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Mikey over here acting like Chang was better than Lightning Run or Storm Chaser.

. . . continued Day 11: Parc Astérix (part III, the conclusion): we made our way around to the section with the "slow moving" rides. . .my favorites, and perfect to help settle things after Goudurix. we passed under the "skyview" as not everyone wanted to ride that, so saved that for after. Instead we headed to to the slow moving boat ride: with the silly looking dragon on our ship: full of people ready to be entertained by the Astérix characters (of whom I knew almost nothing about). lots of scenes, and animatronics. . on a fairly long ride. it even had a short dark ride / cave section I'm guessing he's a bad guy? it was pretty cute. I think this is the name of the area we were in, as I can make out the sign says 2 attractions. so that's probably the boat ride we just got off of, and the Aire traveler that I was headed to. but also over here was this absolutely adorable kiddie flume ride (we rode the adult one that looked like a Shoot the Chutes - but must have had phone put away, as I have NO pictures of our ride on it. but I recall it. no other flume here tho.. just this kiddie one). Adults sadly not allowed to ride. I think Jere and I were the only ones that like these kind of slow moving "elevated railway" type rides. . so we rode, and I'd guess the rest of the group headed over to reride Zeus, or Oziris again. hmmm. . is Le Grand Splatch the Shoot the Chutes type ride? it must be. . .I know we rode it. maybe I DID get a pic of the sign, but from the elevated track ride. Jere and Bert enjoying the view (and breeze) passing over some of the scenes from the boat ride we just got off of. AIRTIME HILL coming up!!!! ooooo.. we're coming back into the station, just as a parade is passing by? what timing. not sure whom I have to thank for this pic. . probably Jon? Hiya Obelix ! we rode in your butt earlier! the cast members VERY much stayed in character.. I loved it. heave! no. . I didn't buy them. but yes, I really wanted to! after the parade, and the slower rides that let the Aspirin have time to counteract Goudurix. . it was time to head back to Pegasus for another ride. I seriously loved this ride. and had to pan down for the full pic, as this guy seemed to be really proud of the big blue banana he had won. Having met back up with a few of the gang at Pegasus, we headed next door to squeeze our butts into the tiny teacup rafts of "La Riviere d'Elis" whee!! these type of rides, also seemed fairly popular at the European parks. Not ALL of them had them, but most had some version of it. I enjoyed them, even if it really is just slowly spinning among flowers in most cases. it was almost time for park close. . so we headed back to Tonnerre 2 Zeus for evening rides. man. . he looks kinda scary with the sun behind him. . . spooky! they had the soda machines here where you buy it, and tilt the bottle upside down and the soda freezes into a Slurpee consistency. thanks to Elissa for having change I could use to get this. the pic doesn't do it justice, but I know Elissa has a TPR video where they demonstrate how it works. it's very cool. I don't seem to have any pics of us getting back onto Tonnerre 2 Zeus for our evening rides. . .but I know we rode it a number of times after official park close. and have the pics others took (so below are from the ride photo (we each got a free photo), Elissa, or from AJ/Brad/Andy this one is a still from Robb's rider cam when I got to ride in the front during the evening ERT (you can see in the next picture how the camera is mounted for this amazing pic) after a fantastic day at Parc Astérix, we all posed for a pic in front of Zeus (thanks Robb!!), and then it was time to head back to the bus snapping a couple of pics as we made our way back to the hotel parking lot. . the bar back down on the ground. and owls. it had been an amazing trip..and I hated that it was over. but it wasn't really over for many of us. although the bus was headed back to the Airport to drop off those who had flights tonight or tomorrow. . it was then continuing on to Disneyland Paris. . where many of us were staying an additional 2-3 days before heading back home. I was one of those staying (along with my trip roomie James). . so we were headed to the Paris version of Wilderness Lodge for check in once the bus stopped at the airport. it had been a long, long, day.. . but once we checked in at the Disney hotel and discovered that our multiday passes included check in day as an admission (and the park was open past 11pm (and it was only ~8:20 by the time we were checked in) ? you bet we went to Disney for a couple of hours. But that's the next update. for now, thanks for reading along! bert

. . . continued: Day 11: Parc Astérix (part II): Astérix himself was doing walk-around meet and greet, but had quite the line at the moment, so settled for a pic near him. . and we continued on the coaster my group headed to next was "Pegase Express". . . a Gerstlauer multilple wheel launched coaster with a number of surprises up it's sleeve (which I won't spoil here, as the first time I rode it, it completely surprised me!). it's a long coaster, so you can't really see the layout from inside the park. theming is to a Greek Gods transportation station.. . the ride is so long, it was operating, I think 4 trains at the same time. this is an interesting pic. . hmmm. . where does the track go??? (as I said.. surprises up it's sleeve) from the exit ramp, you can see some of the layout - and how it interacts with the parks river rapids ride. and yes. .that is ALL the queue line for this coaster! thank goodness for skip the line passes wheee! The group I spent most of the day at Parc Astérix hanging out with. I think this pic is courtesy of AJ or possibly Andy? fun "travel" theming all thruout the ride queue, even to the exit. we started to make our way towards the area of the park where lunch was going to be, as it was getting close to that time. what was over here that we could ride while waiting? A pretty decent Madhouse (tho heard that they weren't doing the Pre-show since Covid, so probably why it wasn't as good as I had heard the raves about it. it was fun, but not really a standout among the Madhouses I'd gotten to ride on this trip). since in the area where we were shortly meeting for lunch, our cycle happened to include a bunch more of the TPR folks on the trip. we all rode as a big happy family. . . giant Astérix facing the front entrance to the park. . . but what was this? finally. . a full size Carousel. and a heavily themed one at that. . to Astérix & Obelix. with rocking carriages, galloping horses. . and a giant Obelix. OH MY SWEET LORD. you can ride inside Obelix' butt. He's holding himself open for you! the rest of the carousel is gorgeous as well. . .loved this "swinging" chair option. . but (t) when it was our turn? I bee-lined it for the Obelix butt option! I almost pissed myself with glee. . not only do you ride in his butt? but it SPINS like a teacup. Yup. we crammed all 5 of us in the butt so we could get it spinning chill bert, in da butt. . . we spent the whole ride spinning and laughing like loons. and posed for a pic the ride op. graciously took for me. but (t) we needed the "proctology" pic too - SHOW ME THE FINGER! (tho Andrew didn't want to play along). thanks to Andy for taking the pic for me sufficiently dizzy, but still having a little time before lunch meetup, we did a quick lap around the area and I wandered to the edge of the lagoon to snap a pic of the mobile bar in operation (seen here at the top of the tower it lifts up to) Who lives in a pineapple under the sea??? apparently a healthy eating option restaurant. (not what I was planning on eating today tho) I don't really remember what was in this heavily themed section here. . was it a dark ride? i know we walked thru it a couple of times. . and I have pics from inside where there is theming and shops. did we ride something here? quickly enough it was time for meetup, so we hightailed it back to the Circus restaurant area. here we are listening to the servers/hosts explaining how everything works. it's a buffet, but it's pretty spread out, and you order drinks (alcoholic or otherwise) before going to get food. Round one. . . mostly cold stuff. YUMMY escargot. hey, when in France. . . round 2, the hot stuff. (luckily I'd had a VERY light breakfast and really was pretty hungry by this point. . as if you couldn't tell) Round 3: desert. that bowl of chocolate is from the chocolate fountain they had in the circus tent buffet. nothing was super sweet.. but my favorite thing was the custard pastry at the bottom. After lunch, those who wanted to join the backstage tour for Toutatis had a little bit of time until we met up over by the Bobsleds. the Bobsleds, Trace Du Hourra, are a Mack bobsled. which is super interesting in that it's unpainted/rust color. I asked about that during the tour, and was told they leave it rust color to represent the color of the earth, as you are following the trail the cavemen took. so it's actually theming that it's unpainted. I found that rather interesting. it was one of only two "coasters" we hadn't yet been on today. . . oh, and they accepted the Skip the lines. So we hopped on for a ride. the meetup for the tour was right around the corner from it. . so perfect timing. we headed over that way. . and after we were issued safety vests and (I think) signed the waiver, the park reps lead the group of us backstage, and onto the Toutatis construction site. Twisty!!! from back here you can see the main entrance Astérix high up on his perch. that's important, because the direction from the park is that the spike aspect of the coaster can NOT be higher than Astérix sits. . he has to be the highest point in the park. so how did they get around that and keep the height of the spike? they dug a deep hole, and put the spike down into it, so keeps the height, but starts underground basically. . . sooooo twisty!! and the bobsled nearby really is gonna interact with it fantastically. . . if was able to get these kind of shots while walking around the construction site? it's gonna be amazing from the queue line, and while on the actual ride when it's open. from the layout? I think this will be my favorite part of the ride, if I'm ever able to get back and ride it. work being done on the queue-line. Looking at pics of it now, it's incredible how this turned into what is currently there for the queue! they told us at least 1, and possibly two, flat rides would be joining the coaster in this new section of the park. you can see here how the spike is coming up from "underground" (ie: in a trench) to keep the height. yes, we were able to get REALLY close to the coaster. really close I'd never seen this before and found this so interesting as well. this is how they check "clearance". . they run this do-hicky down the track and make sure it doesn't hit any trees or blockages. and pic courtesy of our tour guide (or maybe Elissa since I don't see her in the pic). . but the group of us who went back stage to check out Toutatis. HUGE thank you to Parc Astérix, and to Robb & Elissa for this incredible opportunity. it really was so amazing. after our tour, we all split back up to make the most of the rest of our day, prior to meet up at park close for more Tonnarre 2 Zeus riding the gang I was hanging out with headed back to Oziris for another ride. and then took a ride on that inflatable raft ride that I talked about when we walked by the entrance this morning in part 1. we saw from nearby that Gourdurix had opened back up. . . so despite my brain screaming "NOOOOO". . we went over that way and took 1 ride on it. why just one? oh. . awful. just awful. very glad I had Aspirin with me. . janky and shaky, and bangs the hell out of you. literally the ONLY good thing I can say about it? because I rode this today? much later that night, when James and I got on Indiana Jones over at Disneyland Paris, that ride didn't seem to bad. Because it wasn't even close to the worst thing we'd ridden all day. So it made Indiana Jones adventure seem like a better coaster. it has that going for it. LOL. . but yeah. 1-and-done. and look. . NOBODY in that front car looks "happy" to have ridden. after that ride on Goudurix, I really needed a hug. Luckily, Astérix was out and about again, and with no line, he was perfectly happy to give me a hug! we even took a group shot. and I think I have individual pics of each of us with Astérix. . so if you were with me and I didn't share the pic, hit me up, and I'll check to see if I have one I can send of you. ABSOLUTELY zero recollection of what this is. perhaps that dark ride in the castle? if I didn't imagine that? lots of props out and about to pose with too.. so of course I was in heaven. . to be concluded. .

Rumors suggest Velocicoaster will be added to express in the next week or two. Sounds good to me.

Just as an fyi to those that aren't aware or didn't already see. According to the ACE summary of No Coaster Con in January, the following was confirmed, by Katy Enrique regional marketing director for SFOG, SFSTL, and SFGAm and John Krajnak park president: John Krajnak will indeed be the Park President for BOTH SFGAm and SFSTL. Will be interesting to see how that works out and how much time he spends in each park The SFSTL Grand Carousel refurb will be finished this year with the intent to open by National Carousel Day, July 25, 2023 There will be a new attraction for 2023 in the former go-kart area, it will be for families with small kids. No other details but updates will be coming. Discuss or not at your leisure.

Or even Thunder Run, which I found kinda mediocre.

Small update from today. Crowds were minimal as usual for this time of year. Only Cheetah Hunt was more than 15 minutes. Work being done on Falcon's Fury. That's a good sign and I hope it opens soon. I went to see what was going on at Scorpion. Some signs up at the entrance. Scorpion's 2nd train on the transfer track, I don't think I have seen that on any visit to the park in the last year and a half since I moved to FL.

This. The park did NOT want it to end this way after the intense refurb. They tried their best but it just wasn't to be in the end. I have never ridden Excalibur because unfortunately neither covering my entire body in scopolamine patches and/or swallowing a case of dramamine would allow me to experience this without disasterous "Sandlot" level effects to myself and those around me; however I do recognize the historic rarity of this type of ride and sorry for all the fans of it, and would be fans who wanted to ride but never got the chance.

Grew up near Dollywood and finally did the 10 hour drive to SDC to ride FITH last year with all the rumors. Something I've always wanted to ride. Might do it again now that it's official. (full disclosure, Flooded Mine was the #2 reason since ours shut down long ago)