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Day 12: Wednesday, June 14th Evening - arriving in Gothenburg Sweden (checking into the FABULOUS Grand Curiousa Hotel at Liseberg) crossing over into Sweden.. huh.. looks a lot like Norway with more cows! ah. . we're coming into a more modern city area. . . (Gothenburg) this is the stadium, nearby to the park, where Metallica would be performing on our 2nd night here. They were so loud, and it was so close, we could hear songs clearly from our hotel rooms. it was pretty damn cool, and some in our group even scored day of tix and went to the show. other side of the arena and coming into view, the front gates of Liseberg, with the iconic drop tower, and the ferris wheel. a Dinosaur? what the heck? turns out this building (and the one in the next pic with the geometric wooden shape) are part of an incredible interactive science museum called the Universeum - that Big Mike and I would visit in two days, as it opened up a couple of hours before the park opened, so we had time for a visit). you can see under the "T" shaped building - a new addition to the Universeum it turned out - the tracks for the Funicular, which sadly only has the tracks left, as they removed it when the built the new building. so elevators now get you up to that wooden shaped area (which is being converted to a Planetarium) but they left the tracks as they thought they were cool looking feature on the outside of the building (I asked and was told) I spot a coaster. . that would be Valkyria, the park's dive coaster. and across the tracks on the other side of the street, there is the brand new Hotel "Grand Curiousa" - where we would be staying for 3 nights. it's not only an amazing hotel, but it's basically attached to the park. unfortunately there was a LOT of construction going on near the Hotel (some of it the Liseberg indoor waterpark which is right next door to the hotel), and some of it a car accident. . . which caused our bus to get stuck in traffic and have to do a bit of a detour. it added some extra time on the bus, but gave us some wonderful "backstage" views of the park that probably aren't often seen. . so enjoy these pics taken from the bus: train is actually on the track in this one - going into the final brake run. Looking up from underneath Balder and Balder cresting the lift hill. eventually we made our way to the front of the hotel, and were ready to check in. even the sign is interesting. . couldn't wait to see inside the hotel, with it's themed / old-timey but very modern floors, and playful rooms. I said the hotel was basically in the park, right? Here was the view from AJ and my room: Valkryia & Balder views and Thor's Hammer pendulum swinging into view occasionally too. let's check out the room! Cheeky coathanger hands and fingers, along with regular pegs. a large bathroom with a HUGE shower. a separate area (that could be closed off with heavy drapes) that included two bunk beds - AJ claimed this space which gave him lots of privacy and some quiet from my snoring - to work on his pictures. he took/takes some damn nice photos! and I got the main "bed" in the room with the window. putting the bathroom and a long hallway between my snoring and my roomie, so hopefully he got some good sleep here out in the hallway - I think all of us on the TPR trip were on Floor 4, where the rooms seemed to have a Vintage Amusement Park theme. but the hallways on the floors were wonderfully quirky, and if you didn't particularly want to stay in your room? there were tons of places to sit, and things to explore. amazing chandelier of "vintage junk" suspended all the way down the main atrium. deciding to take the steps down from 4th floor (mainly because there's a really cool slide from the 2nd floor). some of the decor around the 3rd floor. . .still very "vintage quirky" a "Birdcage" loveseat between the 2nd floor and the main lobby. the side entrance - that will be facing the indoor waterpark.. with a lovely Chandelier. some decor in the lobby. . . including a full size Carousel in the buffet/restaurant area! sadly was for children, and ONLY children.. so not able to ride, even if I had a child volunteer to go with me. it was ok tho, as I enjoyed myself immensely just taking way too many pictures of it (only gonna share a couple here tho, you're welcome) back into the lobby/main bar. . you can see the "quirky" decorating continues thruout the lobby area around this time, some of us were starting to get munchies, so while some ate in the restaurant in the hotel, some of us headed out to find food, and we managed to find a place that served Greek/Mediterranean Poboys. but we enjoyed the walk and I loved the area around the park. when we got back, we sat in the bar - which sadly shut down right when we got there (think it might have been 11pm when it closed?).. but the staff didnt' mind if we hung out in there (tho I think Jason and Jonathan went up to the rooftop bar, but I felt underdressed for that so stayed in the lobby and got to see these freaky robot busboys. they were SO freaky, and polite, and spoke if you got in front of them, and asked you to move out of the way. . LOL the hotel also has, attached to the front desk, a 24 hour gift shop. Which sold all kinds of snacks, and souvenirs from the park. note: if the front desk clerk tells you "SURE!! go ahead and ring the bell". . . dont' believe them. that bell is so loud, it reverberated thru the whole lobby for a good 45 seconds, and remember it was after 11pm. I was a bit horrified, but the Desk Clerk was very amused. an example of what you can get in the giftshop. oh. . we HAVE to go up the steps now. . because it's late enough, there aren't a lot of kiddos around. .and we can get access to . . . the SLIDE !!! yup.. my fat ass is gonna try it! graceful! but wheeeeeee!!! even talked Jason into giving it a go one last wander around the lobby area, as it's quiet so can get decent pics. . . back up to the room to crash. . . the view from the room was so nice at night! and with that, it was off to bed. . .as tomorrow was our first of two full days at the amazing Liseberg ! oh, a bonus pic, taken by, I think, Jason. while we were waiting for the counter guy to make our sandwiches - this little tattooed Swede started flirting HARD with me. we talked about his duck (laying on the seat behind him) that he had won, and was a little embarrassed about, and he told me he was waiting for his bus to head home. but made it VERY clear he was ok to stay if I wanted to invite him to hang out. . . . LOL.. . it was very nice getting flirted with, as I liked his tatts. so it was a perfect capper to a perfect day! (and no, I didn't' know a pic had been taken until it got sent to me later that evening at the hotel).

We also spent some time at Ba Na Hills theme park. You could probably do a full day there if you wanted to really explore, but a lot of the rides there were copies of films we'd seen in Korea, so we didn't buy any buffet tickets and opted to leave after half a day since Korea has some of the busiest water parks in the world, we wanted to maximize our hotel water park time. The park is supposedly one of Vietnam's busiest tourist places, a theme park on top of the mountain and home to the Golden Hand Bridge aka 'The World's Most Instagrammmable Bridge', this park features in 100s of reels and YouTube videos on the topic of Instagram/Reality. So how bad was it really? Off to Ba Na Hills we go. Like most Vietnamese theme parks and the one In my previous TR, this one is owned by Sun World. We'd been warned that Ba Na Hills has it's own climate and heard many horror stories of terrible views and shut down cable cars. This was the only time we ever saw the resort all the way from our hotel, and with only that one cloud in the whole sky we chose to go that day. Being a Saturday and the best weather day in rainy season we knew we'd probably be in for the worst. Despite it being only a 30 minute taxi drive from the hotel clouds quickly formed. Instagram Vs Reality 1: We'd seen people recording hour-long queues for the cable car and tons of tour buses. We had an early breakfast and were at this entrance by 8:30.... ... and were not only on instantly but it was quiet enough even small groups weren't made to share gondolas yet. If you look to the right of the picture you can also see they're installing a 4th cable car line to reduce the lines. Despite the blue sky at the bottom, we entered the clouds after 15 minutes, at over 20 minutes long this is, I think, the world record holder for longest cable car journey. The famous bridge appeared out of the clouds. It's mostly there to connect the two cable car stations. Instagram Vs Reality 2: This bridge is known for being horribly crowded, but at 9am it wasn't bad at all. A lot of the crowds moved on because of the clouds wanting to come back when it was clearer but I kind of enjoyed the mist and clouds as a back-drop. Personally, if you just want to enjoy the view and don't care too much about getting the perfect shot on the bridge, head to the back side of the park. 99% of the crowds will be on the bridge and you can enjoy looking down the mountain without being jostled. Later in the day the bridge was starting to look more like the videos, and only got busier from there as guided tour groups packed in. The gardens are also in this area. At the other end of the bridge is the cable car to the theme park area. Note all the different lines that go to the other areas or back down the mountain. The twin alpine coasters, the parks signature attraction. Normally even on quiet days these rides can have an hour queue and shut down easily from weather. We'd been told the track in this picture, and the one you'll come across first from the cable car is the quieter one of the two, but this information is now outdated. Operations have now changed That one is now the free alpine coaster, and the other is fast-pass only. A fast-pass ticket was about $3 a person so skip the free one and just buy for the ticketed one. Also, tell the staff if you want a fast ride. They were great and would always check the car ahead was almost done before dispatching us. We saw many cars stuck behind slow riders but every time we asked the staff for a fast ride they obliged and we had brakeless runs whenever we wanted. Between the alpine coasters is the main indoor theme park, home to some kids rides like this ferris wheel, SBF Airborne Shot (closed for maintenance), single rail horse ride, and bumper cars. Also home to a 4D cinema, Desperados shooter, and a 360 screen. We've rode this many times at Seoul Land but it's always funny watching people jump out of their chairs on this when the dinosaur head closes around them. The main attraction indoor is the drop tower that goes and gives you a view outside. Like a lot of Vietnam, the arcade games scattered around were set to free play. There was also a dark ride but the line was long and a Youtube search suggested not worth the time. Link The outdoor area is mostly full of buffet restaurants and photo ops. But there is a chair ride and Merry go round here. The rides outside go down at the tiniest bit of rain which is pretty common even on sunny days. On the other end of the park, is the newest area,this empty castle, where there are 2 more movie rides. One a 4D cinema for 300 people showing Monster Family every 30 minutes. We'd seen it at Everland so we skipped it for the other ride. A 20-seater ride as you fly across the world feeling heat rain and wind. It felt like it was designed for a Flying Theater ride but they budget cut it back to a regular simulator. Before heading out we decided to sample Vietnam's coffees: Coconut coffee and egg coffee. We wanted to grab some swimming pool time so we left early but it started to pour, my son was saddened he might miss out on the outdoor pool but we would hit up the indoor one instead. However as we descended it became clear, Ba Na Hills really does get different weather than the rest of the city.... the rain disappeared.... ... and the journey back was sunny with a slight chance of cow. So we abandoned the rest of the day at Ba Na Hills for a indoor water park Plus a public clothed onsen (and gender-specific private areas for the more adventurous) Outdoor water park And Vietnam's 2nd? biggest lazy river. And the infinity pool, however unlike the rest of the water park above, where day tickets can be bought, you needed a hotel room key for here. This ends the Vietnam Parks TR. We had originally planned to hit the 3rd Sun World park, a zoo/water park/theme park combination,Link, but with 2 theme parks done and a water park-inclusive hotel booked due to the rainy season (and weights on rides posted at 75kg, something we couldn't find any information about ever actually being enforced but didn't want to risk it with me over that weight), we used the rest of the good weather days to experience the cultural sites and other tourist places like the famous lantern and basket boats instead. Bad coaster enthusiasts but good tourists.

Not a lot of Swag from TusenFryd. . they just don't have a lot of branded material avail. for sale. but I did pick up these: my non-branded fan from Thor's Hammer Gift Shop my super soft "Storm" t-shirt wearing park bear (with a park logo tag) and a photo magnet from Speed Monster (which is how I had permission to snap the pic of the photo screen in my update above, as I bought a magnet version of the pic)

Liseberg decided that the Christmas season for 2023 should end 2024-01-07 and that I'm still on vacation, I went to visit the park in the nice cold weather we have now after the storm passed. All attractions that was scheduled to be open was running and people was riding them despite that it was -6°C when I arrived to the park and it just got colder (I have -12°C @ home right now).. Liseberg had staff going around the park and deliver HOT coffee and tea to the rest of the staff that was working on the attractions and all the games due to the cold weather. The guest/staff ratio in the park was around 75/25, the amount of guests will increase the last 3 days of operation of the Christmas season.. /// Marcus All the water slides are assembled and the parking was now empty of parts.. The countdown to next Christmas has started, only 355 days left.... Perfect placement of a Christmas tree Santa gift workshop believes in YOU... Last year delivery route. I hope the ice is gone when Kollerado opens... Nice igloos around the ice skating rink Mmmmm... More Suovas kebab, this time with elk...... Flash... Who want to ride in this seat?? More flashing... I went in to the lobby of Hotel Grandiosa to warm up a little bit before leaving.. Where you can by the book with history from the first hundred years of the existence of Liseberg..

Day 12: Wednesday, June 14th part 2: more from our day at TusenFryd in Norway seems my recollection was correct in that the group met over by Thundercoaster next, to let us get some rides in. based on our faces? I'd say I took this pic at the entrance sign AFTER we rode. yup. .this is a Vekoma woodie, with Timberliner trains. and if you think that *sounds* like it would be a jackhammering not comfortable ride? yup, you'd win that prize. ^ here's a look at the trains and here's a look at one of the games that was set up across from the entrance to the coaster - where several of us after riding 2-3 times, went out to take pics or just wait for the Masochists in the group to finish riding during the ERT the park gave us. and no, I never really did understand what the point of this was, or why the "mazes" are set up in ways that look like they are numbers. (and I asked the operator and she had no idea eitehr. . she said you just shoot the ball with water to make it move). as noted, it really is just a lovely park. tho very hilly. the coaster LOOKS great. . as shame it's so rough. check out those gritted teeth on this turn! in particular Hawk (2nd from left on bottom) after our time on Thundercoaster, we only had a few hours left, so we split up again, and a bunch of us headed over to the park's flume ride. it uses the terrain pretty well, and has lots of neat little WTF? touches. ^WTF? ^adorable. . but WTF? and then it was time for lunch. I think most of our group - along with most of the other folks in the park today (mainly High Schoolers it seemed) went to the sit down Italian place for lunch. i actually remembered to take a pic of my meal - Lasagna - and I recall it being pretty decent. As I mentioned in responding to Erik's stop at this park tho, they seemed a bit overwhelmed by having so many folks in at the same time, and the ordering system was just an absolute cluster. from what I could tell: in theory you chose a numbered table, then went up to the "food court" area, and chose what you wanted, gave the cashier your table number, paid and then they bring it to your table. in reality, they had people ordering form every open register, not really in order, and when the food came up no one brought it out, and you had to go up and ask if something was sitting for a certain table (which the chefs didn't know) so you just had to ask what things were, and assuming you remembered what you ordered then you could say "oh that's mine, and take it" I'm sure myself as a dumb American made it even more confusing for them. . but I will say Kudos to the staff here, and the park, who tried their best to serve everyone correctly, and again the food was decent and out front of the restaurant? a lifesize FRYD I could hug. then it was onward to hit the sections of the park we had not been in yet, and the remaining 3 coasters. HuriHuri apparently means "SpinAround" in Maori. . . and it's a Zamperla Spinner. the lady running this was absolutely adorable, and gave us the spiel as if we were little children riding our first roller coaster (and I'm not being sarcastic. .it was awesome and she was fantastic) she even sent us around a 2nd time when the kids riding in another car asked if we could go again. and then it was downhill on the other side of the park.. where there used to be a section that seemed to be themed (or was in the middle of getting themed) to Americana/Route 66. that's Loopen, a Vekoma Tornado in the background Bumper cars what appeared to be a "driving school" attraction for the little ones. . but didn't seem to have any operators, or vehicles. and the building in the back USED to be the main store for the park, but was now closed and being converted into something (but can't recall what) Looking out towards the Highway/front of Park from Loopen's queue, nice view of Speed Monster again from the Loopen queue. Nice overview of the section, and the queue line for Speed Monster is over there next to the white fence. . it wraps around the outside of the flying carousel/wave swinger not very busy over here.. . the whole park was pretty empty, tho we were here on a Weekday. the two exceptions were really SpinSpider, and Speed Monster - which had short lines most of the day. since not much queue, Johnathan and I waited for back row. and then headed over to the park's main attraction - at least for me - Speed Monster; an Intamin launched coaster with 3 inversions. I adored this, and for my $$ best coaster in the park, and 2nd best ride (only beaten by how much I loved Ragnarok rapids ride) Flying Carousel, from the Speed Monster line. so smooth, and super-re-rideable. Big Mike and Jason in front row! Jon & Ryan in front row! Bert & Jason in back row! and Bert & Jonathan in front row! (yeah, we rode a few times while here, as line was moving really fast. even tho we had some end of day ERT on it in a couple of hours) going back towards the main entrance - I wanted to get a park map, which I hadn't seen in any shops, so it was suggested I go back down to the front gate to pick one up - we stopped for a Carousel ride, on the parks nice two level carousel. and I guess I'm rubbing off on folks, as several who I'd been hanging out with today were game to ride with me. as usual. . in my happy place Jason looking down on me tho. . . due to it's placement, one can get some just lovely views from the Carousel ^ the front Escalators heading down Big Mike loves his horsie too headed down to the front gate to find a park map souvenier it's really cool how Speed Monster goes overhead when you're on the Escalator Map in hand, we wandered and enjoyed the last hour in the park and rerode things we wanted to. SUPER DIG!!! but soon enough, it was getting time for park close, and we all headed back up to Dragonville for end of day ERT on Storm (followed by some ERT on Speed Monster) having ridden Storm this morning - and not really caring for it - I chose to take pics, and shop in the gift store while the rest of the group rode. why yes, I'll have a "nude exotic" please. I also finally found something with the park branding. . this adorable (and soft) bear that's wearing a TusenFryd shirt. still no luck getting the sword from the stone. Mr Bear failed at it too. there IS another attraction in Dragonville - this Haunted walkthru, called "the Dungeon". . but it wasn't open today. Only staffed on weekends apparently. no worries tho.. . the group having had their fill of Storm, Robb led us down to Speed Monster for our final ERT at the park. look at these happy faces! these pics are either from Robb, Elissa, Brad, AJ, or Andy. . . I know they aren't mine, because I rode every single train during ERT on this. as noted, I loved this coaster. and then we said our goodbyes to the park staff, and we headed down the Escalator and back to the bus. . where we proceeded to continue heading to Sweden for the hotel for the evening - the brand new: the Grand Curiousa! while someone helpfully "fixed" pictures and shared with us all. . I loved this one so snagged it. . wish I could recall who did this. . LOL. . . probably Robb. playing on Facebook during the evening drive, it was noticed that TusenFryd had posted about the stop by TPR to the park. rather cool. . . I'm part of a gang

Day 12: Wednesday, June 14th part 1: a full day starting off at TusenFryd in Norway, and ending in Sweden (checking into the FABULOUS Grand Curiousa Hotel at Liseberg) pulling up into the parking lot (which oddly seems to be just off the freeway. . like in the center of the freeway), you can spot the main entrance. .and the long escalators to get up into the park. carefully crossing the road, and seeing parts of Speed Monster peeking out thru the trees/grass/hills halfway up to the main gates, looking back at the parking lot and the freeway/roads we just came from. still more uphill to get to the main gate, but peeking thru the trees ahead is "Thundercoaster" - a Vekoma woodie (yeah) at the main gates now, and looking up at the just incredible entrance - yes, the escalators take you up, under & thru Speed Monster - the park's Intamin Launched coaster. while waiting for our park guides to meet us, I wandered a little and took some pics of the entrance gates this little guy is the park's mascot. I asked and he's supposed to be a Centipede. . .but I never did get a clear answer why in this ticket booth chachki s/he looks like a beaver with bear paws. . .LOL. . .is it the Centipede wearing a bear costume for Halloween? TPR group pic before going thru the main gates and starting off our day at the park. and here we go. . . . I kinda felt like Porky Pig walking into the Looney Tunes logo. . . . in other words, I LOVED this. (and I'll bet it's amazing at night) looking down as we're going up. .with Speed Monster track above us. as Robb says: "TWISTYYYYYY" and top of the entrance Escalators? a Double Decker Carousel (as it should be). this coaster is fairly new (2022) and is called "HuriHuri" - a Zamperla spinning coaster. a pic of the park map - click to embiggen - showing off the new section "Dragonville", and the new Roller Coaster they were excited to show off for us: Storm: the Dragon Legend. what the park does NOT show, are the elevation changes - which are pretty extreme within the park, as you'll see in the pics. a better look at ThunderCoaster as we head up to DragonVille and HuriHuri's track '' thruout the park are little playgrounds / rest areas. it's a strange park - you can tell it was just a plopped down collection of rides at some point, but they seem to be making an effort to create themed areas, and become a more Theme Park rather than an amusement park. even if some of the theming doesn't really make sense (example: this area was close to HuriHuri - which is themed to Polynesian Islands. . .but right next to it - you can see in the background - is "SpinSpider" a giant Pendulum. . themed to. . . a spider? ok. but, I mean, they seem to be moving towards a more immersive "theme park" experience. and the setting of the park is absolutely gorgeous - even if the hills will wear you out! more views of ThunderCoaster weird little gnome/troll guy (on the right. . that's me on the left ) at the head of a fun little walk thru area. and as we come around the corner to the very top section of the park? peeking out are some of the tracks for Storm. The brand new coaster that had just officially opened just weeks before our visit. just a little bit further up was the top section of the park - the new area "Dragonville" . . . .as Storm is a brand new coaster, they were having a bit of issue getting the kinks worked out for us (as explained the coaster typically does two full cycles, but for us they were going to adjust it to run 3 cycles). . so they weren't quite ready for us and asked us to hang about for a little bit. no problem, plenty of stuff to look at while waiting. like this drop tower - which seemed much higher than it was, due to it's placement in a higher section of the park. and this Adorbs little seal fountain. speaking of adorbs - this area appeared to be fairly new as well, and I have to think that it's to give the kiddos something to do while the Adults are in the DragonVille section on the thrill rides. it's a section featuring the Park's mascot (whos name I never did get, or at least can't recall). . with some kiddie rides there as well. we had some time, so I decided to check the area out! not creepy at all! I still wanted to hug him oh.. maybe his name is "FRYD". . . as the sign does say, Welcome to Fryd's house. so that's it. . his name was Fryd! and this is how he lives. honestly, this is pretty amazing for a kids section. We didn't really see any littler children at the park today (mainly High School groups), but I could see the kids just being in awe of this. we got the "good to go" signal from our park guides and the group headed up to the newly opened Dragonville section of the park. Storm just towers over this area. .and it looks pretty impressive. there's also an interactive (very Disney-like) Sword in the Stone attraction / photo-op. so I mean. . of course! let's get some shots of Storm: the Dragon Legend testing. It's a launched Gerstlauer suspended coaster with 3 inversions (meaning on a regular cycle, you invert 6 times, as it goes twice) the design on the train is lovely. . . really liked it. one maintenance cycle for clearance, and we were good to go! Look at these smiles! I have to guess this was the 1st ride, and we hadn't experienced it yet. my take? well. . I liked it, but it was rough. as in "thank goodness it doesn't have over the shoulder restraints" or it would be a major headbanger. it was really shaky. . . almost like it had been operating for years and hadn't been maintained, and nothing like a brand new coaster that I was expecting to be rather smooth. to be fair, the park seemed to be having issues with it for months after we rode, and it probably just took them a while to work out/ adjust the kinks, as I've heard it's been running much much better. But for us, after this morning ERT, I didn't ride it again this day. but it IS a good fit for the park to give them another thrill coaster, and seemed to be drawing the teens to this section once the park officially opened today. I believe I have Elissa to thank for this pic. and I'm glad I rode it a few times. ^big smile. . it actually WAS smoother in the front. if I recall, the group was going to head over to Thundercoaster next, but since the park had opened up while we were riding Storm, instead we all split up and made plans to ride ThunderCoaster a bit later in the day. I had heard from chatting with one of our guides, that the park's most popular ride was SpinSpider - the giant pendulum, and we should head there. so we did. and yup..it really did seem that almost everyone who had come into the park went right over to that line. so some of us hopped in the line to get a ride. not Big Mike tho - he doesn't like "spinny rides". . . . so I can thank him for this picture (that's my "I just rode Storm 3 times" face.. . LOL) we then backtracked past Dragonville into the Western Section (every park must have one!) mainly just Stores and bathrooms over here in this smaller area. . but some photo ops yee-haw!!! and one of the best settings for a Vekoma Jr coaster that I've personally seen. this is "Western-Expressen" a powered coaster. . .and yes, if it looks like it's on the side of a mountain? well, because it kinda is. Since I hadn't been allowed on the Legoland Carousel (and since no one yelled not to) I hopped on this for a quick pic. a better look at Western-Expressen. . . it appears to be a portable version that maybe was for Carnivals? tho it's pretty set in place here at TusenFryd Pic courtesy of the ride operator. . . it's a mini-TPR takeover! and at the bottom of the hill were Western-Expressen is located? (where also is the entrance to the parks small waterpark section - not open today) is one of the things that enthusiasts MUST do if they come to this park: Den aller minste AKA: Teeny-Weeny the smallest roller-coaster in the world (at least it bills itself that way) Adults ARE allowed to ride, tho only two per train. but I mean. . you HAVE to, right? whee!!! that path behind in this pic? leads back up to where the Western Express coaster was.. don't look that steep does it? not until you're walking it! LOL From Teeny-Weeny there's this path, that goes WAY down to the Norse section (I'm guessing that's what it's called) where there are 3 rides. it's very kind of the park to put times on the sign, so one doesn't make the trek only to find things closed! about that trek. yeah. oh. . dont' get me wrong.. it's SO worth it. I'd say this was easily my favorite section of the whole park, and all three rides down here are great. but wow.. what a walk back up . .so we stayed down here for a bit and rode things multiple times. Thor's Hammer is the park's dark ride. .and tho the sign at the top of the path said it opened at Noon, a sign down here said it opened at 11 with the rest of the area. mechanical issues were going on tho, so we couldn't ride it just yet. the turnaround from the super-splash has a sea-monster in it. and the 3rd ride down here is called Ragnarok. . . a whitewater rapids. I absolutely LOVED that they had a "layout map" of the ride to help you get into the theming of it. oh, and they are *not* messing around. . . this ride rivaled RiverQuest at Phantasialand as the wettest rapids ride I've ever been on ready to get wet! and so are they! and so we did. . . and once we were wet? we got right back inline and rode it again. Yes, it was that good! I think this pic is thanks to Brad or maybe Chuck? Jason got some cold water down the back of his pants, I would guess from his expression here already wet? why not, let's hit the SuperSplash Absolutely no idea. . . I blame it on Nordic water from Ragnarok made us nuts. a boat full of confused Nordic boys, wondering why I'm taking their picture (was to get the Nessie on the front of the boat). . . checking back in on Thor's Hammer. . it was now operating so we got in line. a dark ride with a minimum age suggested??? YES PLEASE!! they would not allow any photography on the ride, tho I had permission to snap a few pics in the queue. So at least can see the ride vehicles. and based on Jon's headgear, I'm guessing this was in 3D, tho I don't recall that. I do remember I liked it and think we rode a few times while down here. for some reason, when you exit thru the giftshop from Thor's Hammer. . there's a giant Sword. so maybe the hammer head fell off, and now it's a sword? I dunno. my souvenir I bought at the Thor's Hammer Gift Shop. .. nope, ALSO not a hammer. but a fan. and not a TusenFryd branded fan. . just a fan. but it kept me cool, so was worth it (and thanks to seeing sMisty with a fan, I had the idea to get one too). . . . to be continued. . .

I don't know anything about Cedar Point being cheap. (FL+ and Breakers are mandatory for us...) Even if Ka was smooth I don't think it would be as thrilling as OG Dragster. The shoulder restraints are a buzz kill. It also felt like the launch characteristics were numbed. Dragster had that feeling of the instant snap of letting go of a rubber band. Ka's acceleration felt much more reserved and linear to me. It was a one and done for us.

Soooooo exactly like Kingda Ka, I see. That ride is goddamn mean these days and has been rough since season 2.

yeah. . the aquarium was under the Observation tower/restaurant. we ate lunch at the restaurant on top of the tower, and were chatting with the hostess up there, and I BELIEVE she said the dolphin tank had been "filled in" and they were going to be using it as a theater for children's shows.

^I don't know for sure. I think the aquarium was under the observation tower, but I'm not certain.

HOOOOLLLYY SHIT! Severely strained MCL and bruised bone. It likely will not heal on its own for a long time, so I got a steroid shot in my knee, I'm prescribed anti inflammatory medications for ten days, and a healthy dose of physical therapy. I can get on my skates in as early as a week, as long as I take it easy... which is going to be difficult with my personality. The doctor told me it looks like I dodged a bullet. He said it pretty much just wasn't healing on its own and that when it finally did, my muscles would have been imbalanced unless corrected with a longer period of physical therapy than I have now. That horse needle on that massive shot tho... holy shit. I took it like a boss though. I called off work tonight since I'm supposed to take it easy for the rest of the day. My Lieutenant didn't give a shit. He was just happy I won't be out for six months. Hopefully, I'll feel strong on my skates again soon. I'm very relieved and thankful. It makes me realize at nearly forty years out that I need to dial it back a little. This could have been much worse.