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Some quick disjointed thoughts from my family's recent trip two weeks ago, where we got the eff outta Dodge just before Ian touched down... My daughter just recently hit the 51" height requirement and was able to ride both Velocicoaster and Rip Ride Rocket. Unfortunately she didn't really like either coaster all that much; RRR was way too rough for her, and Velocicoaster (in her own words) "was too fast and made my cheeks flap in the wind". Go figure. She ended up loving Hagrid's though, as did my famously non-coaster-fan wife, who has now proclaimed Hagrid's to be her new number one coaster, dethroning Oscar's Wacky Taxi. We also got really lucky when it came to the wait time; both times, the wait was posted at 60 minutes, and it ended up being approximately 25 minutes from entering the queue line. We were able to get a mid-day ride as well as a night ride just before closing on Thursday, and Hagrid's in the dark was a phenomenal experience! We also knocked Pteranodon Flyers off the list, since it's probably my daughter's last and only chance to ride it before she sprouts up even further. Can we get more coasters that use Wave Swinger seats, please? Kinda funny though that she can ride the two most intense coasters in the park, yet an S&S drop tower with a 52" height requirement is just a step too far. They did give her a certificate after measuring up that can be used for a single-use Express pass on that ride once she gets tall enough, so that's a nice touch! Finally got a chance to ride the East Coast version of Revenge of the Mummy now that it's reopened from its refurbishment, and going in only with the West Coast version to compare it to, it's definitely the superior version of the two. I especially loved the fakeout ending! We did Halloween Horror Nights on Wednesday, the 21st with Express passes. We stuck around and grabbed a late lunch/early dinner at Finnegan's while they were closing off the stay and scream areas, and that afforded us the chance to knock out Halloween and Spirits of the Coven before the park officially opened to everyone. It was our first time at HHN and the production value on these houses was insane. Definitely clear though that they go more for repeatability over giving actors the freedom to improvise, since it seemed like a lot of the vocal cues were audio triggers in just about every house. With the express passes, we were able to knock out all ten of the houses in just under 6 hours. Favorite houses of the batch? #1, Dead Man's Pier: Winter's Wake. OMG, the scale of this thing... it took my breath away. #2, The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare. It was certainly unique, nothing quite like it that I've seen at other haunts! #3, Halloween. I love the John Carpenter original and this house was very faithful to the movie, and Michael got me a bunch of times. Least favorite house? Hellblock Horror, which really didn't make much sense thematically at all... I guess, prison escape, but monsters, but then aliens? Sure, I guess. Special consideration to Bugs: Eaten Alive, which was really well done, but ew ew ew ew ewwww ick. And the Blumhouse double feature house was great, but if you haven't seen the movies, you won't have any clue just what the hell's going on there. Having my kids attempt to explain the plot of The Black Phone to me after walking through the houses was hilarious. "Sooo... I think if you touch the phone, you die!" Yup, nailed it. We had lunch at Mythos on Thursday afternoon, and just wow. The octopus... mmmm. So good. Loved the decor, all the food was top notch, would definitely eat here again. Absolutely one of my favorite sit-down restaurants I've been to at any park to date. We used our third day of the 3-day tickets to hang out at Volcano Bay on Saturday for a few hours, but we were pretty wiped out after doing Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom on Friday night. We only ended up spending about 4 hours here before calling it and retiring back to our hotel, where we got some lunch, reserved a lane for bowling at Galaxy Bowl, and just took it easy before heading to Busch Gardens on Sunday. Still one of my favorite outdoor water parks I've been to! Overall, we had an excellent time at Universal, though I really wish we had more time to spend taking it easy. Doing this trip with four people compared to two 100% made things tougher when trying to stay on schedule, and in the future, I'd probably make sure we had at least a full 2 days at each park to really be able to explore, see the shows, and take our time without being locked into a hard and fast schedule. We'll definitely be back in the future, though at this point, probably not until Epic Universe opens.

^

Batman & Robin: The Chiller.

Lightning Rod has entered the chat. (I know, more on the structure and whatnot than the launch system itself, but I couldn't resist...)

This hasn't been mentioned yet anywhere but the new lodge restaurant is open! They have a fish of a day (salmon with apple something on top today), they have impossible stuffed peppers (really good!) , porchetta, tenders, brisket, I forget what else but anyways, it's open! They also have a "bar" off to the side of the building. Staying for haunt tonight!

I'm just glad that more of these are showing up. When I was a child, the only place I can think of that had this type of attraction near us was Center Parcs.

Well then... Maybe they'll just use the giant hole as theming.

That must be the "situation" that Claire keeps referring to on the VelociCoaster brake run...

They can just reroute the boats through Hadrosaur Cove.

part II, continuing on to Europa park: So back on the bus, and we raced a French train to IKEA. . . wait. . we're not going to Sweden on this trip! but the French Countryside is absolutely lovely charming and before we knew it? we were driving parallel to the Rhine River. . ready to cross over from France into Germany. hmmm. . appears the boarder is down to one lane here at the crossing (over a dam) a look at a closed dam gate. . and an open one. . exciting, I know! it wasn't as pretty as I had expected the Rhine river to be. . .but I must admit, it was very exciting to cross a river I had only ever read about in books. I have no idea what this sign means. . maybe the name of the township we passed thru once crossing the border? but this one I get. . . .this is actual border between Germany on the left, and France on the right. Managed to get a perfect picture as we passed it signs, signs, everywhere a sign, no idea what any of them mean, but I'm glad our driver (who was an awesome guy - even if not Franklin) did! and soon enough we pulled up in front of the incredible El Andaluz (themed to a Spanish Villa).. which would be our home for a few nights. it's one of several heavily themed hotels on property, and this one is conveniently located right next to the "Resort Entrance" gate, and also connected via underground tunnels and walkways to the other themed hotels by here, mainly Hotel Colosseo (themed as a Roman coliseum) it's also (apparently) conveniently located next to the monorail which will bring you around to the front gates of the Park. . . but that's something I never managed to do during our visit! There is simply SO much to do at Europa Parc, that I never had time to take the monorail, or even go out the front gates. (but why would I when the Resort gate is right by the hotel. . literally). tho I DID take the shuttle bus (conveniently located just outside the hotel) to go to visit Rulantica. .the giant indoor waterpark, that we were invited to check out during our visit anyways. .the hotels are all pretty heavily themed. . even the statues out front moved, and interacted with guests coming in. Impressive as hell. Elissa went and checked us all in, and came back out with room keys and entrance tickets (and other assorted goodies). . here's what the Europa Park tickets look like. the rooms at El Andaluz vary greatly, might just have one bed, and some bunk beds on the wall. . or two small beds. . or two queen size beds. it was just luck of the draw what room you ended up with. . . but James and I got a lucky straw and not only ended up with a very large room (two queen beds): with a huge bathroom: but also? right on the corner of the hotel. . . literally directly overlooking the Resort Guests Entrance to Europa Parc! that's the Resort entrance on the left of the yellow tent. wowza! we had a great view of the main Monorail too.. even if I didn't get to ride it around the park, I still go to see it in action (very much looks like Disney's, tho I haven't seen those in years) we were only the 2nd floor, so looking out of our room the other direction - towards the front of the hotel. and a view looking straight out. . at the monorail track (and of course, I didn't wait for a Monorail to be on it. . but still. . . look how lovely this is!) all settled in, we headed down to the lobby to meet a group of TPR trip participants to see what we could do about dinner, and explore the hotel (s) the chandelier in the main lobby is super impressive. hell. the whole lobby is impressive. It really is quite immersive. walking down some of the hallways to check out the restaurants available here. . . as noted. . heavily themed! even the toilets are themed, with piped in creaking sounds, and clanking of swords. yes, this is still inside our hotel! one of the eateries has outdoor seating options among the rooms/wings. we checked out the Brazillian style meat buffet in El Andaluz, but decided to skip it because we were eating there as a group the next night. And the Tapas restaurant looked good. . but let's head over to Colosseo to check out the options there, since they are supposedly very good Italian food offerings. a Model of the hotel theming in the tunnel headed over there from El Andaluz coming out to the front entrance of Hotel Colosseo yup. .heavily themed here too. . . cool manikins guarding the front entrance. and bewbs. . I mean. . art. . . stepping out into the main Courtyard of this hotel is impressive as hell. I mean, I loved our rooms, and very much enjoyed our hotel. . but this one is incredible too. (and there are people sitting up there in the section of the Colosseum ? wow.. will have to check that out later for the view) most of the group came over here to check out dinner options. . just like Disney tho, most everything here was booked solid (or had a long, long wait). . I guess when the park closes between 6-7, the restaurants are gonna get full, since all the guests staying are back from the park. so we headed back to the Tapas restaurant in El Andaluz, as that one we had checked out earlier and didn't have any waitlist. we joined a group from the trip of 7-8 people, and really enjoyed the meal, as well as getting to get to know everyone. we were seated in a covered "patio/greenhouse" section of the restaurant. with nice views of the surrounding hotel while we ate. (El Andaluz interior courtyard, gardens, and pool in the back there) interesting "rural" chandelier. . not sure if it was wood, or animal horns. . but I think horns? the menu, which I wish I had a picture of the inside of. .as I know the offerings all looked really good, and i know I really LOVED what I got. But I can't really remember exactly what it was. (no big worries tho.. of course I took pictures) the group at our table. . . . . .and going back to *edit*. . because just noticed that Jon had his wallet open, and dont' want anyone to zoom and get his personal info. . LOL I do recall this was a Terrine of tartar, tomato, figs, and nuts. . it was really good. Jon got tomato jam crostini, I think. A few folks ordered the Tapas dinner, which served between 2-4, so multiple folks shared. I tried a few things after everyone was full, and it was all excellent. my main was, I believe apricot stuffed duck? i think? I do remember that it was a LOT of food, and I shared some of it with others, and that it was so good. with sauce poured. full, fat, and happy, several of us headed back over to Colosseo to check out the bar that infamously has a jail cell in it. But before we tried to go there, we stepped back out into the courtyard. WOW. . absolutely stunning at night. a pic I took to send home to Nick. he thought we had gone to Italy. . LOL. . he didn't really pay attention when I gave him details . . but he said it looked like I was having fun. and I was. in the elevator on the way up to the bar, I snapped a shot of the restaurants/amenities offered at the on site hotels. and in the lobby of the Speakeasy themed bar. . . spy vs spy? Italian Gangsters? who knows. . probably iconic film stars, but I had no idea. I took a pic of them because. . . awwwww. . the bar was closed. Not sure why, the hours on the door said it should be open, but again it was a Tuesday, so maybe short staffed like many other places are these days. undeterred (Ryan really wanted a beer, as did Ian). . we headed back down to the lobby to check out the gelato stand (I was so full, couldn't even consider it), and the downstairs hotel bar to get drinks. but first, I looked up in the lobby and saw this. wow. the main lobby bar at Hotel Colosseo we got beer and/or drinks, and headed over towards the massive staircase that would bring us up to where we saw people sitting earlier. crossing the courtyard over there tho, we passed the lighthouse from Hotel Bell Rock (one block over, and themed to New England) all lit up. Very pretty. a climb up the steps and we got to experience the cool breeze and great view.. sitting on the steps and drinking. LtR: Andrew, Jon, Ian, me. . . . I think James and Ryan were sitting on the other side of me. as noted. .what a lovely view: we finished our drinks, and headed back down to the bar to return the glasses. . and tho it was a consideration to maybe get another? it had been a really long day, and we had to get up tomorrow for early entry (and ERT rides on Can-Can Coaster, and Silver Star before park open!). . so we said our goodnights, and headed back to El Andaluz and our rooms to crash. what a great start to the trip! oh, and on the way to our room in El Andaluz. . spotted this art. . . so a perfect way to end official day 1. . with some classy nudity! wOOt! next update will be in the next few days (I hope) and will be day one of Europa Parc. hope y'all are enjoying following along. bert

Taking bets now on how long until this ride pulls a Shoot The Rapids/Pilgrim’s Plunge! I can’t think of a better idea than trying to maintain a launch system consistently interacting with water. Ride totally looks fun! I just don’t see it standing the test of time. It won’t be here 2027 season is my bet.