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So we just got back from a 2 day cruise on Royal Caribbean Independence of the seas and had a pretty awesome time. It was originally a 3 day cruise, scheduled to leave Friday and come back on Monday morning, but Hurricane Ian delayed departure by a day so we sailed out Saturday Morning and back on Monday. They credited us back 2/3 days of the cruise fare, and I think maybe 1.5 days worth of our drink package? I don't remember all of the details but the whole trip ended up being very cheap when it was all said and done, so it was worth it. We originally had just booked an interior room since it was kind of a last minute trip, but after the delay we figured there would be a lot of cancelations so we asked about a room upgrade. I believe we were told that there were only maybe 2200 people on the boat vs the 4000+ person capacity, so they upgraded us to a balcony for $50.00. Got a nice look at the Carnival ship with the Bolt coaster on the side during sail away which was cool. Not sure if I'll ever make it on that ship but it's cool that Carnival offers that now. The sailaway was really fun because there were like 5 ships all leaving at once, probably because of the delayed departure. The weather was absolutely beautiful the whole trip, sunny, no rain, incredibly calm seas, and the boat being half empty was really nice. It still felt like there was a good crowd, especially in the bars and casinos, but dinner and the pool deck were empty which was nice. We didn't do any of the specialty dining options other than some wings in the sports bar since it was such a short cruise, but all of the food in the buffet and main dining room was good. Nothing was bad but nothing was "great" either if that makes any sense? For a 2 day cruise it was fine, but on a longer sailing I probably would have tried the steak house or something. Here's a picture from our 8pm dinner seating where the dining room was basically empty lol. There was a family next to use but yeah, the place was dead. We didn't get to go Cocoa Cay which was a bummer, I was really looking forward to seeing that place, but I'm sure there will be another cruise in the future for that. We sailed to Nassau and back, but never got off the boat in Nassau because we stayed on the boat to watch the Jags vs Eagles game. This trip was originally supposed to have been a trip to Philly for that game, but we cancelled that trip for various reasons and booked the cruise instead. Glad we did because the weather in Philly was awful and the Jags blew the game (typical), so I'd rather watch that from a boat in Nassau than from the stadium in Philly. We did the drink package, so a pre-dinner martini on the balcony was pretty awesome. The drink package as a whole was really nice, and we drank way too much. I think the fist day we had like 28 charges on our account, so yeah the all inclusive package was worth it lol. The ship was great, I've been on 1 Disney cruise, 1 Carnival, and this was my second on RCCL, but this felt like the nicest most modern ship I'd ever been on. I loved how the whole interior was open end to end with bars and shops and restaurants everywhere. It really didn't feel like a cruise ship on the interior. The ship was also really easy to navigate considering how big it was. I remember our Disney ship being much more confusing. The activity schedule was a little limited since the cruise was cut short by a day. Grease was the musical on our sailing but we didn't have a chance to see it (I love musicals but Grease isn't my favorite so it's fine). We did check out the juggling comedians show, an adult game show thing, and played Bingo. Other wise we pretty much just gambled and ate and drank, drank a lot, for 2 days. I did take advantage of short lines for the Flowrider Saturday morning when we were in port, that's always fun even if I fall on my head. So all in all a very short trip, but still a lot of fun. I've only ever been on 3 day cruises because it seems to fit our scheduled better but I really want to try a longer sailing in the future sometime.

To be fair, Top Thrill Dragster did make an amazing case for why it's important to have great insurance.

Last issue of Amusement Today has an article about the new Zambezi Zinger and other information about 2023 at Worlds of Fun. Enhanced theming throughout the park, renaming of Orient to East Asia, Africa being split into three sections, new bird show, history display in Tivoli Theater lobby, 50 Days of Celebration for the 50th Anniversary including the 50 Nights of Fire show and more.

Last Sunday I passed by Liseberg and took some photos of the park. When I got home and started to download the photos from my camera, I realised that the last time I visited Liseberg was at the Summer opening and that I didn't upload any photos from that visit. Due to fuel prices and life I haven't hade the time and yen to do frequent visit to parks this year... Now with 600+ photos downloaded from the camera, here is a massive photo bomb update: First photos from the Summer opening and the premiere of two new flat rides in the Luna Park section on top of the mountain "Tempus" & "Turbo". Liseberg had put in a prayer for warm and sunny whether to the Æsir-goods (Odin, Frigg, Höðr, Thor, and Baldr). Also new to this year is that you can ride Atmosfear with VR-googles I wonder if they will thread the tracks of Luna beneath the tracks of Lisebergbanan New theme of the bumpercars: A Swedish classic candy - Ahlgrens Bilar. (Tho most sold car in Sweden ) Something is changing here... CLOSED New buildings are assembled beside Liseberg... And some new photos: The construction of the water land is moving along just fine.... The building for "World of Volvo" is massive. They vill move the Volvo museum with the all the cars to this building. Did Santa left some presents?? I think that the park looks at it best in the Halloween theme.. 360° version I hope to write here soon.... /// Marcus

Cedar Point 10-1-2022 A few weeks ago I hatched a plan for a trip to Ohio. I really needed to justify the expense of the Platinum FL+ pass. Timing was great as my town had a lot of flooding and power outages due to Ian. I visited 5 breweries in Cleveland with a local friend the night before and was still in good shape by the time I reached CP. Raptor and Magnum never ran that I saw. It was a really windy day. FL+ was pricey! I decided to grab a couple of rides on Steel Vengeance first. I would probably do the pay locker next time. The lockers in the queue were a PITA. Love the first drop! Then it was on to my favorite coaster...Fantastic as always! Wait was about 15 minutes for FL+. The regular queue was already at 90 minutes. After a couple of rounds with Maverick, it was time to feel the MF'n Force! Second best ride in the park, IMO. And why not take a ride on Valravn? Lake Erie was angry that day, my friends. Like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli... After a few more re-rides, I took a break for a late lunch. I have a dining plan, but the lines were so long that I went to Famous Dave's. After lunch I walked a round a bit and caught a ride on Gatekeeper. I worked my way back to Maverick and the FL+ wait was 45 minutes. So I bailed and decide to start heading towards Kings Island. I took back roads for a lot of the trip. I decided to route through Dayton to stop at Toxic Brew Company. Delicious as always!

Glad you could at least salvage some of your cruise!

Great TR so far, I just want to note a few things you seemed to be wondering about. That European Union sign that you saw crossing the Rhine River that said Allemagne was "Germany" in French. I'm not sure why it was in French instead of "Deutschland" but my guess was it was put up by France on the French side of the border and it looked like it was double-sided with France on the other side. Europe has been in a drought this year (it only rained two nights on my 3 ½ week trip in (July/Aug) so the Rhine River is much lower than normal and Rhine River cruises even had to be cancelled. I think the more picturesque part of the Rhine is north as this is in southwestern Germany. I crossed by train from France to Germany and the Rhine looked similar to this. The giant shoes in the United Kingdom part of Europa Park are football (soccer) cleats and that building by it is a football (soccer) themed bumper cars where there is an inflatable ball in the middle and you try to bump it to one of the goals at each end to get points. I tried it on the 2017 Oktoberfest TPR and it was fun trying to figure it out. Definitely a unique twist on a bumper cars ride. The ride and building is also sponsored by Adidas (a German company) I believe. Mercedes Benz (another German company) is the sponsor of Silver Star and they have a Formula Racing exhibit by the queue so that's why you see their logo plastered there. That area of Europa Park used to be Monoco which is famous for its Grand Prix race, but they recently incorporated it into France so Europa no longer has a Monoco area (at least according to the park maps). Europa still has a tiny Luxembourg (which I stayed one night in right before arriving in Germany) area which houses the FoodLoop restaurant and a stop for the smaller inner monorail. The Whale Watching splash battle ride you skipped has an indoor dark ride section and interactive targets you can hit for cool effects so its not just a generic splash battle ride and you don't get too wet. All the water rides at Europa had long lines when I went in August except for this one so it was nice to cool off but not get soaked. I also did find that random Snorri dark ride promoting Rulantica nearby as I saw people standing in line for it and when I found out it was a ride with a 10-15 minute wait I decided to try. It reminded me of a cross between The Little Mermaid at DCA and Nemo and Friends at Epcot but definitely better than the latter. I really wanted to go to Rulantica but it was sold out when I went. Europa wasn't part of my original trip plan but it was near the travel loop I was doing (Paris -> Bruges/Brussels -> Luxembourg -> Zurich) so I decided to include one day. My original plan was to do Europa until 6PM closing and Rulantica from 7-10PM with their night ticket but it was sold out by the time I was going to pull the trigger. All the hotels were completely booked in Rust too so I had to stay in Freiburg which is a 30 min train ride away but it ended up being a bigger city with more than I expected. It worked out for me as Europa ended up extending its hours to 8PM on the day I went so I got to get on a few more rides on the busy day I went (14 rides total). I wouldn't recommend only one day at Europa Park for a first time visitor but one day is better than zero days for a return visit. I'll eventually have to return to Europa for a longer visit for the new Czech Republic area and coaster and Rulantica. This trip looked like a lot of fun and I recognize a lot of people from the NL/Poland/Sweden trip I was on in 2019. The timing just didn't work out for me as I had a wedding to attend in Brittany, France in late July so I had to plan my trip around that. Still I was able to hit up Disneyland Paris/WDS, Parc Asterix, Plopsaland De Panne, Walibi Belgium, and Europa Park on my own among other things.

Should have sprung for extended warranty.

Woah. Stay in your lane dude, because clearly you haven't seen the new façade on the bathrooms by JB's, or the new flowers planted. I'm also pretty sure Disney doesn't have a snow cone day. Last, and certainly not least, Disney doesn't have a historical carousel.

A crummy commercial!? Son of a b****

got asked to post some of the "house" pics. . so will. keep in mind, "the Swamp" and one of the new Houses: "Disassembly Line". . pics were taken earlier in the day during a lights on walk thru. . so that's why the pics are a bit clearer, and no scare actors. (tho I might have taken a few when we went thru later with the actors in place). "the Swamp". . .new house last year (2021) "Dis-Assembly Line" - new house this year: a LOT of the mannequins in here look like they are based on Michael Berryman (Hills Have Eyes) (tho later at night, there were a TON of scare actors mixed in with the sets as well) "Karver's Kradle" - aka: the creepy Dolls house . . a classic house at SWSA (one of the shortest houses, but still well done. . .in particular the "mirror" room - which I didn't get any pics of this year) "Milton Creek Manor" . . another classic, permanent house at SWSA. This one tends to have the really high tech animatronics, like a high-end haunted house would have (hence, the line moves slow, as things break quite a bit..tho they try to make up for it with more scare actors if the effects are acting up. "Zombie Horde". . .the only outdoor house, and tho it's really just scare actors? it's one of my favorites. . such creepy atmosphere! and finally, the OTHER new house this year: "Atlantis: the cursed chasm" (importing the Sirens from SWO) oh. . one new thing they are doing, which I'll mention, is you can pay extra on your fear pass, and you get a little neon glowsitck to wear. That glowstick guarantees you to go thru the "Deadly Detour" - extra rooms/sections in the houses. Personally we didn't pay for the deadly detour upgrade. . but in at least two of the houses (Swamp, and Zombie Horde), the attendant at the detour, directed some of use (I got included both times) thru the Deadly Detour. . I guess to split up the crowds, or to give the fear actors in the extra rooms some "business"). for me? not worth the upcharge. .but if you're already purchasing the fear pass to skip the line? why not go for it, I guess?

A few more quick and disjointed thoughts from my family's recent trip during the week of September 20th; We were primarily down in Florida to do the stuff out at Universal Orlando Resort, but my wife didn't want to miss out on a chance at Disney. We decided upon doing the Friday night Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, as we didn't want to get locked into anything more than that (ie Genie+, multi-day tickets, Park Hoppers, Magic Bands, etc). The bonus of short lines for most of the rides was pretty enticing. My wife also wanted a chance at getting her revenge on Space Mountain, the coaster that gave her a panic attack when she was 18 and never ended up getting to ride it. We were also excited to ride Haunted Mansion with the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay! Of course, it wasn't until about three days before we left for Florida that we learned that, uh, I guess y'all don't really DO that down there. My fault for assuming that it was just a standard thing that happened at all the Disney parks, instead of being a Disneyland exclusive. When I told my wife, she asked "Is it too late to cancel our trip and rebook it for California instead?" Next year, hon, next year. Friday morning, we really slept in for the first chance we had all trip, then got some breakfast before heading out to a nearby arcade called Arcade Monsters that was filled to the brim with a ton of Japanese rhythm games. We've got a few places like this up north, but none of them have a full-size Taiko No Tatsujin machine like this spot did! Honestly, I kinda wish we had more time to spend here because this place was amazing. Can we franchise a location for New Jersey please? We got to Magic Kingdom a little bit before 4 PM, took the monorail over to the main gates and got let into the park three hours before the event started. We spent a little bit of time getting some photos and picking up our trick-or-treat bags before heading to the first stop of the night, which was dining at Be Our Guest. My wife's favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast, and dining inside the Beast's castle was too much of an opportunity to pass up. Definitely wasn't cheap, but the food was super yummy and definitely worth it. This ended up taking up a lot of the extra time we had before the event started, as we didn't get out of there until about 6:15. I probably missed something, but it seems like a lot of the Halloween stuff just wasn't listed on the app. If it had been, and there had been posted wait times for the character meet-and-greets, we probably wouldn't have made our first mistake of the night, which was waiting to get photos with Donald, Daisy, and Minnie in the Dumbo tent. We were walking past and saw a short line outside, and thought "hey, how long could it be?". Keep in mind that neither of us had been here in at least 20 years, so we didn't know that the line actually snaked back and forth inside the Dumbo tent. It ended up being about a 75 minute wait. The photos came out terrific, and the kids were happy, but if I had seen a posted wait time anywhere I would have probably just skipped it. We had a similar issue later in the night, as a helpful Disney cast member recommended that we check out Jack & Sally at Town Square around 10:30 PM. We had peeked in right as we were walking into the park and saw a ridiculously long line, and decided to skip it at that point. Upon coming back at 10:30, we were greeted with a mostly empty room and what appeared to be about 5 families in line. Again, though, that snaking queue behind the wall! You got us twice! This wait ended up being another hour, but getting the photos with Jack & Sally was non-negotiable. At least we had lots of candy to tide us through the wait. While the fireworks and projections were about to happen, we found ourselves in the back of the castle. We decided, eh, we're probably not going to find a great spot if we try to walk all the way around, so let's just hang out back here near the carousel. We took a seat on some of the benches nearby, and as soon as the show started... we were nearly blasted out of our spots by the fireworks quite literally going off over our heads. What a heck of a vantage point. I can't say I've ever been that close to the action for any fireworks show and it was terrifying and thrilling. Not-So-Scary, my ass! Oh yeah, so what did we get done, ride-wise? Only three coasters altogether; Barnstormer, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and the left side of Space Mountain. Seven Dwarfs was pretty cool for a family coaster, and while my wife was super happy to finally get that Space Mountain monkey off her back, she wasn't expecting it to be 100% pitch black inside, apparently something special they do for the Halloween event. (Which was ironic considering the last time I was there, I ended up getting a full lights-on ride!) Other than that, we did a few of the dark rides like Ariel and Winnie The Pooh, we took a spin on the Mad Tea Cups which had some extra spooky music and lights going, and we did a last minute run all the way from Space Mountain to Pirates of the Caribbean for our final ride of the night. Man, that ride really is just the Jack Sparrow show these days, huh? What did we not do? We didn't get a chance to see the parade, we never made it over to Frontierland or Liberty Square, and we didn't get any pictures with Mickey. All in all though, it was okay; we went in knowing we weren't going to have a whole lot of time to do probably everything we wanted to do, and that got exacerbated by the inflated waits for the photo ops. As far as a teaser for a future Disney visit, it was just enough to whet the appetite. We'll be back sometime within the next few years. (But they better bring Nightmare Before Christmas to the Haunted Mansion by the next time we're there!)

As part of a bunch of announcements across SeaWorld and Busch parks, SeaWorld San Diego has announced their newest roller coaster, Arctic Rescue, to open in 2023! Arctic Rescue will be the longest and fastest straddle coaster on the West Coast New family-friendly ride with 48” height requirement has three exhilarating launches that increase in speed at each launch Ride to bring awareness to threats facing Arctic sea life from climate change and global warming Annual Pass Members will be the first to ride before the official opening https://seaworld.com/san-diego/rides/arctic-rescue/ SeaWorld San Diego is thrilled to announce that the highly anticipated coaster, Arctic Rescue, will open in Spring 2023. Joining other thrill rides at the theme park, Arctic Rescue will be the longest and fastest straddle coaster on the West Coast. This family-friendly multi-launch ride invites guests to hop on a snowmobile and launch at up to 40 mph on a chilly adventure as they race through the unpredictable arctic climate to help animals in danger. With its 48-inch height requirement, adventure seekers of all ages will enjoy the thrills and chills of Arctic Rescue. SeaWorld’s coolest new coaster will feature a unique indoor launch station where passengers will start their journey inside of the Wild Arctic exhibit and launch outside straddling a unique snowmobile style vehicle. Guests will race through the Arctic and experience three exhilarating launches, each faster than the last, at 34, 38 and 40 miles per hour. The straddle snowmobilestyle seats allow for an immersive ride experience for each rider as they lean into banks and turns and glide up heights as tall as 30 feet along the 2,800 feet of track. Manufactured by Intamin Worldwide, each train will hold 16 riders in eight, two-person rows. “We’re continuously looking for ways to add new experiences to the park for our guests and this new coaster is a great addition to our ride line-up and a perfect complement to the Wild Arctic exhibit,” said Jim Lake, SeaWorld San Diego Park President. “The ride is also an educational opportunity for guests to learn more about climate change, how it impacts animals in the Arctic and what they can do to help the issue. I truly feel that seeing these animals upclose at SeaWorld allows guests to build a stronger connection and encouragement to take action to help protect them.” Unpredictable climate fluctuations and global warming is happening in the Arctic three times as fast as the rest of the planet. As a result, the Arctic sea ice that many animals rely on for survival is melting, threatening the survival of many species and forcing them to change the way they hunt, breed, and migrate. The ride is inspired by the heroic efforts of the SeaWorld Rescue Team and their dedication to rescuing animals in distress and in need of care. Riders will race the unpredictable arctic climate to save these animals in danger. Arctic Rescue is incorporated in the Wild Arctic exhibit which is home to a ringed seal, walruses, and belugas, some of the species most impacted by Arctic sea loss. The new ride will bring awareness to the pressures the Arctic is facing and allow guests to visit, see and learn more about each animal whose species call the Arctic their home. Arctic Rescue will be the perfect addition for the Coaster Capital of San Diego and SeaWorld's ever-growing ride portfolio, which includes Journey to Atlantis, Manta, Electric Eel, Tidal Twister and Emperor, voted one of 2022’s top best new attractions in the country by USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice poll. Arctic Rescue will join the park's famed attractions as a must-do experience for coaster enthusiasts everywhere.

Currently at the airport waiting for my flight home I won't go into much details but Phantasialand blew me away. There were barely any waits on the days we went, so we rode Taron 12 times! Many of which they just allowed is to stay on. I think that was my favorite coaster of the trip, it was just so good! The people that criticize it for being too slow or meandering too much or whatever, jeez. I loved it. My biggest/only complaint of the park is the length of the empty queue lines you had to walk through and the number of steps/stairs. Damn! You need to be in good shape lol. A small handful of random photos, sorry no play by play I did enough writing on my personal Facebook. Thanks to everyone for the advice and information, I had an amazing time!

^