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Mostly a travel day. But that's not to say it wasn't interesting. 21: Delicious Nut Cheese Remember: You can't spell Stockholm without ABBA. Yeah, that's cute. But where's our plane? If visiting other countries and seeing how they do things is a little bit weird (which is the point, of course), then Finland is another step up from where we've been so far. Not that this photo really shows that. In fact, this looks a bit like Germany. It's not, though. What are you accusing me of...? Arrived at our onsite hotel at Power Park. The story I heard is that there's a family that got rich running a power utility, but one of the kids grew up with no real business acumen, so they just give him money to play around with his theme park. Of course, I've also heard that this is the northernmost amusement park in the world, that the Finns are the happiest people on Earth, and that that there are people--even in the US--that actually like ABBA. So who knows what's true? We're staying in Baba Yaga's chicken-legged hut. But Texas was also apparently an option. This large modern-looking building next to the hotel seemed to be part convention center, part movie theater. We probably should've spent more time investigating, but Mr. Bobcorn scared me off. [Photo by Andy] The TPR Grand Prix was originally supposed to be the day after Power Park, but we made such good time here they decided to do it the day before Power Park instead. I say, "they" because Smisty, Goldballs, and I weren't too interested. Instead, we walked over to Road House. It's about 1 kilometer away from the hotel. Or, in other words, I have no idea. It rather looks like a grocery store from the outside, but it's more like a tiny mall. Okay, sure. Well, everyone needs to have their dreams. This is actually a really clever caption, as it's a quote from The Spy Who Loved Me. See, when Bond.... Nevermind. I'm not going to say who I think this is supposed to be, because I fear it will just make *me* look racist. As Scandinavia is to the world in its love of licorice, so Finland is to Scandinavia. Which is to say the Finns are *really* into it. Happily, the mall that looks like a grocery store from the outside does in fact have a grocery store inside. And I'm pretty sure the whole place is owned by Power Park. I may have mentioned this before, but at the start of the trip I was willing to try some licorice things. But by this point, I was in no mood for double layer licorice. Ta-da! I tried to look this up on google maps to see if this structure had a name or something. No luck there, but I did find the gas station, which has 5 reviews, the top one of which reads, in its entirety: "Good liquid." Now that's a skyline. Back at the hotel, the lobby of which is themed to...um...boaty stuff? TPR dinner and Grand Prix awards presentation. I don't remember who won. I just know I'm a loser. Wow. Dark. And also, why? Dinner was quite good, but very long. Turns out this is a Finnish thing. We encountered it in the Netherlands as well in 2019, but it's even more pronounced here. Fancy dinners aren't fast. If it's '69, you were expecting me! See, in Moonraker.... Every part of the hotel had a door or a gate with a code on it. It's like the world's most whimsical prison. Turns out we could've watched the Grand Prix from our room. Yeah, Finland. This is where the trip report is going to get good! Just kidding. It will never get good. And also, I do kind of like ABBA. Moonraker sucks, though.

mainly recaps of what's coming in the new DCU - with some animations of the new Cyborg Nebulaz, Shazam spinning drop tower, and the Metropolis Monorail. and also the new slides for the kiddos in Whitewater Bay (or whatever they are calling the Waterpark section now) he also confirmed that the retheme of Supergirl started today with the park working to strip the ride bare, and therefore Skyscreamer is down while it becomes Supergirl. one major thing he revealed is that the kiddie truck ride, that is being rethemed to Penguin, will become basically an outdoors dark ride - with lots of sets and scenes of Penguin vs Batgirl (makes total sense, since the Batgirl coaster will be right next door to it). it sounds amazing, and I fully trust this park. Kid Flash is back up and running, and interestingly, the light package is set to only 30% brightness. . .so it COULD be run much brighter, but they don't want to cause discomfort. . LOL Wonder Woman's 3 new trains are being built now, and they expect them to arrive and go on the tracks some time in April. what else. . hmmm. . new Menu options in the VIP Lounge (they all looked good). all festivals/events they ran in 2023 are coming back in 2024, including the new Food Festival they introduced last year. they are opening up for an Eclipse Party on April 8th (I think that's the day of the Eclipse. . . SWSA is opening up that day too). . . and SFFT will have a 180 degree Fireworks display during the actual Ec;ipse. that's what I recall off the top of my head. . .it was a very long day, and just got home

Just got word that this weeks Friday Behind the Scenes Highlights has been posted!

^ it has been running 2 comfort collar-less trains for at least 6 months now. I think they retrofitted the 2nd train around Memorial Day last year. That said, they’ve been running single trains on their coasters much more frequently than they used to the past couple months - except Kraken, Kraken always seems to run two trains, even on weekdays. Not sure why.