like,
“Wait a minute, I know, “they’ve had Fire in the Hole for years.” That’s the old Fire in the Hole. This is the new Fire in the Hole. – In the new hole. – The old one was in a little kind of rickety building. They went and built this huge new brand spankin’ new building on the other side of the park.
park. It’s Rocky Mountain Construction with no roller coasters. You know how good they do. This is their first indoor roller coaster. And they’ve taken what was the whole fire in the whole story and just done it with this brand new coaster track.
They saved some of the show elements from the old one, but they’ve improved it greatly. It is an amazing dark ride. I mean, you think about dark rides, you think about Disney, you think about Universal. Silver Dollar City with fire in the hole has got one of the best dark rides in the country right now.
And something that I think is well worth visiting. And then just the hospitality that you have, it’s in Branson, Missouri, run by Hershey and same folks who do Dollywood. Amazing food all throughout the park.
The skillets they have, the cinnamon bread is amazing. And just some wonderful roller coasters that they have there as well. Time Traveler, it’s a mock ride spitting coaster that opened a few years ago. Just amazing theming that they’ve done on that.
Of all the parks in the country outside of Disney and Universal, if you’re looking for what I think is probably the best and frankly, better than some Disney and Universal parks, Silver Dollar City is definitely in that conversation.
We’re going to have so many links to this website I know about called Theme Park Insider, with all this stuff. You’re always doing new things, but I think people need to come and join the community, Robert.
If this touches you… come join your community. – Yeah, I mean, we’ve got news coming up every single day of the year about theme parks. We’ve got a page that’s listing what’s new and under construction in theme parks,
major theme parks all around the world. We’ve got year by year lists of everything that did open. So you can see all the reviews and videos that we’ve done for stuff that’s open in 2024 so far, and we’ll be updating that throughout the year.
And go back year by year, what opened last year, what year before that. pretty much all this century, we’ve got that. So a wonderful resource if you just want to sample around and see what’s out there.
And then we’ve got links to discount tickets for a lot of attractions, not just in the United States, but around the world so you can save yourself a little bit of money while supporting our side as well. And just wonderful planning resources.
And if you’ve got a question, hop on our discussion forum and we’ll be happy to answer them for you as well. And not just you guys, but the people in your community so helpful, like people helping each other. – I’ve tried very hard, and I so appreciate all the people who have been part of the Theme Park Insider community.
There are so many toxic fan bases out there that we’ve worked really hard to make this a welcoming and helpful fan base that we’ve got at least on the Theme Park Insider website. Now, you know, we’ll have some fun and do some sarcastic stuff now and then,
if you know me. But for the most part, it’s just, I have such respect for people who do. do this work who create these wonderful experiences for all of us that I Want to cultivate that respect among the fan base as well and then that becomes respect for each other in the fan base So that’s really what we’re trying to do with theme park insider Is to be a welcoming place for people who love this stuff and people
who produce this stuff to get together celebrate it all find ways that we can experience it and Experience in a way that just makes us feel better about the whole process. We’ll link to the site, we’ll link to some of the exciting videos that you’ve done of these coasters,
you and your band of merry people that go around getting this wonderful footage so people know what they’re getting into. Thank you for helping us make summer fun again, Robert. I appreciate your mentorship every year you come on,
my friend. Thank you very much. It’s always a pleasure and we will get back to our second period high school class right away because, you know, I think… is going to get upset with us for taking too much time talking here in the hallways.
It can’t be that long. Hey, this is Lou Mangello from WDW radio and now when I’m not at Walt Disney World or sharing my passion for Disney World or eating,
I am stacking measurements. Big thanks to Robert and I want to dive into some of the stuff guys that Robert talked about in a second. But before that, let’s go back, Doug, to your trivia. Black Monday. Oh,
gee, my father -in -law got caught up in that. And he was very open and honest with young investors and talked about this. That day, he saw it was dropping, he called his stockbroker at the time and said,
“You gotta sell my stuff “’cause this is going down the tube.” Stockbroker, by the way, did not stop him, did not say not to do it, sold all the stuff, but my father -in -law was in mutual funds. And my father -in -law also…
didn’t realize that even if you call your stockbroker at 10 .30 in the morning Eastern time, you’re in there for the entire day. If you’re in a mutual fund, it’s like a subway, and it only opens and closes when it’s over.
So he got, oh, gee, he got the entire drop, even though he called first thing in the morning. He got the entire drop. And then the very next day, missed the huge backup. That was like a knife,
the huge backup. the day after. Well, I mean, this has happened. There’s been plenty of times like this in recent history, even think back to March the 23rd of 2020,
right? After the initial COVID decline, the market went down 10 % on that Monday. Pretty bad, obviously. And then on Tuesday went up 10%.
And math nerds would be like this, not the same. same number. You’re still down.” I got it. I know. But that was the bottom. And it felt like the beginning of the end is what it felt like.
It’s just impossible to predict those wild swings and that timing. I mean, the only thing that you could do is look back at history and say, despite all of those things since World War II or since you were born or pick any sort of time horizon you want.
you know, unless you’re like literally three years old. And even then the market sucked in 2022, you know, so there’s even that as an example. There’s been plenty of opportunity or plenty of examples rather of the market going down at a pace that was unheard of and unimagined.
But then it also does the other thing too, which is it goes up almost indefinitely. And it seems like no matter what you listen to, it’s all like, “Yeah, but we’re about at the top.” It’s never going to come back here again.
When you think about this from even just something as simple as the housing market in the late 2000s, at the end of the 2000s, right? Well, yeah, the housing market was high and it’s going to go down. It will never get back to that number and that was in 2006 and now it’s all those housing prices are twice as high or three times higher than they were.
That’s the way it works. You just have to give yourself enough time. If you’re investing and you don’t have enough time, that’s where the problem happens, where you have become scambling bad time horizons with bad investment products at the same time,
then you’re in a world of hurt. But if you’ve got a 25 -year time horizon and a 25 -year investment, who cares what happens today? Just don’t even pay attention to it. Let’s transition over to Robert Niles by talking about the investment piece of this OG,
Six Flags and Cedar Fair combining. We spend a little bit of time on that. No, don’t do that. Don’t combine those two parks. That’s a bad idea.
Cedar Park is, yeah, I mean Six Flags, Me So Me So, Cedar Point. Right. Well, and that’s Berry Farm and all the Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Carowind, like all these. these really well run parks.
I was glad to hear Robert say that it looks like, you know, with the Cedar Fair CEO staying in place that they will bring those garbage, six flags up the quality up versus the other way.
That’s good. Even though they’re keeping the six garbage, obviously I’ve never been to all of them. So the standard bearer to me seems like Cedar Point. The two six flags parks I’ve been to felt like money grabs.
Ah, just completely felt like. know, every every step of the way I was being nickel and dime. Hey, you could stand in this line or you could pay us another, you know, 35 bucks to, to, to, to skip down exactly.
We just totally not a money grab at all. No, same. Same. And it’s finest. Yes. It’s like, it’s like going to the Vatican. They know how to money grab. So everybody’s got a smile on their face like Starbucks.
Oh, believe that. Oh You’re talking about disney kin. I thought you were talking about the Vatican who had a money grab With a smile on your face. Where did that come from? There’s a dangling modifier in his sentence.
He said they I said Starbucks I just assumed he meant the bed. I met star. He said they know how to money grab Hmm with the smile on your face referring back to the beginning of the sentence, which was Starbucks.
Ah See, I thought we were still talking about the Vatican. Yes But there are some people in history that thought from time to time that the church may have been a money grab. Like all those Lutherans out there, when they broke off. – Oh yeah.
I’m sure Calvin was running around going, this is just a money grab. – It’s a money grab. – Here’s what we’re gonna do. – You don’t need to pay for forgiveness. God damn it. – Actually kind of did say that, didn’t he? – I think he was wearing probably too. – He did say,
that was the– – Exactly what he said. – That was the equivalent of– – That’s the whole point of it. – Money grab, yes. You don’t need this. – Put your change in there. jar and then maybe you can get to heaven. It’s a whole different thing, but more of the same.
Let’s talk more about religion. Yeah, what the hell, guys? Can we talk about politics while we’re at it? Let’s just dive right into politics. Let’s dive into that. Well, I started this one to talk about roller coasters, but I was going to say first, you know, there’s some people who might think,
“Oh, gee, you know, Six Flags has been just a crappy stock, but now if you’ve got Cedar Fair management taken over for this much bigger company, maybe an opportunity?” Why bother?
Just own an ETF with all of the stocks, and then you have it, or you don’t, and it’s just based on the economy. Every year, he highlights a few parks that are these regional theme parks that just seem like just wonderful places.
He talks every year about Williamsburg Bush Gardens, about a holiday world in Santa Claus, Indiana. This year, Silver Dollar City, obviously, we went on about Dollywood,
Knott’s Berry Farm. You thought about going to any of these, OG? These sound like really cool places that I think most of our audience has never been to. I haven’t, no, because we just have such limited time.
And again, we’re just so spoiled by the fact that when we go back to Michigan, we are right in a doorstep of the most beautiful place in the world. – You got Cedar Point right around the corner,
which he goes on and on about too this year again, about what a fantastic theme park that is. Yeah, it’s tough to do, but you know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking maybe we, I really want to visit some of these places. Maybe next summer we do like a stacker meetup where we just go ride roller coasters,
you know? Everybody kind of does their own thing and we meet up for lunch or whatever at one of these parks. – We’ll talk to the board. – I’m inviting OG a year early Doug and he still gives me the… We’ll see Busy that day sounds like last week we plan the entire way we change the date of our recording and he’s like dude apparently missed the word I might go to Cleveland.
I might maybe I might once again. Well, we’ll see you this Thursday in Boston, OG I’m sure maybe yeah Doug we need to transition to the back porch because we got one thing that we really need to talk about which is the joke off We have an issue with the joke off and that is we had everybody in the basement vote This is how good these two jokes were dog It tied Which means that oh gee we waited another two days
to see but this you know that thread is so buried and I wasn’t gonna bring It up again I just want to wait and see if one more vote would come in so we waited and it didn’t come in so I think, I think, what do we do?
I think we got to give OG the last vote here. – He’s the tiebreaker? – Yes. – Nobody knows good humor and funny like OG. So he’s the perfect person. – That’s true. - He’s the perfect person. – Perfect. What are our two jokes, Doug? – We, just as a reminder to everybody, we had two tournament darlings to low C.
Low seeds, I think you would say. High seed is like number one, number two, right? These are Cinderella’s, exactly. We’ve got a nine seed versus an 11 seed. So though it’s hard to call it a favorite at nine versus 11,
the favorite here being the nine seed in this matchup is, I saw my math teacher with a piece of grass, grass. – Dude. – Nice, Doug. – Saw that too. It’s the end of the school year.
Everybody’s mail in a day. At this point, he’s out behind the van in the parking lot. Oh, my God. This is all my math teacher with some grass. And since I’m a senior,
I let me I’m doing it again. I saw my math teacher with a piece of graph paper yesterday. I think he must be plotting something that was from Jen with two ends.
And then the. 11 seed, college is the opposite of kidnapping. They demand $100 ,000 from you or they’ll send your kid back. That’s from Melvin, allegedly.
Allegedly. Well, I mean, it’s his name really Melvin. How many Melvins have you ever met? I met, I’ve met, I think, I think maybe exactly one. I met Melvin at the Tampa book signing.
And I know Melvin because Melvin lives in Valdosta, Georgia. where we were at one point thinking about maybe moving. Don’t know Jen, but I do know,
I do know Melvin. Oh, gee. What’s your, what’s say you use the tiebreaker. Okay. All right. Tiebreaker. Well, as much as you tried to sway my opinion toward Melvin,
saying he was your buddy, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, pick Melvin. Tough crap. Jen, wins because it’s a math question and I like the math question. Wow. Melvin, send your hate mail to,
uh… Wow. Sorry, Melvin. It really was more of a math… You get a set of steak knives. …question. It’s backwards math, solve for infinity. That’s the amount of money you send to a college. Yes.
I mean, it had some sentimental value as we’re on the precipice of that issue. Do you think Doug gets because his kids haven’t gone through college yet that he doesn’t think that’s a good thing? has no idea how valuable it is to not have those kids at home. - If we did this four years from now, oh geez, gonna go, that was damn funny. That was probably the point. – I didn’t appreciate it, yeah. – Melvin, congratulations on second place. You’re gonna take home the second prize pack, but our big winner,
Jen. Jen is taking home the big prize pack, which I didn’t even know that, did we ever say with the big prize pack? – It’s his first time. No idea. Jen,
we’re gonna send you some cool crap. So make sure you take pictures of yourself with it, show yourself with maybe some cool swag that we’re gonna send your way in the basement, maybe huge swag package, the book,
the whole thing. Anyway, thanks to everybody who participated in the longest joke -off in history. Paidfully long. – It was. – I think that’s gonna do it for today.
Thanks to everybody for hanging out on Wednesday. OG is back with a huge headline. We’re going to help a stacker in need and we have our TikTok Minute. So,
Mentor Monday and Wacky Wednesday, this week on the show. Doug, what should we have learned on this here podcast? – I’m sorry, what Wednesday? – Wildcat Wednesday?
Woohoo Wednesday? – Wacky Tabaki Wednesday? – Okay. – No, we’re not going back to the teacher with the grass. or something different there. But hey, here’s what’s stacked up on our to -do list for today. First, take some advice from Robert Niles.
Taking the family or friends to a theme park can be a great time, but planning can turn frowns upside down. Be sure to check out the food options, early purchase plans, and special attractions for the park you’re trying to attend before just showing up.
Second, actively managed ETFs. There’s no need to get fancy. Stick with the passive tried and true and focus your money -making aspirations on bigger paychecks if you’re inspired.
But what’s the biggest to do? I need to get sunscreen with a higher SPF. This whole time I thought the lower numbers were stronger.
Like, you know, like they aren’t gold. Turns out that is not the case at all. Now, I think I may be shedding my exoskeleton. Thanks to Robert Niles for joining us today.
Learn more about Robert and all his in -depth Theme Park information at ThemeParkInsider .com. We’ll also include links in our show notes at stackingbenjamins .com. This show is the property of SB Podcasts,
LLC, copyright 2024, and is created by Josal C. Hyde. Our producer is Kevin MacLeod. Karen and Joe get help from a few of our neighborhood friends. You’ll find out about our awesome team at stackingbenjamins .com along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots.
Come say hello. Oh yeah and before I go, not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don’t take advice from people you don’t know. This show is for entertainment purposes only.
Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor. I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug, and we’ll see you next time, back here at the Stacking Benjamin Show.
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