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Rode TT2 for my first time this morning and all I can say is wow. Went in with low expectations, came off so pumped up I got right back in line for another lap. To me, it seems like more of a complete ride now. The backwards launch is unlike anything else I have been on and the trip up and over the top hat now is absolutely crazy. CP has a major hit on their hands and I am looking forward to riding again soon.

Alright, so yesterday was pretty dang awesome. The park was a bit slow to wake up with a bunch of coasters being closed until 10:30/11am or so, but once things were in the groove it was smooth sailing. Crowd levels had waits at 15-30 minutes for most everything. Operations could use a little work as I noticed every single coaster stacking trains, though. Still, every coaster that had the capability to run three trains WAS running three trains. Stacking or not, that's appreciated. Hate to see that go-get-em attitude disappear once the Six Flags merger completes and we're down to one train being half-loaded. Coasters - Orion - Hoo buddy, this one surprised me. This bad boy RIPS through the layout and has some damn good airtime to boot! Definitely a front seat ride, though the back ain't bad at all, either. The wind in front, though, is the cherry on top. Diamondback - The airtime on this ride is legitimately scary. This isn't standard B&M floater air but instead it's "bucking bronco trying to send you into Kentucky" air. Back seat is best. Mystic Timbers - Fast and wicked ride through the woods with a phenomenal first drop. Tons of laterals and some nice air pops. The shed is a complete waste of time, effort, and money, though. Back row is intense, especially getting ripped down the first drop. Banshee - Holy hot dicks from hell! I had absolutely NO IDEA how great this ride is. I'd heard the good reviews and I've seen the POVs but lawd almighty this monster is completely different than I was expecting. It rides like a mid-90s Beemer! Forces out the yin-yang on every element, especially the batwing and second vertical loop. Back row is is my fave, if for no other reason than that first drop. Best ride in the park alongside... The Beast - It's The Beast. It's one of the greatest rides on the planet. It also has some truly awful trims in the first bit (first drop, second hill, and the long shed) but after the long shed it returns to the incredibly wild run through the woods we all know and love. The trim before the helix has mercifully been moved to the top of the hill, so now you hit the tunnel full-bore and go screaming around that bitch like a bat out of hell. All hail the king, especially in the front row. The Bat - I love this ride, even if it does have a horrible location compared to the rest of the park. IIRC, back in 2003 it was much more visible and accessible with SoB in the area. Instead it's now a relic hiding behind a 5-mile hike with an entrance hardly seen at Banshee's exit. Damn shame, because this is a very fun and fast suspended coaster. Racer - Third row has some great airtime on this classic. Fun stuff! Backlot Stunt Coaster - Great launch and helix, boring everything else. Slowest line in the park. Flight Of Fear - Closed most of the day, broke down when I was entering the UFO. Didn't ride. Adventure Express - Packs a punch! I love me a good mine train and this one didn't disappoint. Ride it in the back to get the real janked-out experience, ya jabronis. This ride is great. Invertigo - Pass. I rode Two-Face when it was at SFA. I'm good. Other Rides - Boo Blasters - Yeah, this has seen better days. Cute enough and an easy way to escape the sun, but the guns hardly work and there's a large amount of broken effects. Delirium - Fun ride but after riding a larger version it didn't feel as wacky. Windseeker - This was my first Windseeker after riding many Star Flyers. Let's just say there's a reason these haven't been built in a while. Star Flyers are a much simpler mechanical ride and much more reliable. This was also pretty uncomfortable, for some reason. Good view, though. Blue Ice Cream - Yummy yummy in my tummy.

I'm not Robb, but we're certainly not sucking up to Dollywood. The ride really didn't seem any different to me. That being said, I think a lot of the newer RMC's and other coasters just out do it and it is an older ride now so it's not as crazy as it once was. People have this memory of riding it back in 2016 when it was legit amazing and new and something we hadn't really seen before. Since that time there have been a ton of new coasters that are bigger and faster and have equally crazy elements so I think it's more a memory issue. Oh, and the day we were there it ran two trains all day with a 5 minute wait so there you go. I'll take that thanks!

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.

I took this picture on Saturday. We were hoping for a soft opening later in the day but sadly it never happened. Maybe next weekend…

This morning I was able to stop into Universal Studios Florida for a passholder preview of the new DreamWorks Land. This new area replaces the former Kidzone including the Woody Woodpecker Nuthouse Coaster, Fievel's Playland, Curious George Goes to Town, DreamWorks Destination (formerly the Barney show) and a Shrek and Donkey meet and greet. The new land takes up almost exactly the same footprint, but distributes experiences in themed sections inspired by the world of Shrek, Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda and Trolls along with the addition of the new DreamWorks Imagination Celebration show and some meet and greet spaces for a variety of DreamWorks characters to visit throughout the day. This corner of the park will once again be a go-to spot for families with younger kids. Troll's Trollercoaster is the rethemed Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster. Guests ride aboard the Caterbus in this familiar experience. The layout of the coaster remains the same but the queue and surrounding area has been updated to fit the new theme. Yes, this coaster train has an actual butt. The legend lives on. The former Curious George Goes to Town area has been transformed into Po's Kung Fu Training Camp, inspired by the world of Kung Fu Panda. Some of the water play elements from the former attraction remain and the core structure has been retained, but there's some pretty significant differences up close. The water play area is on the right side and the dry play area is on the left. Inside the former ball play area is the new Po Live! interactive meet and greet experience. The former ball play area has essentially become a theater for this interactive experience (the second floor walkways area still accessible). Some simple dry playground elements on this side of the Kung Fu Panda area... The tipping bucket returns from the past version of this complex. Even more water play areas can be found throughout the Kung Fu Panda portion of DreamWorks Land. There are multiple Haystack Dryers available to use in DreamwWorks Land. Onward... The Trolls section of the land is cute and feels different than its predecessor. All aboard the Caterbus! Trolls Treats offers two types of soft serve inspired by the two main characters of the Trolls films. Over in Shrek's swamp you'll Pinocchio's Fact Shack, where you can ask the wooden boy questions where his answers may or may not be true... This slide starts in a port-o-potty and the sounds it makes are as you would expect for the theme. The elevated play structure in Shrek's swamp provides the best views of the Troll's Trollercoaster in all of the land. Shrek's swamp features some water play elements as well. Shrek, Donkey and Fiona meet guests here in a relocated meet and greet from the former Kidzone. Swamp Snacks offers stuffed waffles, pretzel dogs and Shrek pretzels with green cheese sauce. Gabby's Dollhouse is represented with a meet and greet location for Gabby. King Julian from the Madagascar franchise is among the rotating cast of characters that meets guests throughout the land. Mama Luna Feline Fiesta is an interactive nook where you can toggle triggers for cats in this covered open air experience. DreamWorks Imagination Celebration replaces Dreamworks Destination (formerly the long-running "A Day in the Park with Barney" show). Characters from throughout DreamWorks Land appear in a show featuring music, dance and a lively atmosphere that is fun for all ages. The same theater-in-the-round design is still in use for the venue. The projections throughout the venue help to transform the theater with each segment. One final dance before the show is over! High Five Hideaway is the land's merchandise location, offering items inspired by all of the land's characters. King Harold's Swamp Symphony is an interactive play area where guests can jump on lily pads to make the frogs sing. Adjacent to DreamWorks Land, E.T. Adventure has shifted its entrance slightly to accomodate the new land, and with this shift comes a prominent new entrance sign.

Media Day: A Sneak Peek at the Loch Ness Monster & More The steep plunge, interlocking loops, and dark cavern helix of Busch Gardens’ Loch Ness Monster have been thrilling riders since 1978. For many Virginia locals, it was the first “big” coaster their kids could ride, and the park takes a lot of pride in it. But age, metal fatigue, and maintenance issues can catch up with any coaster, and the Monster was no exception. But anyone worried about the ride’s future can relax when the Loch Ness Monster: The Legend Lives On opens this May. The park shutdown the ride last year and started a major renovation project. The coaster’s classic profile now boasts 900 feet of shiny new track fabricated by Premier in Utah--this includes the signature loops. But the track isn’t the only part getting some love. New thematic elements are being added to the queue and station, along with a new sound system, to help tell the story of the hunt for the legendary sea serpent. New special effects, especially in the cavern, will give riders the chance to see the Loch Ness Monster “very vividly,” according to Kevin Lembke, the park president--but that’s a story for another day (I presume next month). Busch Gardens invited Theme Park Review for a first look at the Loch Ness Monster Sighting Center and the refreshed queue and station. They also shared what they’ve been doing to bring the 50-year-old Squire’s Grill restaurant up-to-date and let us sample a bit of the new fare for this year’s Food and Wine Festival. I didn’t see the Monster today--maybe I should’ve brought binoculars--but I can give you a look at the queue, station, and some other things. Come on in. Theme Park Review thanks Busch Gardens Williamsburg for inviting us to their media event. See you in May! EDIT: May 10 is the official opening date. Platinum and Premier members will have exclusive early ride time on May 2. All members have early ride time May 3-5. Welcome to Scotland! Nessie's entrance is looking quite spiffy. Kevin Lembke, park president, and Suzy Cheely, vice president, design and engineering, fill us in on how the legend will be living on. OK, adventurers--follow Suzy! The station now looks more like an old castle than it used to--complete with with rather medieval looking winches. They've added more "texture" to the walls and floors, too--along with a new Quick Queue entrance. I like that the transfer track is covered now. A little shade will help on hot, sunny days. They added an office to the queue, with plenty of high-tech (well, for the early 1900s) gadgetry. Photograph the Monster of Loch Ness! Win money, money money! (Well, if they allow you to take your camera on the ride.) Richard Smith, of Guernsey Tingle Architects in Williamsburg, tells us a bit about the coaster's back story: Nessie has finally been seen again after a long absence, and guests now have a chance to join the expedition searching for her. They're still adding thematic elements to the queue, as well. About 50% of the contractors working on the ride are local, and companies from Orlando and elsewhere are also involved in the Loch Ness Monster renovation. Here's the lower queue installed for the ride's 40th anniversary. It's pretty much the same. Look at those shiny new loops. Who wants to dine at the new Squire's Grill? They're upgrading the menu, too. Plans call for some seasonal burgers, with a chili-cheese burger to start. Hmm--I wonder what sorts of burgers they have planned for Howl-o-Scream and Christmas Town. Hungry guests will enter through this door and order and pay for their food. Guests pick up their food in here--under the watchful lords of the House of Spork. Here's what interior will look like. Seating will be outdoors, and there's a new covered seating area off to the left as you face the restaurant (around the corner). It should be a big improvement over the old facility. Big Ben is getting some love too--including a new motor. The Loch Ness Monster: The Legend Lives On Sighting Center opens "officially" this Friday (April 5). Read all about the history of this classic coaster here . . . . . . and see some classic photos, such as the "Flying Elvi." I think Nessie is related to Mega Shark. Speaking of "chomp," here's a sample of what to expect at this year's Food and Wine Festival: Peri Peri Chicken (Africa), Dalgona Korean Coffee (South Korea), Simit (a savory bread ring from Turkey), Bourbon Chocolate Tart (BarKastle), and Coban Salatasi (Turkey). There will be 85 new food items this year--these are 5 of them. "See you in May--GRRR! ROAR! GROWL!" Thanks for reading.

For the record. In the new Invision board software running here the button to ignore a user is found by hovering over a username for a second or two. A little profile preview pops up and you can ignore there - best I can tell you can't do this from a full profile page.

Skara Sommarland is mostly a waterpark with a handful of amusement rides. So perhaps it's unfair to judge the entire park based on only the dry sections. I'm still going to, though. 17: How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything Skara Sommarland is owned by Parks & Resorts Scandinavia (which itself is entirely owned by the Tidstrand family). Also owned by this group is Kolmården Zoo, Furuvik, and Gröna Lund--all of which we will be visiting on this trip. Fun fact: Skara actually means to cut, slit, carve, or reap. But only if you put that little o-thing above the first A, and your name is Barry. Bad joke, or ominous foreshadowing? Why not both?! On the right is Snake (or something), the ride that was temporarily at Gröna Lund when we were there in 2019, now seemingly in its permanent home. The ride on the left is the reason to visit Skara Sommarland, Tranan (or, "The Crane.") I was quite excited to try this ride. It just looks so weird, and maybe fun? And it is weird. Fun? Well, not especially. I mean, it's okay. It's hard to describe, really. To the point where I'm not able to even declare it good or bad. Let's start with the seating. The sides of the cars are quite low, the seatbacks are quite low, and you're secured by a seatbelt. Now, I'm 100% certain that seatbelt is enough to keep you in, but it sure doesn't feel like it. There's also quite a lot of metal near your knees and legs, giving you both a mental reason and a physical reason to hold on and brace yourself for dear life. Which is work, and distracting, in a way that detracts from the ride--at least, for me. And yet, I'm extremely glad I got to ride it. Because I'm sure if someone had told me that I actually wouldn't like it all that much, I would be skeptical. You don't know me! I'm contrarian! And it looks super-cool! It also only does its big trick (of spinning all the way around the track) one time. I'd be interested in riding a bigger version of this. Something with larger, more graceful elements. Because a lot of the turns are quite crunchy. But, then again, who would pay for a larger one when the prototype is so...unconvincing? Not my photo. Plucked from the group chat. Sorry person I'm failing to credit. Andy, maybe? Or Elissa? Anyway, it's a ride. Which sounds like an insult, but isn't really, except in that I was hoping that it would be really cool, and it's just kind of...strange. This seems like a trap. Unlike the "Taco Loco" in the background, which seems totally legit. Speaking of lunch. Warning: The above image may not be suitable for all audiences. Oh. I probably should've put that before the photo. Anyway. The park was quite eager to show off their new bumpercar ride, BadringsBumpers. Whereas I am surprisingly unashamed to show off Robb's "crotch cam." Most of the smaller, older rides are in this area--which maybe used to be its own thing? Like, a separate gate or something? No idea. Regardless, it's a rides midway. I should've just said that. I call it: Doesn't Work Land! The entrance to the park's powered coaster. It was working here, but I don't have any photos of the train, because when I went back to ride it, it was down. And it stayed down. I think until we left? Definitely for quite awhile, as I checked back a couple of times. A Rockin' Tug. It did not run, that I saw. Closed troika-type ride, with permanently sealed off swinging ship in the background (that had a sign saying that it had failed its inspection for the year, or some such?) Unattended game. I'm sure it's fine. This did open later, but the course was quite short, mostly unthemed, and people were coming soaked, so I passed. Pretty sure the vehicles were the best thing about it. I do love a good bridge. No idea if this is one, as it's permanently blocked off. But my statement still stands. What do you think of this park, Smisty? Go on, Bert, don't be scared. Put it in your mouth. The park had a train, and it was working. However, we were accosted by this street urchin begging for money. No, just kidding. He wanted drugs, actually. Apparently, Barry had gotten a splinter in his foot at the waterpark. A splinter. Part of the waterpark, as seen from the train. Yep. Yep, I'm good. A lone bit of incongruous theming, behind a fence? Outside of the park, maybe? No idea. Did you see how close Daniel got to the train, though? What's the concern with the dinosaur figure?! R-A-D-I-O-B-I-L-A-R-N-A What is this, some kind of bumpercar-lover's park? Is this a ride, or...? The spin mouse had been down all morning, so all the coaster nerds rushed over once it started testing. It ran a few cycles, and then a car got stuck on the block brake. The maintenance guys came out, released the brake, and then sped off. No testing, no empty cars. The very next car got stuck in the same place. Smisty says nope. (For clarity, I am not accusing anyone of unsafe practices. But just assuming everything will be fine after a quick reset does strike me as a bad look.) It's worth noting that for all the rides that were broken down or not operating, the most important one (Tranan) seemed like it ran pretty consistently all day. So that was good. Ooh, a crooked house or something! Wait a minute..."Miniradiobilarna"? Yeah, it's just more bumpercars. The Main Street Janitorial Parade A poncho with a map of the park on it? That's pretty cool. Except they were only for kids. And the image was blurry. But at least they're honestly named. It's probably not a great park if you're that excited to get back on the bus. Erik's Score: 1 Sorry, Skara Sommarland. It's not you, it's me. I'm sure others in our group probably liked you a lot more. Well, maybe not Barry. Arriving at the Backstage Hotel in Stockholm. This is where Misty and I stayed for a few extra nights after the official end of the 2019 trip--except then it was called the Pop House Hotel. We really loved the city, and were quite happy with our choice of accommodation, so it was nice to be back. They may have changed their name, and rearranged the lobby area a bit, but it's still houses the ABBA Museum, and it's still right next door to Gröna Lund. Our room for the next few nights. We might've checked out the ABBA Museum (even though we went last time) or done something else for the evening, but Gröna Lund had a better idea.... Surprise night ERT on Monster! We got to tour this underground station in 2019 while it was under construction. Turned out great! Not my photo, to be sure. Robb's. I will of course share more detailed thoughts about Monster when the proper Gröna Lund update comes around. But this was a great night! Next up: A park that no one in our group had ever been to!

Now we come to the first of three parks that Smisty and I had actually been to before. On our trip to Liseberg with TPR in 2019, I didn't exactly fall in love with the place. There are lots of things I could "blame" for that, some of which were within the park's control, and some of which certainly were not. I'll spare you the full details, but I will say that I was looking forward to going back and reassessing it under (hopefully) better circumstances. Would Liseberg win me over this time? Or will Erik remain steadfast in his grumpy contrariness? Read on to find out.... 16: Godiscupcake To begin with, we had two full days in the park, and three nights at their brand new, very on-site hotel. This meant that we could head back to our room whenever we pleased in between exploring the park and riding stuff, so that's already a pretty big plus--especially if you're old. And what a hotel it is! The Grand Curiosa was fun, beautiful, and weird (in the best way). It was also very American-friendly, with proper in-room air conditioning, and ice machines on multiple floors. Amazing! On a different note, is it more impressive to say that I photoshopped Misty into this picture, or that I didn't? The hotel also features both a children's carousel and a cafe/ice cream parlor in the lobby. Sadly, Bert did not get to ride the carousel. But I did get to eat the ice cream. Multiple times. There's also a buffet, open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pretty sure we had all three at one point or another. The building on the right is the hotel. So, as you can see, it's not exactly a tough walk to Liseberg's newly-redone back entrance. Rather than opening at, like, 10:00am and doing staggered openings for a couple of hours (like the last time we were here), the park opened at noon and closed late. Normally I wouldn't be a big fan of a noon opening, but it seemed to work, with the park not really starting to get busy until after work hours--and I did like that everything opened at the same time. Liseberg doesn't really have themed areas, but the rides grouped together here are all named after Norse mythology. No "Thor's Hammer" though. Instead there's a Max Burger. We like Max Burger. My feelings about Balder haven't changed. It's objectively good, but I just find it repetitive and uninteresting. We're literally the only ones who feel that way, though. These guys were all still riding after we went to bed. Didn't stop me from drawing a penis on it. Kållerado is named after the Norse god of skiing and being proud of your flag. The rapids ride runs ride up alongside the park's walk-through (and upcharge?) haunted house, Gasten Ghost Hotel. These two Swedish girls were scared and wanted us to go with them. Which was fine. Except that we had to do the conga line thing, and they were in back and sort of pulling me backwards while the scare-actors kept yelling at us to go faster. Listen, girls, you need to understand: I am a rule-follower, and you are making me look bad! No notes. Below the Gasten Ghost Hotel is the Gasten Ghost Bar and Restaurant, where you may be eaten by a scary monster if you are a chocolate brownie and pear ice cream dessert. This place proved pretty popular with our group. So it's weird that I also liked it. Parts of this park are very pretty. And by "parts" I mean most of it. Ooh, a car ride! And the award for best terrain goes to Liseberg, in that they're blessed with a long decently wide flat section abutting a long hillside. My favorite part of this photo is the sign portraying a drunk man fighting a forklift. Smisty is all in. While the children are distracted, we sneak by to try out the new dark ride. The indoor queue is well themed and leads to an "elevator" preshow. See, the bunnies make ice cream, but a guy who looks like a magician but isn't doesn't like them for some reason and tries to send their mining carts off course. It's a little weird, but we rode it a lot. Um...okay, it's a lot weird. One of the bunnies is a magician, incidentally. I don't know why. After three trips to Europe (and an entire life of being alive somewhere), I finally found a stuffy worth buying. Of course, it did fit in my backpack. I'm not an idiot. Liseberg doesn't have a proper fun house. But they do have a house-like thing that you can have fun in. I mean, kind of. Really, it's more for kids to just kind of run around in and explore. But I appreciate that they let me check it out. While some people travel the world and never find their name on anything (*cough* Elissa), I only need to go to Sweden. I actually have a disturbing amount of photos from this trip of stuff that has my name on it. We actually spent quite a lot of time in the kids area. I'm sure the dark ride helped. Still didn't ride the kiddie coaster, though. An enchanting game of tossing carrots into buckets in order to both feed and win horses. Mo' bunnies, mo' problems. Stampbanan. Which apparently means, "the stomping ground." Scary stairs down from the, uh...hang on... "Kaninlandsbanan." Also unchanged is my opinion of Lisebergbanana, seen here about to leave the station and head up the long never-too-far-off-the-ground lift hill. It's fast and janky and great! This and the log flume are the park's iconic workhorse attractions. Nude gardens and lush statues await you at the front of the park. Let's head up the hill, shall we? That's not a good caption. How about this: The name "Liseberg" comes from the phrase "Lisas Berg" or "Lisa's Mountain." Some of the pathway's up around here are a bit dicey and feel a little "back of house." There was a concert going on in the park one of the two nights we were there. I have no idea who it was. But here's a view of it from the Ferris wheel! You can also see some construction off to the left. Liseberg was (and is) in full expansion mode. Speaking of which...those who were interested got a construction tour of the new indoor waterpark. Pretty cool. Have you ever climbed to the top of a mountain only to find that you could've just ridden a roller coaster up there instead? Oh, I guess I could've also taken escalators. I wasn't too keen on Helix last time, so I was content to just watch and take photos whilst Smisty rode over and over during ERT. But then the ERT just kept going. And everyone kept talking about how much better the ride was running than in 2019. So I gave it another shot. This time I sat in the middle-back, rather than the front, and rode much more defensively. And...it was pretty good, actually. Never let it be said that I am incapable of changing my mind. Right out of the station. Balder, Valkyria, Lisa Banana, Flume Ride, and Helix. This pathway is an absolute photographic wonderland. And Liseberg's operations keep the kinetic energy buzzing, inviting you to just stick around and see if you can get one more train in the photo. Adding even more movement to the area is the park's new family boomerang, Luna. This area has been rebranded as "Luna Park," and some of the older flat rides have been swapped out for new ones. Sadly, Smisty's favorite tilt-a-whirl was one such victim. I don't mind so much, because now she can't make me ride it. The park even added a new air conditioned bathroom up here, complete with fancy statue-man sink. Liseberg's Flume Ride is unique in terms of both its layout (lift hill, cruise around a bit, lift hill, drop, drop, drop) and in that the park's website claims the logs to be "laughter-impregnated." There are rumors of removal, but I just can't imagine such a crime. Hopefully, it's a rehab instead, if anything. An interesting vantage point for Valkyria as we head back to the hotel. My opinion of this B&M dive coaster hasn't changed either. (It's good!) The hotel also has a full service Chinese restaurant, the Mei Rose Rooftop Bar & Bistro, where you can (and should) have your dessert served to you ON FIRE. Every floor of the hotel has a slightly different sub-theme. We were put on the amusement rides floor, for some reason. The view from our room. One last shot of...whatever this is. So, did I like Liseberg more this time? Decidedly yes. Erik's Score: 10 Tune in next time, when the pendulum swings back hard the other way!

Really wish Rockin would get a modern Vekoma looper refresh as well. With all of the lengthy refurbishments and downtime issues, it would do wonders to have new trains and track, smoother ride with a much better coaster experience.

Day 2 (1st official day of trip) - night-time at Oktoberfest Fair a quick stop at the hotel to relax and take off my shoes, and then a group of us on the trip met down in the lobby around 5:30 to head over to the fair. it had started to get colder, but I thought I'd be ok - something I really regretted by the time I got to the fair gates. so first stop was to buy a T-shirt that I put on over the shirt I had been wearing. this was Saturday evening, and Elissa had warned us that it would be the most crowded we'd see at the fair. and yes, she was correct! this time we went in thru the main entrance, and went all the way to the back down the main corridor: lot of people headed out. . but TONS more coming in as night fell, and the weather report cleared up the giant buildings are the big Beer Tents that line the main corridor. Each one brews a special beer just for Oktoberfest sales. this corn freaky thing is apparently a famous sight at Oktoberfest. not gonna lie, the corn smelled fantastic but he (it?) freaked me the hell out. the Enterprise was running a good cycle with a great lighting pkg. but of course, we headed over direct to Olympia Looping. . which had many trains operating at once tonight. this was the crappy Ghost Train. . . tho the outside was pretty dang tempting. the group I headed out to the fair with. . and a couple of photo bombers for dinner we found one of the many wurst stands that looked (and smelled) amazing. but this one had an area off to the side where one could stand relatively uncrowded and eat. so this won out. I have no idea what I ordered, I just pointed to one and said "that one" it was good, and at least had a normal size bun, even if it was a HUGE sausage. (and a nice view of the shirt I bought to help stay warm, and made a fantastic souvenir) the clouds really helped the lights reflect. . it was so lovely tonight. . tho very very busy peeking into one of the beer tents thru a window, as we walked down one of the many alleys to a restroom. all of them have live music too. we ended up at one of the oldest rides in the Oktoberfest Fair - Hexen Schaukel - which is a classic Madhouse, the type you would have gone to in the early 1900s. I loved the design of the tickets: but what really sold me was the gesturing finger (in the center of the pic) that drew customers in with a "come hither" movement. lots of signs up about the history of the attraction, but all were in German (of course) wonderful design work on the outside, tho the inside of the Haunted Swing only sat about 12 people, and the "room" that rotated around us was more like a giant paper bag. The artwork was charming tho - done as if by a child. . so it really did come across as a ride that had come thru time to appear at the fair. This attraction also had my favorite moment of this night at the fair: when they closed the door to start the ride, there were 4 of us from TPR, two girls, and across from us, these two guys in Lederhosen. the moment the lights went out, the guys started shaking out powder onto their hand and snorting it. they made a big production, offering to everyone on the ride - the girls strongly (but firmly and politely) declined, and all of us said no too. . even muttering - I'm not snorting some random stuff off some stranger's hand in Germany. But the guys thought it was hysterical. . and were laughing and giggling. when the lights came on at ride end, the offered me again, and I again said "no thank you". .but asked if I could take a picture of them. which resulted in one of my favorite pictures that I took: we kinda shook our heads, and laughed at the picture and then made our way over to Alpina Bahn for rides. this is a picture Erik took from the Ferris wheel, just of the main corridor of the fair. gives you an idea of just how crowded the place was around 9pm! there were so many amazing smells from the booths, so several of us decided to try Chimney Cakes. . that were rather unique looking. they make them fresh by putting the raw dough onto the spokes, then baking them and deep frying in oil, before dipping in toppings. served warm, the Cinnamon I think was the best (and we were told most popular), but I personally also tried the Raspberry sugar rolled, and that one was excellent too. about the consistency of a funnel cake, but tasted more like a sweet bread. headed over to the biggest of the Ghost Trains, and the one I liked the best - even loved the cars on this one. and then back to Olympia Looping for another ride right next to it (on the left) is the Carousel Bar. . which was much more crowded than the night before. But we spotted Hans in there, so headed in to join them for a drink. no luck getting on the Carousel tho ... it was pretty packed. so we hung out in a spot near the mug return, at the front of the bar entrance PROST!!! while chatting, Ryan and I made some new friends. we told them about the guys in the Hexen Madhouse and they laughed and showed us what they guys had been snorting. it's a Cinnamon & Sugar mix that gets sold exclusively at fairs (can't recall if they said it was only Oktoberfest or fairs in general in Germany). they said "it burns but gives you a boost of energy". . which made me laugh, as that could be a description for a different white powder one snorts. when they showed us the bottle, it matched what the guys on Hexen had. . . . so at least I was relieved it was nothing illegal. I still didn't want any tho. didn't stop them from posting for a pic for me, with a rolled up Euro tho. . . .LOL (and yes, I asked Ryan if he had an issue with me including this in the Trip report) best thing about our spot at the Carousel Bar? able to get some really nice pics of Olympia Looping from where we were standing. the mouse was still racing. . . and we HAD to go back, as Andrew and I had to ride the left side whee! and of course there was a kiddie coaster at the Oktoberfest I didn't want to ride it, but was able to document it for those who did. look at these proud faces and we then bumped into a very happy Jonathan! who hung with us for the next hour or so until we all headed back to the hotel. not sure where we are here, but I THINK it's the bar across from the Toboggan (the Garden bar?) wandering towards the main entrance / exit. . . we stumbled across what became my favorite flat at the fair: Voodoo Jumper. fire effects, long ass cycle, and just a ton of fun! Even Barry who doesn't like spinning rides, rode it twice the next night with us. So good. . I don't' video, but I'm sure someone recorded a cycle and posted online. of course we were gonna stop and ride it! whee! most of this fog here? is coming from a Bumper Cars ! Seriously, they loaded so much fog into that, it was like a 70s disco. and after convincing some that it was time to head back to the hotel, as we had another full day tomorrow. . . we did stop and watch the Tagada for a bit. people kept staring at me, and someone said they thought it was because with my shiny jacket, and standing next to Jon, I looked like a famous person with his bodyguard (ha!!!).. so they were trying to work out who I was. loved this Church just outside the main gates of the festival. and then it was a short walk back to the hotel. . where I promptly crashed. tomorrow was another full day!

Day 1 part 2: Oktoberfest at night. . after the rain has come. the downpour for a couple of hours while we were eating, really cleared out the crowds. side benefit is that it really made for some beautiful pics, with the lights from all the rides reflecting up off the wet ground. we entered not thru the main entrance (that would be tomorrow), but the group I was with, including Jon, Nick and Christopher), went in on the side closest to the restaurante we were at, on the right. near what they call: "Vomit Hill" I would have renamed it "Vomit and Piss Hill" as there were so many people doing both. . . which was a bit shocking since it's on the side of a beautiful building (a Museum?) with this incredible statue out front. but as noted. . it's on the far right side of the Oktoberfest fair - which is about as big as 3 football fields, I'd say - so I guess it really IS "off the beaten path" even tho we came in on this side tonight (for the only time) looking across. . the main corridor is up ahead and if we turned left, would see many of the HUGE beer tents that line the main corridor. the rides are all on the outlying corridors and the outside of the fair. with the "big" rides separated to help out with crowds, I'd assume. this, tho it looks like a ride, is a game booth. the rides are all independently operated, and there are multiple versions of some rides (I counted at least 4 breakdance type rides) - and they all run insane cycles to help draw crowds to them. The incredible lighting, fog, and fire effects help do that too. the giant Ferris wheel at the back of the main corridor of the fair (if you come in under the Oktoberfest sign and walk straight back, eventually you get to it). interestingly, my favorite area of the entire fair was back here BEHIND the Ferris wheel on the right - it was an "Oktoberfest Museum" of sorts, that had classic artwork, posters, haunt figures, information, food, drink, and a bunch of classic (like ancient) rides, that also ran crazy cycles - including a waltzer that the operator hand cranked to get it to go faster, and you had to fight for an open carriage when the ride stopped! NEVER in America LOL. and the rides in this section were all 1.50 Euro (much cheaper than anywhere in the fair, tho you did have to pay 4 euro to get into this section). I visited back there on day 3, so will be pics forthcoming of that. Christopher and I in front of one of the official welcome signs. pretty sure this is a different BreakDance again, this is relatively empty ! because it had rained. . can you imagine what a Friday night would have been if it had been nice? (we'd see that the next night when could barely move in the place!) tho there were several drop towers in the fair, this is actually a pic of a drop tower and a Catwoman's Whip style ride. but really, I think I was trying to get the pic of the Alpina Bahn sign along side the huge Lowenbrau tent - where we would be on Monday. this is one of the beer halls. made to look like Gingerbread and candies. Incredible that they build this up just for ~3 weeks. this amazing thing is called the Predator. imagine an Enterprise that's on a Gyroscope. and yes, I did ride it on one of the days - before eating of course - and LOVED it. but look at this crazy thing! multiple Himalayas and Music Expresses too ' more looks at what Predator does.. it really is mesmerizing. and a really long cycle too. but enough foreplay . it was time to head to the very back of the fair, for what many of us had wanted to come on this trip for: Olympia Looping. and it's jaw dropping in person snapping pics as we walked up to Olympia Looping. a variation on a Breakdance, called Parkour, and another Drop Tower this was a ghost train, but they had added VR to it. I did ride it one day, and it kinda made me nauseous. . but when it's over? you're not done. . . they make you go thru a fun house to get out! including stepping on mushrooms to find your path, and if you miss? water below it. but yeah, they really want you to get your $$ worth out of it. oh, and not everyone is seeing the same VR thing. . so you'd have to ride multiple times to make sure you get all options. (once was enough for me) the outside is very cool tho. and now a bunch of pics of Olympia Looping. . . i mean, are you really looking at Olympia Looping if you don't get pics of all 5 loops? time to ride! waited one train for front row (I discovered quickly it's much more forceful in the back, but for my 1st ride? I wanted to ride in the front) they were running 2 trains this 1st night due to the rain, but some days we were there they had 4 running. proof! as it got later the fair got a bit quieter. . but it didn't stop all the friendly (ie: drunk) folks from making our acquaintance. a pic of me in front of Looping turned into this wonderful pic with drunk revelers. and even Christopher - who had been taking the picture - got into it with a selfie. tho I did get this cute photo op they set up out front of it. other nights were so crowded, no way to get a decent pic, so I'm really happy we went and rode this 1st night. Right next to Olympia Looping is the Carousel Bar - where the center of it is actually a Carousel that spins while you drink. even on a relatively quiet night it was packed, tho I did spend quite a bit of time there during our visits to the fair. Um. . . ok? you GO, "Jumbo Flug" the famous Toboggan slide, with the Conveyor Belt lift hill. no, I didn't do it - I'm a klutz and would have broken my neck. But it was a ton of fun watching people try it, and several from TPR did really well on it. (the guys standing along the wall are to help pick up the people that fall on the conveyor belt and get them to the top) equally as well known from the fair is this. . aka: the Devil's Wheel - the spinning ride where you pay to go in and watch, and run down when they call groups to try and be the last one on the wheel. Adam from TPR won a round on this trip. probably due to the weather (it's covered inside) it was PACKED in there tonight even, so didn't go in, and just got this pic outside of it. one of three ghost trains at the fair. This one was the middle one (there's one much better and one much worse) but in this one? you ride in cages. so, of course, Jon and I wanted to ride the outside does a fantastic job making you want to go in and ride. it was just a lot of props in front of black drapes tho. meh. . .C- the Wild Mouse was fantastic. not only was it all lit up, AND they were racing it the whole time. . but I've never been on a Wild Mouse with so much airtime. it was so good. . . both sides. and I'm sure the wild mouse on ride photo was officially licensed too (didn't get one, because it was more than the one at Olympia Looping). incredibly well lit, and flashy Rotor. with a waterfall, and what looked like a funhouse prior to getting on the ride. classic looping ride. and it made me laugh that they have the Olympic rings on the front Bannister. how drunk must one be to think this is Olympia Looping? one of two massive Claw rides. . this one was Konga, and had giant fire effects too. finally made it over to my other "must do tonight" ride: Alpina Bahn the trains were lit up, and the tracks were wet from the rain, and this sucker was FLYING. I absolutely loved this, and think I may have ridden it more than Olympia Looping during my visits to the fair (tho I rode both of them 5-6 times) the bears up top are Animatronic, tho since they were speaking German, I have no idea what they were going on about even on the 1st night, I got to see the "true meaning of Oktoberfest" turns out that unless you pass out in a walkway? Security leaves you alone. . this guy was just fine on a bench, and saw many folks laying on the grass on the sides that were left undisturbed. as we were headed back to the hotel - it had been a really long day, and I had ridden all 3 of the coasters (only one side of Mouse), I was ready to sleep - we passed by the biggest of the ghost trains, and had to stop by to take a look at it. wouldn't ride it until the next day. . but ended up riding it several times, it was that good. Geister Palast (Ghost Palace) still headed towards the exit (the fair is really big!). . here's a shooting dark ride, that was Nintendo - adjacent. I think Elissa had the high score on this one for a bit (posted outside the ride) one of multiple FunHouses thruout the fair - this one with the whole lower level as a mirror maze and yet another infamous ride spotted, the Tagada. this one with a metal floor. this one was pretty violent, and was shooting people off the seats and into the center during some of the spins. very fun to watch. . . and with that, we made our way back to the hotel, and I crashed. tomorrow was the official start of the trip and we were starting out the day with Skyline Park. and a ride I was terrified of, but had promised I'd ride it (and made the statement publicly) after I chickened out and didn't ride it in Finland. but for now? sleep. . .

the only good news I can report on today. Six Flags Fiesta Texas, has quietly dropped the height restriction on Dr. Diabolical's Cliffhanger. . . . after Park President Jeffery Siebert started teasing the other day that the Doctor was expanding her practice. the Dive coaster was minimum height 52" not anymore!

Lol, some gp on FB actually complained about it going up too fast and she's worried it won't be safe. She wants them to slow down! Was talking about how when rides go up too fast there are dead bodies

At last we come to the final park of the trip, Linnanmäki. The name means Water Castle Hill, but I think they should've included the word "rocky" in there somewhere, personally. 25: Sampo Circus The park was founded, and is still run, by the non-profit Children's Day Foundation. Entry is free, though one must of course pay for the attractions. Can you guess what year it first opened? The first ride of the day was Taiga, an Intamin LSM launch coaster not completely dissimilar in style to VelociCoaster. I think I like this one slightly more, though it does lack the theming of IOA's ride. Both are smooth and aggressive, but VelociCoster's first half feels like it's made up of smaller, more compact elements (which I guess I'm saying is less good). A pretty great ride, in any case. Taken through the window of the gift shop, because I'm artsy. Next door to Taiga is Kyöpelinvuoren Hotelli, the exterior of which is "shown" here, in this shot from the queue for the Ferris wheel--because, again, artsy. I had no idea this dark ride existed, and it was spectacular. It reminded me a lot of Blue Train, except where Blue Train is a celebration of random mix-and-match horror theming, Kyöpelinvuoren Hotelli has a consistent theme throughout--which might sound less interesting, in a way, but isn't because that theme is, "What if witches ran a hotel but a wizard showed up to fight them and got killed almost immediately and they also live in the hotel and there are werewolves too sometimes I guess." "Again!" Yes, the park has a fun house. But, it's a fairground-style trailer-mounted one. Better than not having a fun house though, to be sure! I'm not afraid to punch a seagull. I don't know what this is, but I appear to be having fun. I suppose you could classify it as a powered coaster, but I'm not sure what the point would be since no one should be counting powered coasters anyway. Goldballs modelling the next "what the hell is this?" ride. This dark ride I did know about. I had no idea so many coaster enthusiasts were coulrophobic. I thought it was great! (Giving Linnanmäki the best 1-2 dark ride punch of the trip.) Let me know if you want more pictures of terrifying dark ride clowns! Or witches! Or that one wizard guy who died. "Again"? Next door to the Clown Circus is this walk-through haunted house and mirror maze. Well lit and family-ish, but I really enjoyed it. They give you 3-D glasses, but they feel pretty unnecessary, to be honest. Some cool effects in the mirror maze, like glass that "breaks" to reveal monsters when triggered by passers-by. Some areas of Linnanmäki are themed and some aren't--or I just don't understand what those areas are themed to. Or, to put it another way, Linnanmäki is circus-themed except when it isn't, which is frequently. Don't tell me that doesn't make sense unless you've been there. There is no other theming of this kind in the park. Enjoy your pee! I think this photo was taken from the "sky cabin" style observation tower, Panoraama. Vuoristorata has a similar layout to Bakken's Rutschebanen, but this one is still breakman operated. (Er...brake-person operated?) Unfortunately, this one was rather rough and dull. Of course, I only rode it once (because it was rough and dull), and by its nature, one would expect some variation from ride to ride--but I can only judge by what I experienced. And what I experienced was pointless. RMC it! Bug Why, bug? Linnanmäki, that's why. There's something weirdly interesting about a monorail built through a multi-level park in such a way that it travels directly alongside pathways. In case it wasn't obvious, I fell in love with this park when we walked in. Hot dog, lunch! The train (which has a tiny graphic of a train on the front of it, presumably so that you'll know what it is once you get up close) travels around this water tower that doesn't have water in it, but can't be torn down for historic reasons. It can apparently have a roller coaster built inside of it, though. Linnunrata eXtra Linnunrata means "Milky Way" and eXtra means "stupid VR goggles that you shouldn't use because the inside of this ride is actually really nicely themed!" To space, obviously. Oh, and hey, Barry's back! He's been back for awhile actually. In fact, think he only missed, like, one park. Don't rely on me for news updates is what I'm saying. That looks cool. How do we get down there? For an extra thrill, ride your horsy along the edge of a rocky cliff. It's a walk-around character. Of some sort. Quick, walk around her! Quickly googles "Linnanmaki mascot." Oh, Rolle the Clown. Which, yeah, don't google that. She's not it. She's waaaaay less horrifying. Yes, Smisty and Goldballs are on this thing. Photo by me. Maybe this is more common than I think, but I've never seen a swinging ship ride with restraints that come down over your body and rows that face one another. We rode just because it seemed weird. The park's spinning coaster, Salama, was quite alarming in that the ride was janky and rough leaving the station and all the way to the top of the lift hill. But then it was fine and smooth and enjoyable. It was almost a feature. Like, let's make people think this ride is going to be horrible, but then it's fun actually! This area of the park is largely themed to the Finnish epic, Kalevala. And if you don't know what this, there's a chance you actually do. At least, if you've ever seen the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode featuring the Finnish/Russian film based on that mythology, "The Day the Earth Froze." That's right. The big metal thing shooting water and fire is, in fact, meant to be a Sampo. Wait...MST3K paired that film with a short called, "Here Comes the Circus." Oh. Your. God. That means that Linnanmäki is entirely themed after Episode 422 of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Pikajuna is a Mack powered coaster that was primarily interesting for how it intertwined with some of the park's other coasters. Speaking of Mack, we were warned that there's a reason Tulireki is the world's only Mack E-Motion Coaster. And during the first third, it didn't seem too bad. But oh that second third, the jack-hammering begins! And then the last third is kind of in-between, where it's just a little bit terrible. I am not an engineer, but I have to suspect that the drunken elves that move the seats a bit in relation to the chassis just don't have the magic to maintain their composure at the bottom of the drops. The park also has an upcharge Sea Life Aquarium. Well, not an upcharge, really, as the park is free to enter. So, just a charge, I guess. Maybe it's even weird to say, "the park has," since there's also an entrance from outside the park. Not that having to enter the park would be any great hindrance. Anyway, naked dudes eating ice cream. And one has a bird on his head. Just try that sh!t with me, gull. I'll mess you up. Can verify that the aquarium has an underwater tunnel, making it officially legitimate. It also put a little hat on a sea urchin, making it fun in a way that's kind of dubious. "Just try putting a hat on me, aquarium. I'll mess you up." I like Sea Life Aquariums. Maybe not quite as much as most city-run aquariums, but they'll do! Linnanmäki. It's great. Maybe their overall coaster collection is just okay, on average--but Taiga was really good and Salama and Linnunrata are both fun. Two wonderful dark rides, plus a walk-though and a fun house. An observation tower, monorail, Ferris wheel, aquarium. Some interesting flat rides and lots and lots of weirdness. Yeah, this is an Erik park. Score: 10 And so we say goodbye to TPR (here represented entirely by Robb). But--and I apologize in advance--this is not the last update, as we spent two more full days in Helsinki doing Erik & Smisty stuff. So stay tuned for: The elevator of death! A drab office building full of snakes! A really big store! An observation tower that's part of a stadium! A really tiny power plant! Baby ribs! Um...the airport! And more!

I have a piece of friendly advice. Go to Dollywood, ride it. and decide for yourself. Another piece of friendly advice: Saying "I'm certainly not one to cause problems or throw shade" is just a signal that you plan to do exactly that. If Robb said he "couldn't tell one bit of difference," he's giving you his true opinion.

Day 3 - Night-time back at Oktoberfest Faire - with a lot of time spent in the "Old Oktoberfest Museum" area after a break for foot resting, and a shower, some of us met down in the lobby to head back to Oktoberfest for some Sunday evening fun. i was determined that I wanted to go to the section I had seen the prior days - a sectioned off area, that SEEMED to be an Oktoberfest museum of some type - or "old Oktoberfest". It cost 4 Euro to enter that area, but it seemed large, with a covered bandstand, a beer tent, and a large outdoors section. looking it up online, showed that my assumptions above were pretty spot on, so I really wanted to do that, and a group of folks who were also interested joined me on this quest tonight. since it was way in the back (behind the ferris wheel) on the main "street". . we once again came thru the main gate. not nearly as busy as it had been, since we were here on a Sunday night now. but still not empty. and it was cold - so had put on a few layers. this is where we'd be tomorrow, as we had reserved tables in the Lowenbrau tent. (and yes, the lion is animatronic, and takes drinks of beer ) Andrew giving "Andrew face". . . LOL . . . standing at the entrance to the "Old Oktoberfest" area (I'm just calling it that. . no idea if that's what it's officially called). Looking back towards the main entrance - we're seeing the back side of the Ferris wheel. Tickets bought, we enter into this section (again, it's only 4 Euro. . .but turned out it was WAY worth it. not only was it much less crowded back here, but once in this sectioned off area? all rides (fair classics) were only 1.50 . . .a hell of a deal, and they were running great cycles). right away, I knew I was gonna love this place, just from the outside display of old tractors/carts. scattered food stands around too.. not much business tho, as there turned out to be food available with sit down service inside the main building (with music and a bit warmer, so most did that). the entrance into the main building in this area. . .where the Museum portion is, the food service, the bandstand. . and a classic, CLASSIC carousel. I was in heaven. from in front of the Carousel, getting a layout of this building. on the left is the bandstand, in the middle is the restaurant, straight ahead is an enclosed area where one could rent and ride old bikes in the ring. on the other side of the carousel is a large section with old props from classic attractions at the faire - and there was history all along the outside walls. Some went to get beer and grab a sit down right away. . my ass was going directly to the Carousel. but there wasn't anyone in the operating booth at the moment, so I went around the back of it to take a look at the classic props. many of them from old "Ghost Train" attractions. sexy! I wish I could read German. . . but I was able to get the gist of most of the signs. by the time I got back around to the Carousel, the guy was in the booth, and sold me a ticket. and then ran if just for me I rode a horse. then got off, bought another ticket and rode again, this time in a carriage - which did actually rock! (I was afraid to rock the horse, as the carousel is so old, and i"m not exactly "light" happy as hell on a classic carousel. . . after my two rides, I joined the rest of the gang I was hanging with, at the table, and ordered beer and food along with them. Pic courtesy of the waiter when he came back to take food order. Lunch had been big, and I wanted to snack in the fair as well.. .so wasn't too hungry. they also were out of several things on the large menu (hadn't restocked for the coming week yet, and it was on Sunday evening, remember), but of what was avail. everything was good. the band was quite loud in the enclosed space, but they were good. and it was a lot of fun. I think we hung out in here for a good hour plus, and I posted to the group about the food and atmosphere available back here in this section in case anyone wanted to check it out on a fairly quiet night. after eating, I took a walk around the front part of the building to check out some of the displays - while the others had another beer. the sign by the Bicycle rink. these were a big draw back in the day! the history of the Oktoberfest posters. many of them were available for purchase (but I have neither the wall space, nor the $$ to get em). Some were great tho, and I got magnet versions. classic ride vehicles. hey. .some more TPR folks came out to this section. hiya Christopher, Erik and Chuck! enough time hanging out in the main building, we ventured outside to check out what else was on offer. this is the back of the Beer tent. . which according to the information I could read, was supposed to be full of folks in traditional Oktoberfest garb, and music/atmosphere. as we had just experienced basically that in the main building, we walked around this one rather than go thru, to see the lined avenue back here. (don't think we really missed much, as they seemed to be shutting it down due to lack of big crowd on Sunday night, and if folks wanted beer they could get it in the main building). several smaller flat rides were out here lining the avenue. classic older rides. and carnival type games and attractions. this made me giggle so hard. . I think it's the look on the dummy's faces. another classic carousel. . tho this one seemed to be a kiddie, so didn't even try. it was lovely tho. . . I adore that "Elephant" can get an old timey photo too. all done with cardboard cut outs. not creepy at ALL. ok. . now THIS is what I'm talking about. a Calypso.. running a fantastic and long cycle. for 1.50. many of us got a ride. even had that cheesy 70's artwork that has nothing to do with the ride (other than the name is kinda tropical) really is a beautiful ride tho: this cabinet of classic prizes was just for display. . which is a shame, as I would have tried to knock over those stupid cans to try to win some of these. these looked to be hitting HARD. not sure if Knoebels level, but probably pretty close! this Waltzer had the biggest crowd, and after watching for a bit, we saw why. they sold tickets and you had to hover around and hope that a car stopped near you, and the folks riding got out (some bought multiple tickets and stayed put). .and then it was a mad dash to get your ass into an empty seat. the music was BLASTING loud, classics - we rode to Hot Chocolate "Every one's a Winner" plus another song. . and the annoyance on the operators face when the fair came on the loudspeakers to make an announcement was hysterical. the operator, was speeding up and slowing down based on a hand crank. . that he would crank based on the riders reactions. Oh, all while chugging beers. it was so freaking awesome. .and just might be my best memory of the whole trip. (if not, it's really really close) in fact, I just pulled up Hot Chocolate on Youtube while typing this up, and it brought me RIGHT back to this ride. awesome. just for show, as noted they were blasting 70's classics thru the speakers inside the ride. straight back, you can see the operator by his crank (long coat and hat) . . watching the crowd. after hanging out back here for probably 2 hours total, we finally exited and made our way back into the fair proper. a last look back. . this area was so worth it to me. where should we go in the fair? why of course! and some snacks. . . but not these. I was worried they'd be the same consistency I hadn't cared for from the meal the other night. but . . c'mon. . balls! gotta take a pic hey, got a different face out of Andrew! and walking by my favorite place - the Carousel Bar - spotted a big TPR group on the Carousel. with room, so we joined them for some fun hangout time PROST!! a princess balloon in the center of the Carousel bar ceiling. . . going around and around for several pints. . . if I wasn't just loving being on the actual carousel? I totally would have gotten off it to grab this seat once the lady left. it looked a little awkward. . but c'mon.. you sit on the horse AT the table. . . that's so freaking awesome. ok. .enough drinking.. time to get a few more rides in. I think we headed to Alpen Bahn and Voodoo Jumper again. but no, wasn't drunk enough to want to pose like Marilyn (but I wish I had been.. that would have been such a great pic) getting to be late, and things were starting to shut down. . so we headed towards the exits going out the main gate tho, I noticed that the memorial I had seen yesterday lights up, and truly is worth a look at night. and then it was time to head back to the hotel. . . as it had been a long day, was slightly buzzed, and tomorrow was our BIG day at Oktoberfest - reservations in the tent, a meal, and all the fun and excitement.

I was about to congratulate Great Adventure on making it through an entire weekend without crashing or derailing a coaster. They ALMOST made it, but now...

A Holiday Stroll Around Christmas Town Ah, it 's that magical time of year again. The smell of fresh pine trees is in the air, the laughter of happy children is everywhere, and adults are downing copious amounts of holiday grog. Yes, Christmas Town has returned to Williamsburg. Care to take a stroll with me around the park to takes in the sights of the season? We start with the walk from the parking lot to the park entrance. Preferred parking, which is included with my membership, was full by the time I got there on Sunday, December 9, around 4:30 pm. I had to park in the outer reaches of the Ireland lot, which offers both tram service and a new path for those who care to hoof it. The tram line was huge, so I took the path. The walk took about ten minutes, and it gave me another view of this version of Santa. This used to be in Festa Italia (aka Holiday Hills), but it greets drivers as they enter the parking lots this year. Looks like Santa misplaced his reins and harness--or perhaps he's using invisible magic reins to keep his reindeer in line. The Enchanted Tree with the Big Balls greets you at the entrance to England. It wouldn't be Christmas Town without it. I've always liked England's traditional wreaths and garlands. On the left is the Globe Theatre, where you can take in BGW's musical version of Dickens's A Christmas Carol--Scrooge No More. It's probably the best of their holiday shows. How can you really go wrong with this Dickens classic? Some of the cast appear as carolers between shows and perform in front of the theatre. And keep an eye open for Father Christmas. It's always a "Blue Christmas" in the Scottish Highlands. Ireland, of course, stresses the green and gold. The Abbeystone Theatre is the home of Gloria, a show about the birth of Christ using traditional and contemporary music. Ireland is also where you can partake of Santa's Fireside Feast. This building has hosted a few other attractions over the years. The scrambler (aka Le Catapult) used to be in this building. It's also the former home of the Enchanted Laboratory and Castle O'Sullivan shows. Now it's Santa's buffet away from the North Pole, and Mrs. Claus always makes sure there are plenty of cookies. I like the path between Ireland and France. The luminaria are a nice touch, it always smell like freshly cut pine trees, and the gypsy wagon looks nice with its festive green lights. France is also looking very festive. The Palace Theatre hosts Twas the Night, a figure-skating show, if that's your thing. The Merry Misfits vocal group also performs on a stage next to the ice-cream parlor. Griffon was closed, as were Apollo's Chariot, Pantheon, and Tempesto. All the park's other coasters were operating. Fort New France (aka Canada) is where you board the Christmas Town Express for a grand circle tour of Busch Gardens and, if you're unlucky, a bunch of people singing off-key carols in your ear for 20 minutes. (This is just one of the hazards of the holiday season.) Still, it's a nice ride and on Quick Queue (seriously, the line for this can get very long on busy days during Christmas Town). They were running two trains last night, so the wait wasn't bad. I didn't get any decent photos of the trip, but I like these wreaths in the New Caribou Station. Here's Santa's Workshop in Germany--a nice meet-and-greet spot. The Burgermeister's Hideway speakeasy is running a Christmas-themed program with appropriate Christmas cocktails, but it fills up fast. Let's head to the Festhaus for a brew. During Howl-o-Scream, the Festhaus is full of fiends, but during Christmas Town it's home of O' Tannenbaum. a synchronized music-and-light show held on the Christmas tree above, and Up on the Haustop, with modern Christmas songs. It also has this cool chandelier and some magical theme-park snow. Hmm--looks like this Porsche might have crashed in the snow. The tow truck can't get here until spring, so we may as well decorate it. The view from the bridge between Germany and Italy. This is my favorite of the park's many Christmas trees. It also provides a nice backdrop to the freakishly large Santa heads of Holiday Hills (aka Festa Italia). The large Santa heads and candy canes remind of bit of the Christmas decorations of my hometown in California when I was a kid. Of course, we didn't have a spinning teacup ride, which is probably for the best. That about says it all. Let's move on to the the Polar Pathway. There's another synchronized music-and-light show here. They use some 1950s style Christmas music, including some rockabilly stuff. Never before has a natural disaster looked so festive. The Sesame Street Forest of Fun celebrates trees of all colors. Time to head home via blue Scotland . . . . . . and Merrie Olde England. Be sure to wish Father Christmas a "Happy Christmas" on your way out. "Ho, ho, ho! The president of the Claus Organization thanks you for visiting Christmas Town. Go home and continue to make merry!" Thanks for joining me on this stroll through Christmas Town.

Getting coaster nerd corrected on a name technicality on a website forum in 2024. What a time to be alive. Thank you very much.

So we recently came back from two days at Hong Kong Disneyland. It was our son's first Disneyland trip and I think Hong Kong is one of the best ones to use as a beginner park, a park which opens later, you don't need to line-up hours before to get in and reserve passes, overall a pretty relaxed two days. The first visit (tier 1) was actually far busier than our second day (tier 2) but even at the busiest ride times maxed out at around 30-40 minute lines and would drop throughout the day. I want to give a big shout-out to TPR's Facebook stories, it's a shame such information disappears because Robb's comments on Momentous and the water-screen made us realize we didn't need to be super close and spend on a VIP package or grab a space hours early. The lines were walk-on so the fast track would have been wasted and with a picky eater son (and not many good reviews) so would have been the Momentous buffet deal and we (accidentally) ended up with an amazing Momentous experience due to this. A couple of points that aren't negative but to be aware of: Meet and Greets/App: Not sure if this is Disney-wide or Hong Kong-specific but we constantly saw disappointment on people's faces around this. I'll give some examples in my TR but a prime example: Moana. With Moana 2 coming out, and Moana having a stage show and segments in the Momentous show she was extremely popular. The app listed the time as 3:35-4:45 which seems good but the Moana stage show was just after 4 p.m. and you can't have two Moanas out. So Moana actually had to be gone by 3:55 so the line was cut super-early. We were the very last group let in (I'd say about 10-15 groups total) and so many frustrated people were waving the app screens in cast members faces who were turning them away. Perhaps if the app updated when lines were closed or said who was around better it wouldn't happen, the app led us often to places that turned out to be closed but as the weather in Hong Kong gets hotter I think this park in particular needs an overhaul on this with more indoor areas so characters aren't having to disappear due to clashes of also being in parades/shows or weather. People obviously don't mind lining up for them, even on the quietest days Fantasy Gardens had 40-minute lines, Iron Man 40-50, and Duffy Playhouse was 90-120 all day, but the few other characters on the app only saw a very small amount of groups for the whole day and that seemed to give people frustration. Also shade: As I said meet and greets were hugely popular. If the character meet and greet areas are all now fixed areas, hopefully, Disney can find a way to put some shade where their queue lines were set up. If you go you need to pack a parasol. For example, even when there weren't issues, Chip and Dale were always at 60 minutes waiting to meet them but the line was completely exposed to the sun, I think for timed meetings only the Marvel meet had shade. Our son is a big train fan, so of course we had to ride the Mickey Train to get to the park. Our last visit to this park was Autopia's final year so we were excited to see what had changed. Halloween was in full swing but I didn't have time to get a picture. Our son's main visit was he had been super excited to get some Disney autographs in his book and from our previous visits we knew HK could have some very quick cut offs..... we just didn't know how quick. So the park had a scheduled opening at 10:30 and we had arrived early and arrived at the first meet and greet which was Minnie by 10:33. Unfortunately that line had already been cut off. Apparently, it's easier in the summer when Pixar is the parade but on the days we visited Minnie had to be gone before the shows at the castle or Halloween parades so the windows were always too small. This one is my fault though, I foolishly thought we didn't need to buy the early entry pass since ride lines were so short but turns out people use the first 30 minutes to do rides, then they rope-drop Minnie/Chip n Dale on Main Street or the Duffy playhouse to avoid the lines. We were advised that Chip n Dale would be available at the other end of the street and the line was open! However, after 15 minutes of no-show, the staff were advising that 'They'd eaten too much Halloween candy' and would be another 20 minutes at least. With an advertised hours worth of people and no shade we had to bail. Our son wasn't happy but we couldn't risk 90 minutes under the midday sun. Lesson learned, you need to pack a parasol but I'm not sure we'd have survived that line even with one in that heat. We were advised to try Fantasy Gardens but found them empty and with the app reading no show times today, shop staff told us to try after lunch time. With frustration setting in and since he's big on super heroes, we headed off to meet Iron-Man. Even on the quiet days this line was 30-50 minutes but he did it twice, so it became our rope-drop on the 2nd day. Unfortunately, unlike some of the other parks, non-signing characters don't have any stamps to put in the books instead so he was a little sad he couldn't get Iron Man's signature Wasp suddenly passed through the area surrounded by Shield Agents. The walkthrough lasted only a few minutes and you could only take selfies. We also learnt that roaming characters don't sign books either so we decided to get some rides done to try and cool-off. I don't get the hate the rides here get, especially Ant-Man. We did the Iron Man ride twice and then headed over to Ant Man. Our son rode this 3-4 times a row and only had good things to say. Esepcially enjoying the shrinking down effect. I feel like Buzz Lightyear had to be updated, I don't think it would have worked so well in this Marvel heavy area, even Hyperspace Mountain and orbiter felt a little out of place. I'm surprised Orbiter didn't get a Guardians make over. Our son was lapping Ant-Man but he was still desperate to get some signatures. However we noticed some barriers being erected at the stage. Could a superhero rescue my son's day? An unlikely hero was about to appear.... IMG_8465.mov Finally a signature in the book. There was a heavy price to pay however, Loki announced that a signature was signing a contract to join his army of the damned. Loki repeated on both our visits due to Halloween but our son didn't care and was the only villain we managed to get (more on that later). Did we give up our son's soul to Loki's army of the damned? Yes. But signature #1 was gained. Our son is really not into roller-coasters but he tried this. He wasn't a huge fan. It was also my first time with the Star Wars overlay but I gotta say with the area so Marvel heavy (and Spider-Man ride coming soon), and so little Star Wars things in the park, I wonder if another overlay will come eventually. I love the new castle over the old one. The princess meet and greet was here with a sign who was currently there, but princesses rotated so often inside, despite cast members warning people in the line, we heard a lot of complaints from people who would line up for Rapunzel or Belle but ended up meeting Tiana or Merida. Fantasy Gardens has been downsized due to Frozen land but during the day they had one booth for Winnie the Pooh and one for a Disney friend. Since characters could rotate nearby out of sight, it was one of the only lines we didn't see being cut during the trip. These characters repeated on our visit, and meet and greets were so popular that lines were 60 minutes even on a dead day but it was two more signatures in the book. And we didn't have to sacrifice any more souls to get them. Most people rush Frozen Land in the morning so we waited for the crowds to clear before heading over after midday. Elsa and Anna roamed quite often and were a huge hit but so many people wanted photo-ops that they just couldn't get. People seemed to be grabbing standby passes for Playhouse in the Woods thinking it was a meet and greet and seemed disappointed in the show that it wasn't. Hopefully at some point in the future an indoor meeting hall could be expanded here. Another ride that gets hate but I do think the park needed a beginner roller-coaster for the very young ones to get to experience. RC Racer/Hyperspace Mountain and Grizzly all don't really fill that 'Child's first coaster' slot that this one does very nicely. With the line now walk-on we headed in, although we did stop since Anna was in the queue line greeting some guests. We haven't been on the Epcot or Japan versions to compare but on it's own, it was a very fun and enjoyable ride. The drop was steeper than I expected and it's nice that the park finally has some kind of water ride. We ate a lot of food here.... Bumped into Anna again. Sadly no signatures from a wandering character, but a nice conversation and a high five was gained. IMG_8740.MOV Back to Fantasyland since a show was starting. I did not miss the Golden Mickey's it replaced at all. The Tiana singer was fantastic. Most of the crowd spilled out here but we had to ride since my son had never experienced it and wanted to. Toy Story Land was next door but since our main purpose for visiting was signatures, we skipped over to Mystic Manor. What can I say? This ride is still one of my favorite Disney rides all these years later, and we definitely lapped it multiple times while we had time. I'm jumping ahead a little, but we rode Grizzly on our second visit. It was having some hiccups on the first day and the line was 30-40 minutes. As I said, our son's not huge on roller-coasters so I figured I'd grab my one ride on the next day. You know a roller-coaster is done right when someone who hates most of them demands re-rides. He lapped it 6 times in a row, and then went back throughout the day and is still complaining now that we didn't introduce him to the ride on the 1st day. Jungle Cruise no longer divides the queues and boats into separate languages. To be honest, I didn't miss it at all. The skippers seemed to struggle before and the line seemed slower with boats divided. With one line, it moved much faster and the skippers seemed much more at ease. Finally heading over to Toy Story Land due to a meet and greet time, RC Racer was down for scheduled maintenance at the time of our visit. So if I have one negative about the park, it would be the app. We were constantly chasing ghosts or areas that actually weren't open meet-or-greets. We figured a two-hour window would be pretty safe if we showed up a little after the time but we showed up to find an empty area and no line or cast members to ask. The shop members just told us that it was 'when a magical moment' could happen. I just wonder then instead of these 2 long posted times, having an updating app that tells people when characters are actually out. Disney has some of the best imagineers in the world, an app that can update would be nice. Since this is one of the only places to get Dole Whip, we decided to buy some slushies and hang around in case Jessie came out. Thankfully she showed up around 5:15, so perhaps 2 showings were made in that total time period. As was the standard the line hit capacity pretty quickly. Woody was around on the second day but since his window was only 45 minutes, we didn't dare attempt it when we got off a ride and realised we'd missed my alarm and was already 10 minutes into his time. Anyway signature #4 gained. So I mentioned this at the start of the TR but Moana is hugely popular. She had one viewing slot of 70 minutes. However... there was a Moana stage show at 4:10. She was great with our son but even arriving as soon as we could we were the very last in the line around 3:45 with the cast member behind us I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a bit uncomfortable as frustrated families were trying to argue and showing the app screens. If Moana came back somehow at the very end of that timeslot the CM definitely didn't say anything to anyone. But after 2 days we finally gained a 5th and final signature in the book. This was our first visit to Disney post-pandemic, so not sure if it's all parks but on our last visit we had over 20 photo meetings with characters around the park without even trying. Now we have a child into those things and even chasing the app only managed about 5. And she was gone by 3:55. The app told us that the marketplace would have Up/Stitch/Lion King/Aladdin characters rotating but it was completely abandoned during the Halloween season. It's not a huge thing but this area and the Marvel expo area don't do greets but are listed on the app as open, and I really wish they could just update when areas aren't actually in use like they do restaurants/rides. Further down, there was a villain fashion show, and a villain musical had replaced Lion King but they were packed and people were buying premier passes to both to jump the lines. The speaking characters like Evil Queen or Malificent were over here but cast members would only count in 10 groups before cutting the line so we had no luck there. Coupled with the huge lines for the villain shows in Adventure Land, people buying premier passes for those, and Halloween merchandise already being sold out (like the Nightmare Before Christmas popcorn bucket) early October, I really hope this park gets their own version of Not so Scary Party sometime in the future. Anyway that's the negative part done, back to positive. We headed back to Fantasy Gardens since according to the app suited villains would be out here.We found one pagoda had become a trick-or treat station and only one to meet a non-speaking villain. However, since villains were Halloween exclusive people were going crazy for them. We would show up to an empty pagoda before the start time and no character out yet to find the cast-members already turning people away already due to capacity, even though no-one knew which villain was coming out yet. Maybe I'm the minority but I preferred getting Disney-wrapped/Mickey-shaped jellies over brands like the other parks do. I think chocolate would never survive the climate though. Time to wrap up this TR. I'm so grateful that we saw TPR's Facebook stories about Momentous. We'd been trying to work out the best time/place to view it but the review from Robb about the water screen made us reconsider our plans. Even two hours before the performance people were getting their spaces in. We knew we'd have to pick up our son and hold him (there were a few kids on shoulders but we aren't that kind of people) but the bigger issue was the Insta360 cameras. They are really popular on the Chinese market and are way longer than any selfie stick and we saw a few people checking their angles even at this time so we knew our view would be compromised.... And then a happy accident..... We figured going off the TPR socials that we should just view the castle from the side so we decided to eat first and grab any standing space when we were done. However, the restaurant was packed inside with the air-con so we were directed outside to sit. And this was the view of the castle. We debated a compromised view since the tree to the right would block some fireworks but from memory of TPR's socials (Again why does Insta/Facebook remove these after 24 hours) we knew fireworks on the left and right were identical. The best view tables had been grabbed pretty early but we decided instead of having the best view we'd settle for a good experience. Instead of being crowded in standing for an hour and holding up a child for half of that, we'd watch the fireworks sitting down with our own space so we ordered a lot of food, beer, and dessert. We lucked out even more that a group holding one of the best tables decided they didn't actually want to watch with a blocked view and left so we quickly grabbed their seat by the railing. It's a nice touch that in the 30 minute lead up they run a bunch of short pre-shows to get the crowd ready and in the mood. With the decision made we ordered a lot of food and more beer, and settled in for the show. Watching a Disney night show comfortably with dinner was something I didn't think I'd get to experience especially when 1 hour earlier i'd been dreading having to stand around and hold my son up so thank-you TPR socials. An incredible show. Really glad we watched it. I remember seeing Robb's posts about the screen and figured that it was just blurry because it needed to be that big for people far away to also see. I was wrong. Although looking through my photos this is the only time we could see it from our view-point for almost the whole show. IMG_7882 (5).MOV This was our view from the restaurant seats. Was it perfect? No. But I think standing among the Insta360 cameras and kids on shoulders holding up a heavy child in my arms, would have been a worse end to the day than relaxing eating alright-ish burgers and delicious waffles while having beers with my wife. Goodbye Hong Kong Disney. Thanks for the memories. P.S. I know people crap on Wish a lot. The park gives away excess merchandise as free gifts with your tickets. On one day we lucked out and got the slippers, but on the other days, the park was unloading Wish merchandise for free just to get rid of it. I almost watched it on the plane to see if it was as bad as everyone says. But with a 3 hour plane journey I couldn't resist having an Inside Out marathon.

A new head of maintenance at Six Flags Magic Mountain can significantly impact the park's goal of operating all coasters with two roller coaster train operations within two years in several ways. Firstly, the head of maintenance brings in fresh perspectives and potentially new strategies for optimizing coaster operations. They might implement more efficient maintenance schedules, ensuring that downtime for repairs and inspections is minimized. This could involve predictive maintenance techniques that anticipate issues before they occur, thereby reducing unexpected closures. Secondly, the new leader can focus on improving staff training and development. By ensuring that maintenance teams are well-trained and knowledgeable about the specific requirements of each coaster, they can enhance operational readiness and responsiveness to issues. This might include cross-training staff to handle different aspects of coaster maintenance, thereby increasing flexibility and reducing dependency on a limited number of specialists. Additionally, the head of maintenance can oversee upgrades to existing coaster systems and infrastructure. This could involve modernizing control systems, enhancing safety features, or even collaborating with ride manufacturers to optimize performance. Moreover, effective leadership can foster a culture of accountability and excellence within the maintenance team. Setting clear goals, measuring performance metrics, and incentivizing achievements can motivate staff to meet and exceed operational targets. Ultimately, the new head of maintenance plays a crucial role in coordinating efforts across departments to achieve the goal of consistently operating all coasters with two train operations. Their strategic oversight and management can streamline processes, improve reliability, and ensure a positive guest experience by minimizing downtime and maximizing coaster availability.

I am amused and intrigued by the idea of an Invisible Man walk-around character.

Official Park Website: https://www.rasti-land.de (German only) Backstory to this post: About a decade ago I discovered both the TPR Website and this fairly small park in Germany: Rasti-Land in Salzhemmendorf, Lower Saxony. It is a family-owned park, opened in 1973 and has been steadily expanded since. When I visited the park, I did take pictures and thought about posting them here, but never actually got around to actually doing that. Since that park still doesn't exist in this forum, here are pictures from my 2015 visit. To start with, the park is a little out of the way, I passed a village and my satnav led me along a road which didn't look like it would lead to an amusement park until it told me to turn right. Yeah... right. Well, at least I was pretty unquestionably in the right place. After this short tunnel, you have free parking and depending where you found a spot a bit of a walk to the entrance. Now that looks a bit more park-y. Pretty much right after the entrance, you find the first example of nice and possibly DIY landscaping. Also one of the first rides you see is this, which seems lifted pretty much straight out of RCT: Monorail! It is partially elevated, so you have a good view through parts of the park and a short "dark" ride section, I think in this building. One of the things you see from there is this kiddy-sized merry-go-round... ... accompanied by similar fun-sized flat rides. like this ferris wheel (mini version) and another merry-go-round, this one probably with seats swinging out as it spins (didn't see it in action). Also on the way, you see more things which could come out of RCT like those tracks (the park wasn't particularily full, so there wasn't much happening on those tracks) Continuing further into the park, there is a nice and quiet boat ride with fairy-tale themed animatronics (no pics of those though) The current moving those boats is generated by a paddle wheel right next to the station, also the boats are lifted out of the water by a conveyor belt to allow easy boarding and leaving. There is also an old tracked car ride which has been modernised into a photo safari. All nice and quiet, maybe a little too quiet but eventually you enter... ...the realm of T-Rex. That's more like it. This is a rafting ride with dino-themed landscaping Gives a bit of a Jurassic Park vibe ...a breakthrough of genetics... But it's not all just landscaping, at the bottom end of this helix ramp, there was quite a bit of Skloosh! action. And if you aren't wet enough... ...this water battle ride is right next door. Of course, not all big attractions are water-themed. For example, there is this nice and nicely pink Vekoma Junior Coaster (apparently their first one) It was pretty hot that day, so even a little mental cooling was welcome. This is the station to a powered bobsled ride. Also quite fun as you get to control your own speed (within limits). Some more DIY landscaping. At some point it was rainnig a little, just enough to drive up humidity but not enough (yet) to drive down temperatures. Here you can do a bit of climbing while attached to a safety harness. This was briefly closed due to the drizzle, but I either got up and back down before or it reopened when I got there. Continuing with somewhat smaller attractions again... ...there is a small drop tower... ...Bumper Boats... ...and a small "steam" railway (smelled and sounded like powered by a two-stroke engine). Of course, grilling and two-stroke exhaust from that go-kart track go wonderfully together. Going a bit back towards water, we find the classical combination of... ...a swinging pirate ship... ....and a pirate-themed dark ride. The Park also has a nice assortment of slides. Dry and enclosed as part of a playground. Dry, open and standalone and a few moist slides the slide boats run on water, but the tracks are confined enough that you shouldn't get really wet. This does however not appply to... Skloosh! 2, an unfortunately not terribly photogenic log flume. Finishing with the water is this spinny thing The boats don't just spin around the pirate, they also go up and down on a track (and they can also spin backwards). This was one of the last rides I rode that day and I hope these pictures gave you an indea about this small but nice park. Even back then there were more rides I didn't take pictures of and since my visit they built several more, including three rollercoasters (Holta di Polta, Strohnado and Verrücktwärts). In summary, this is a really nice small park with rides for all ages and almost all types of riders (except hardcore thrillseekers) where you can easily spend half a day to a day, so maybe think about a visit when you are in the general area of Brunswick/Hannover. If you come from further away, you should combine your visit to the park with other places as the park on its own isn't so much of a reason for extended travel (unless you are REALLY desperate for coaster credits). EDIT: BTW, Strohnado seems to be same model as the hamster wheel coaster from this TPR IAAPA 2021 video, although from on-ride videos the spin cycle of Strohnado seems a lot tamer. German Wikipedia calls this a Mixed Coaster by SBF Visa, they also produced the other two new coasters.

So, we decided on a bit of a whim to spend the day at the park yesterday. About a 3 hr 15 min drive for us each way, so we just did a day trip. We did not go to the water park this time since it had just opened and I suspected they wouldn't have everything going yet (that turned out to be accurate) and I also assumed the water would be fairly cold especially after the storms and hail of the night before (not sure if that was correct but based on the frigid temps of the log flume, probably) Although from observations there did look to be plenty of people that gave it a go. Good Gravy is a very basic layout, as expected with a Vekoma family boomerang, but the theming and the queue are absolutely fabulous. Grandma's house is still decorated in all of it 60's mid century kitsch, including dark brown cabinets and orange countertops in the kitchen. If you're old enough you know what I'm talking about, lol. Even if you don't want to ride it, go through the queue. Ops were still brushing the rust off. Really slow at Voyage but we saw a whole group being trained so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they just need to get a little more practice in. Although the Legend crew was rocking it. All major rides going, no downtimes that I am aware of. In fact the only rides I saw not open were some of the slides in the water park as mentioned. Crowds were manageable. It was a good day. Already had a couple shows running, the high dive show and a magic show that seemed to be geared toward kids. Thanks to HW for having the EV chargers! Nice to get some free juice along with the parking, drinks, and sunscreen.

And so at last we come to the final update of the longest trip report I've ever written, about the longest vacation I've ever taken, to the farthest place I've ever gone, to experience the worst roller coaster I've ever ridden. (Tornado at Bakken.) But let us not dwell on the negative, but rather focus our attentions on the very best things we encountered on this amazing trip.... 28: Big Finnish Up with the sunrise to catch our flight. And this is Helsinki, so sunrise is probably earlier than you think. And back home to the little strip of land we share with 750,000 other people near the Pacific Ocean. Time to reflect. Sometimes Smisty and I agreed as to what was the best of a particular thing, and sometimes we didn't. For example: Erik's Park of the Trip - Gröna Lund I really struggled with this one. Yes, I rate Gröna Lund as my second favorite park (with Europa being #1) but Liseberg was just so good on this trip. What I ultimately decided was this: If I can count the Grand Curiousa Hotel as part of Liseberg, then Liseberg wins--and if I can't, then Gröna Lund wins. And since it seems weird to me to count a hotel as part of an amusement park for this purpose, well...Gröna Lund wins. Smisty's Park of the Trip - Power Park I get it. I rated this one quite highly as well, and I skipped the crazy flat rides that Smisty cited as being particular highlights of Power Park. She also mentioned the Devil's Mine Hotel dark ride that gave you a limited number of shots. Best Wooden Coaster - Rutschebanen at Tivoli Gardens According to RCDB, Rutschebanen's elements are: Tunnel, Cable Lift Hill, Tunnel, Tunnel, Tunnel, Tunnel, Tunnel, Tunnel. But I think that's selling it a bit short. There are a few drops. And, of course, a brakeman. Normally, I don't distinguish between wood and steel for purposes of judging rides against one another, but doing it this way kept Misty and I in agreement. Otherwise, my favorite coaster overall would be her second favorite, and vice versa. Which, come to think of it, wouldn't really have changed very much in terms of presentation here. Best Steel Coaster - Fønix at Fårup Sommerland For me, it's not even close. I have Lech as my #1, and this now at #3, with Mako sandwiched in-between them, but probably just because I subconsciously don't want two such similar rides right next to each other at the top of my list. It's like someone took an MRI of my effed-up body, sent it to Vekoma, and challenged them to design a ride that specifically I would enjoy. And they did it twice (at least). Oh yeah, and Smisty likes it also. Best Coaster Collection - Liseberg Is this here just to make me feel better about choosing Gröna Lund over Liseberg? Yeah, probably. But there's not a bad coaster in this park, even if Balder is a bit overrated. Best Dark Ride - The Flying Trunk A weird multi-level dark ride that travels through narrated Hans Christian Andersen stories? Yes, please. I wouldn't say that there were a lot of dark rides on this trip, but many of the ones that did exist were relatively strong. Best Dark Ride Collection - Linnanmäki Witches and clowns, man. Erik's Favorite Water Ride of the Trip - Ragnarok at Tusenfryd On a trip without a lot of good log flumes, a rapids ride sneaks in and pillages my watery heart! (Or something.) Smisty's Favorite Water Ride of the Trip - The Three Hour Buffet Ferry Ride from Denmark to Norway Smisty, I don't think you're taking this very seriously. I was thinking more like an actual ride at a park. Maybe the log flume at Liseberg? No? *sigh* Fine. Erik's Favorite Walk-Through: Lustiga Huset at Gröna Lund I may be old and overweight, but I'm pretty sure-footed, and I love a good fun house. And this is the goodest. Smisty's Favorite Walk-Through: Gasten Ghost Hotel at Liseberg I'd love to show you a picture of it, especially the awesome flooded room--but photos are not allowed inside. So, instead, here's a picture of Smisty's favorite dessert of trip, Strawberry Shortcake Cake at Power Park's Road House. Erik's Favorite Flat Ride - Lake Carousel at Särkänniemi Yes, it's a Schwarzkopf. Yes, it's also very much a family ride. But it's just so gentle and fun! They don't make them like this anymore, but they should. Smisty's Favorite Flat Ride - Aquila at Tivoli Gardens A nicely themed Zamperla Air Race on top of a building. What more could a Smisty want? Transportation/Observation Ride of the Trip - Safari at Kolmården Zoo When I told Smisty the first draft nominee for this category, her response was, "That's it?" So then I threw in Särkänniemi's observation tower and Linnanmäki 's monorail to pad it out. But, really, what other possibility could there be besides this? Erik's Best Park Food/Restaurant - Spökbaren Gasten at Liseberg While food was perhaps not on balance as good as on our two previous European trips, there were some highlights. Such as the Danish Smørrebrød, or Liseberg's haunted pub. Of course, part of this choice is the atmosphere. After all, everyone knows that food tastes better when you're scared. Smisty's Best Park Food/Restaurant - The Disgusting Food Museum in Malmö, Sweden Smisty, you're making a mockery of this whole idea. This isn't even at a park and the whole point of the place is that the food is bad. Why do you hate me?? Erik's Best Non-Park Thing - The Paternoster Elevator What more can I say? Except that Smisty knew full well this was a category when she named a place that serves "three penis wine" as her favorite restaurant, and a buffet as her favorite water ride! Smisty's Best Non-Park Thing - Tropicario (or, as we call it, the Snake Zoo) Oh, I get it. By calling the Disgusting Food Museum your favorite restaurant, you got to mention both that and this. Cheater! Fine! I'm changing my favorite wooden roller coaster to the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum! How do you like those apples?! She likes those apples fine. I'd like to thank the following weirdos: Myself, for writing this trip report and taking most of the photos. Smisty, for proofreading it and being the B-camera. Bert, for being the only one who reads it. Goodballs, for being our pal. Elissa, for organizing the trip and herding the cats. Robb, for hating mango lassi. Peter Ellis, for inventing the Paternoster Elevator. And Hans Christian Andersen, without whom, we would be left with a dark ride themed to Mads Mikkelsen. Actually, that sounds kind of awesome. Goodbye forever!

For a small country like Belgium, we kinda have a lot of theme parks. Eight to be exact. From those I only frequent two of them: Plopsaland De Panne & Walibi Belgium. And sometimes Bobbejaanland. A park that's kinda big but misses my boat is Bellewaerde... Now that the park opened a new zone with new rides, it was time to go back to Ypres and hit the park up again. We arrived shortly for opening at the Mexican entrance gate which locates at the back of the park. The weather predictions weren't very good, it would be a clouded day with lots of wind. Not a day to visit a theme park for the general public but us theme park fans know it's an ideal day to go because empty queues! The parking lot was quite empty so we were expecting a calm day. My last visit to the park was 4 years ago when they opened their last big new ride. And now they got some new ride and a new zone to show off, so a good moment to get back to this park. The new zone called Mundo Amazonia was not far from the entrance so we decided to go there straight away. Of course we went first for the biggest new ride of the park: Amazonia. It's a Spinning Rapids from Intamin but it doesn't compare at all to the classic Rapid Rivers we know and are used to like Radja River (Walibi Belgium) & Piranha (Efteling). This resemblances more the old Bobby Drop (Bobbejaanland) and Oxygenarium (Parc Asterix), though it has the classic rapid river boats and not those rubber boats. The whole park seemed to have sprinted towards Amazonia because we still had to queue 30 minutes despite being there quick after opening. And the queue got bigger after us. Before we could enter our boat we also had to be weighed, for the moment they only allow a maximum of 400 kilograms per boat. They had some troubles during testing and from what I understand this measurement would be temporary. Well the term spinning certainly delivers! Those boats spin more than some spinning coasters do in a whole year (looking at you Naga Bay [Bobbejaanland]). The spinning and the edges of the ride being so low, kinda makes it thrilling for me. I have to admit I'm a chicken when it comes to slides and in water parks I even skip those. The fear of going over the edge is always present and that feeling I also got on Amazonia. After the first part, full of turns and spinning, you splash down at the bottom only to be taken back up again by a vertical lift. Now comes the grand final: a big half pipe! It is the star of the show and the best part of the ride for me. It is quite good. It however is not the very last element though you would think you'd float to the station and get out. No, there is a little free fall element right before the station that drops you to an emerald mine. Quite a unique element to have on a water ride. Conclusion: a good added asset for the park. Personally not so into it but that's more because of my dislike/fear of slides. I really can see the general public liking this a lot. They love water rides over here, it's quite something else that other theme parks around here don't have and it looks impressive. And despite the impressive look, it still is accessible for young & old, just like this park likes it. The theming was also great. Loved how the queue meanders beneath the ride. There is plenty of fitting foliage planted that certainly will be gorgeous after some years when it has grown a bit. The whole zone feels slick and fresh too, a nice and needed refurbishment from the old Wild West zone that used to be located here. The park really needed this. Some points of critique however: it is all a bit cliché and cartoonesk sometimes. The Brazilians know more colors than green & yellow and it was weird how they wanted to include the theme of football in the restrooms... The new zone has more new rides, there's also a new mini log flume for little kids but that ride is still unfinished. They got some troubles with late deliveries. The other new ride in this zone is finished and open for us, luckily. Brazilian Buggies is nothing more than a single helix kiddiecoaster from Zamperla. But of course an extra credit is an extra credit! +1 on the counter. As a horizontally-big man I got in there without any problems, bars were no issues. Great! We skipped the log flume, because it wasn't quite warm enough. We deciced to get some food in the nearby Texas Grill restaurant. I always feel ripped off when I get food in Plopsaland De Panne but holy moly, Bellewaerde thought to go one step further. More than 20 euros for fries and a burger with a drink... criminal. I have to admit that the size of the portion was big and it tasted really good. But next time I'll bring my own sandwiches. The logical next stop was Huracan, an indoor coaster from Zierer with some darkride elements. Since it was some time I rode this, I kinda forgot that the first darkride part was quite good and had some nice effects. But it all goes to mediocracy when you go up that lift. It brings you on the roof of the building which I still keep finding it weird. You dive back into the building for the rollercoaster part of this... rollercoaster. But it's mainly in a big black hall without effects. A missed opportunity. The effect in the end brakes are quite good and make for a strong ending however. The guys went to ride El Volador next. I passed, I don't really like the feeling of hanging there slowly in all kind of angles. This ride is known for being prone to technical issues, one of the reasons this ride type doesn't really exist anymore anywhere else. I know the other parks that had one also had issues with them and they closed those. I do hope Bellewaerde does not close El Volador because it just looks so good and it's placed so great there. Maybe they should convert it to a mini free fall?! We could not skip out on a ride on the Boomerang. It's the very first Vekoma Boomerang that opened in the world and it has become such an icon for the park that the parks director said he simply just would order a new boomerang from Vekoma if this one goes to heaven. Understandable, but it's kinda sad how this is the only thrilling rollercoaster in the park and it is just a Vekoma Boomerang... Reride factor: zero. Someone from our group never rode Jungle Mission before. These boat rides aren't really built anymore and you can definitely tell it's an old ride. In these times of being woke and social justice, there are some questionable scenes that the park should reconsider imo. It would be a good excuse to revamp this whole ride or just maybe get rid of it and place something new here. When we passed the tiger- and lion enclose we noticed the park had built a new bridge over the enclosure. So now you can watch this big cats from above! That also kinda makes Bengal Express, the train that goes through these encloses, a bit redundant. I definitely prefer to walk over the bridge since I always felt a bit suffocated in those trains that also can get very hot in summer. Also redundant for me is Bellewaerde's terrain coaster on a flat terrain, aka Dawson Duel. They made some vague decisions here in Ypres but chosing a duelling alpine coaster on supports is without a doubt the dumbest idea they ever had. You even can't enter the vehicle at the bottom and use the lift to go up, no, you have to do a whole climb up there. Not worth it. A better choice was Wakala, a family coaster from Gerstlauer which is the parks latest new big ride before Amazonia opened. Not a bad investment though the park keeps lacking a real thrill coaster, something that really catches the mind and eye of the public. Wakala is however a fun family coaster, the type of family coaster that can also be enjoyed by the older kids and adults like us. It has a flowy layout through the woods, an acceleration on its lift and what they call the antenna here (the spike that makes you go backwards). For me, Wakala is the best coaster of the park. However not good enough to warrant a visit to the park each year. I passed for Screaming Eagle, their space shot tower. Free falls and such are not my cup of tea (vertigo). Nobody of the group was interested in a ride on Niagara, the parks spillwater. That ride can really soak you and it really wasn't warm enough. We were nearby the parks show location and their dive and stunt show would start soon, so we decided to go there. Bengali is new for this year, though the park already had a dive show for years here. The story is cliche and over the top, which is the case for most shows in theme parks. However I did enjoy the stunts and diving. No matter how many times I've seen that, I'm still impressed by it. Jumping from 25 meters into a small bassin is something I'd need a diaper for. The up-tempo Bhangra music also was a big surplus to the show. Time was running out before the park would close, so some of our group ended the day with a last ride on Amazonia. We had a fun day at the park though I don't think I'll be back soon. Bellewaerde is ideal for families with little children but there is just nothing there that appeals for teenagers or adults. There are rumours going around they would invest in a new rollercoaster with inversions but knowing previous investments there, I'm keeping my expectations low. They really could use a stand-out coaster because they are falling behind the other 3 big Belgian parks if they only keep focusing on the little children. ** sorry for any grammar mistakes and such, I'm Belgian and English isn't my first language.

Highlights: - The new Power Surge is not a portable model. It's permanent. I didn't even know that they made permanent models. The program will be crazier. The ride will not open on opening day. - They repainted Impulse even though it barely needed it - The park is very well staffed this year already - Every car of the Bayern Kurve apparently had it's own PLC. They've changed that. The delays have been due to that but it should be open in 2024. They also just had to reallocate people to other projects last year, like reopening the Skyway (suck it Lake Compounce). The ride will be the fastest ride in the park. The max speed is 70 mph. They're not sure if they can safely run it at 70 mph but they're going to try and if not, run it as close to 70mph as possible. - Some changes have been made to some haunted mansion scenes. - The cub cars are going away for awhile but will probably be back. This is where the Rock O Plane will go (between Phoenix and Fandango). The ride will not open on opening day. - They replaced a lot of sections of the flume. It will open around Memorial Day. - Paratrooper and the Teacups are both undergoing restorations and will open later in the year. - Sky Slide is coming back after being closed since the start of the Pandemic. It may not reopen this year but it will finally reopen. Hopefully no lawyer actually looks at it. -They've done a bunch of track work on the three wood coasters but that's to be expected.

note that Pepe is there too. nothing to do with "woke". . .which is a GOOD word, it needs to be taken back from those who think it's an insult.

Wow... that's a lot. Counterpoint: the reason that nobody goes to this place is that it sucks, there's no need to over-analyze it or make it a microcosm of anything greater than that. The Garden State Plaza mall is less than 15 miles away and every time I drive by it it's packed beyond packed (and often traffic spills out onto 17 and brings everything to a standstill). The major rides weren't closed because you were unlucky or because it was the offseason, the major rides were closed because you went to the American Dream mall and major rides are closed on any day of the week that ends with the letter y. They're also severely lacking in shops, they occasionally have shootings, the water park has theming elements that fall from the sky and try to kill you, their ferris wheel offers sweeping views of the Jersey Turnpike and the world's worst NFL stadium, but the promised "sweeping NYC views" can be better experienced from one of the 758 observation decks that are actually in NYC. Oh... and their ski slope catches on fire. It's the worst-run park in America by a lot and season passes (if you were to purchase one for each "season" are more expensive than they would be for any park or even chain of theme parks anywhere in America except for Disney...

The 2019 trip ended in Stockholm, allowing us to spend a couple of extra days in the city afterward, and I absolutely fell in love with the place. Not a ton of extra time to explore this time around, but at least we got to go back to my all-time second favorite park, Gröna Lund. 20: Blue Train The main entrance (I guess). This one takes you into the smaller, more kid-oriented section of the park. The other main entrance. Just over a bit. But we don't want to go in here! No, no, no. I don't think I rode Tuff-Tuff Tåget on the previous trip. Which I shouldn't have mentioned to Goldballs, because he then insisted that we ride it. So now I have that credit. Yay. I thought Tivoli Gardens was the first time I'd seen a carousel with a ladder up to an animal, but now I'm questioning everything. Note the sign in the back left for "Pettson Findus Varld." I missed this last time. (I think it opens late and closes early.) Sebastian here was quite happy to see me visiting his little corner of the park. I don't think they let him out much. It's a walk-through farmhouse from a series of Swedish children's books about Pettson the farmer and his cat, Findus. I imagine that a lot of the fun comes from finding things you recognize from the books, all of which was lost on me. But it was weird, so I still liked it (in sort of a minor way). This section of the park is very nice, but everything you actually care about is on the other side. So, yes, I've been wasting your time. The covered bridge over an access road that connects to the main area of the park. Why, hello! Who's your new friend? Was that creepy? I was going for creepy. Vilda Musen is an excellent "Wild Mouse." And the quotes are entirely called for, because it's only really a wild mouse in much the same way that bats are really birds. I can say whatever I want in these updates. No one really reads them or wants to argue anymore. I did not participate in the water cup challenge. Though I did participate in getting wet from other people participating in the water cup challenge. As I recall, Ryan did excellently well. At least until one second after I distracted him with this photo when he hit the station brakes and lost most of what was in his cup. Vilda Musen is probably my favorite coaster at Gröna Lund and also exits into a candy store, which is a weird coincidence. House of Nightmares is a Sally walk-through haunted house, which doesn't even seem like it would be a thing, but it is and it's fun. I think it's also an upcharge...? Honestly, and perhaps unwisely, money is the first thing I stop paying attention to on these trips, so who knows. God, I have to walk through this thing? With my feet?! How about you put in a little cart to carry me around? That would really save you some money on painted arrows. Inspired by the murder house, I requested something sharp. It's one of the more subtle cultural things, but they don't cut your pizza for you in Scandinavia. You have to do it yourself, like a peasant. Actually, come to think of it, they don't cut your pizza for you in the US either. They just make little lines on it as though they've cut it, and then don't give you anything sharp. This coaster is called, "Kvasten," which means "Broom." I assume as in, "Witch's Broom," but I kind of like the idea that it could just as easily have been called "Bucket" or something. Blå Tåget is amazing and basically the only thing Goldballs and I talk about no matter where we are or what we're doing. The name translates literally to "Blue Train," but is culturally more like "Crazy Train," because the blue line went to the insane asylum or something? We rode Blue Train multiple times, of course. But on one of our rides, right at the beginning, it broke down. Possibly because of us, and possibly because we're fat. But whatever. The maintenance guy came out, messed around with our lapbar, and then the ride started up again. Except the lights stayed on the whole ride. Which might've been bad if this had been our first or only ride. But was amazing as it was. So enjoy a couple of 'lights on' photos of Blå Tåget. Um, on second thought. One of the great things about Gröna Lund is how rides are built over and through one another. Twister, their weird little wooden coaster, was down for an extended refurb. But that's okay, we rode it last time. Unlike Smisty, I can take or leave spinning. But this is a Schwarzkopf, so I'm in. And also, it's adorable. Just look at it! Gröna Lund is also a seaside park, because why give other parks a chance? I'm not sure why this particular pathway is super Art Deco--but I like it, obviously. I also like Jetline quite a bit, which had been the park's signature coaster until Monster opened. This is my jam. This is not my jam. But Smisty and Goldballs seem to be "enjoying" it. No, wait, this is my jam. Gröna Lund has the best fun house I've ever been in. But maybe there's a better one somewhere. Quick, somebody tell me where it is so I can plan a trip there. Not so much a slide as a conveyor belt. And also weird stairs. A view of one of Monster's beefy supports from the fun house. Elissa, you know you can ask for your own boat, right? I mean, they gave Misty one. So they clearly have a "weird husband" exception, if nothing else. This husband is so weird they don't even require his wife to be in the same country. I was really trying to tie that in to the previous caption--and, you know, make a whole thing out of this Tunnel of Love attraction--but I can admit when it's just not working. Not that I'm going to change it, mind you. Insane, Monster. Monster, Insane. Sorry, ahem, "Insane!" Wait, how did we get in this coaster's maintenance bay? That's Insane! Apologies to everyone on this train who clearly didn't realize that I was taking a photo. Yes, it's Monster, emerging from its underground station. The very same underground station we toured the construction of back in 2019! And this thing is great. The station, I mean. But also the ride itself. It's all great. This park is great. 10. Gröna Lund is a 10. Wait, I'm not done yet. Sorry. I got excited. Ooh, the back alley challenge! Get your minds out of the gutter! More often than not, I tend not to be super into B&M inverts. In fact, there are really only, like, two that I think are actually properly good. Well, I guess three now. And this is one of them. (Not that anyone asked, but the other two are Afterburn and OzIris.) Can I live here? In the park, I mean. I'll be very quiet. You probably won't even notice me. If you'd like to see more photos of Blue Train with the lights on, just reply with any lyric from "I Am Not Your Broom" by They Might Be Giants. Next up: We say goodby to Sweden and hello to Finland!

Part 17 Our Revels Now Are (Almost) Ended: Linnanmaki We have reached the most melancholy part of any trip report--the last park. Fortunately, it’s a good one: Linnanmaki in Helsinki. Although it’s not on the scale of Liseberg, Linnanmaki is a solid urban park, with a good assortment of attractions and some very aggressive seagulls (kind of like Liseberg). It’s also the home of my personal favorite “new-to-me” coaster of the trip: Taiga, a multi-launch Intamin creation. Taiga features not only forceful launches, but also a crazy, disorienting layout with equally crazy airtime. I was wondering if any ride could top Farup’s Fønix, but Taiga pulled it off; Taiga is even “Phoenix themed,” too. ERT on this ride was great! But there’s more to Linnanmaki than Taiga. They also have a classic wooden coaster with brake men and brake women; two dark rides--a “haunted hotel” for witches and a goofy circus ride with clowns and elephant feces; an “outer space” indoor coaster; Tulireki, a weird Mack coaster than makes no sense at all; and a ball of fire! Here’s a look at the finale of TPR’s 2023 Scandanavia Trip. My thanks to Robb and Elissa for making it all happen. This fountain is either adorable or frightening. Up to you. I’m having Tivoli Gardens/Bakken flashbacks here. So many serious faces! I guess being in the middle of a classic woodie is serious business. Are you "Oikopolu" or "Taigapolu"? Not to worry. We won't judge you. I'm Taigopolu and I'm proud! Intamin has done it again. With this, VelociCoaster, and Pantheon, I'm a happy man. You don’t know whether you’re coming or going in this layout. "What is happening to us? Save us, Jeebus!" Er, how does this work, exactly? Talk about “twisty.” If Taiga is too much for you, you can always play the Linnanmaki home game. Or perhaps you would rather challenge the Dark Forces? ”Yes, come a play a little game with us, dearie.” ”Roll the dice to see which demon you will invoke!” “You have summoned Tulireki! The most messed up demon of them all!” ”He has the power to cloud your mind and convince you that this is a good ride!” If Grona Lund’s Insane was a bit much for you, try Kirnu. ”Kirnu” is Finnish for “chum.” This ride just wants to be your Kirnu (not to throw you to the sharks). But maybe you’d rather have Ukko, the Finnish God of Thunder, as your Kirnu. Vuoristorata (“roller coaster”) might be a good Kirnu for you. it’s just not the same with computer-operated magnetic brakes. Linnanmaki and Tivoli Gardens are doing it right by sticking with brake men and brake women. Oh, lord--this ride still exists! It’s scarier and smellier than the hotel-for-witches ride! If they break into “Dancin’ Queen,” I’m outta here. When at Linnanmaki, take this sign seriously! Er, heads up, Jere! It’s Linnan-anarchy with these freakin’ birds! What out for your goodies there, guys! The gulls are hungry! Just about time to go. Here’s one last look at a classic from the past . . . . . . and Taiga, the classic of today. I leave you now with an old classic and a ball of fire! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this look back at Scandinavia 2023. Once again, my thanks to Robb and Elissa for another great TPR trip!

Day 13: Thursday, June 15th part 2 - 1st of two full days at Liseberg after our rides on the Schwarzkopf we headed over to a back/quiet area of the park, another one we had not been to yet. back here were several restaurants, a bandstand (with a large area for dancing), and the park's haunt. which apparently used to be an upcharge but now is included. we skipped the line and went to the quick pass entrance, which requires one to go up this spiral staircase (oddly, this was also noted as the handicapped entrance, tho I didn't see any obvious elevator, so maybe it's a test? to do the haunt you must be able to navigate these stairs? I mean the haunt is very large, and well done, with lots of uneven areas) it was themed very "creepy" and the ghouls at the gate kept yelling "no cameras!!!" "keep your hands on the shoulders of the person in front of you" - mainly yelling at the folks in the general line, across the entrance from us she was lovely and posed for a picture with me tho. nice view from up here of the dancehall I mentioned, and across the way is the Ferris Wheel near the main entrance to the park. the ghouls that were working the general admission side of the line, were also happy to pose for a picture with me (before I put the phone away) since no pictures allowed in the house (you wouldn't have a free hand to take them anyways, as they make you "conga line" in groups of 8-10 people), I don't have any from inside. but a REALLY well done haunt, with some stunning set-pieces - my favorite being the flooded ballroom that's sinking into the swamp beneath. I enjoyed it so much, that we went thru it again later - this time via the general line, since there was no wait anyways and I wanted to see it - when we came back for our dinner reservation in the "Haunted Restaurant" that the park had added on beneath the Haunt. leaving this area, you can really see the amount of rides just crammed up on that hillside. . and seeing the top of the Screamin Swing reminded us we hadn't ridden it yet. so headed that way. the swing over the pathway is nice, as you come so close to Helix and the other coaster . but that swing over the hillside is terrifying! and while you're in the queue for the Screamin Swing, just look how close you are to the Helix and Lisebergbanan coasters whee! y'all. . Helix is SO good. . . the view from the Screamin Swing QUEUE! ah. .we forgot to ride the flume, as we hadn't been back towards the hotel today, really. . .but we crossed right over it, leaving the Luna Park area. Speaking of Luna. . . but we didn't' ride it again, instead we went and hopped in the line for the flume. LOL.. they sell ponchos in the line - but the machine was broken. it was pretty popular. .and this is probably the longest line we waited in all day (If I recall there was some miscommunication and our reserved time had been cancelled as the ride went down, but when it came back up there were no times left for the day. . so we just got in line). wasn't' too bad a wait tho, maybe 20 minutes? whee! (I bought this as a magnet. .again, why I was able to get a pic of the screen) we were gonna meet back up in a little bit for dinner at the Haunted restaurant. . so the smaller group of guys I was with split off to go ride coasters (Helix again, I think), and Big Mike and I went to try to ride the Carousel. this is my happy face when the operator told us we could ride! LOOK how happy I am.. I don't ,know WHY I love Carousels so much. . I just know that I do. admiring the Nebulaz from my horse. . but my attention was pulled by the operator who came by to tell me I wasn't allowed. what??? he had told us we were allowed to ride. ride, yes. but not on a horse. Horses were for kids ONLY we could ride in the carriage or on the bench if we wanted to. yes, I was sad..but I really wasn't too upset as had already gotten my pics ON the horse anyways. . so I tucked my tail and climbed into the carriage with Big Mike. it didn't even rock. . . boo.. . but at least it had nekkid cherubs on it. see? I can smile thru the mild disappointment. and at the end of the day, I DID get to ride a carousel here. so it counts as a win. Helix doing it's thing. . oh.. a big concert going on tonight.. .it drew a lot of folks to the park, but not really to the rides. we walked all the way up to the main front entrance (I was trying to get my hands on a park map, and had success in getting a few) the front is very nice, and they have a big music hall up here too, but seems they only use it for very special events. park map listing the themed areas, and the attractions within them. click to embiggen. a very nice sculpture garden around the fancy music hall.. as well as those paths up the side of the hill to explore. here was the advertisement for the bands they were hosting over the Summer. I recognized a couple of the names. tho the band tonight - that drew that large crowd - was one I wasn't familiar with: Bolaget apparently they charge a separate ticket to get into this area, hence it being walled off with queues to go in. as it seemed most folks on this side of the park were at the concert, we took advantage to go back into the kiddie section and ride a few things that earlier had fairly long lines. such as the teacup boat ride. . I think one of the mascots is a baker, possibly Berg? so as far as I could tell, this functioned as the mascot's themed ride, until the dark ride went in. I mean. .the mascots DO seem to be represented on this ride. . . even if just in Scarecrow form. ohhh. . . there's an overhead ride I hadn't noticed before? and it's running basically EMPTY??? I know where we're going next. slow moving overhead ride, that let's one get some nice pictures for the win!! and this pic was able to capture the junior coaster, Rabalder in the pic. this funky ferris wheel was so unique.. I was a bit bummed it was down during our visit. really a great overview of the whole Kids area. and a nice, relaxing ride. LOL. . no, I did NOT ride this. but the one that was more like a coaster - the last park on the trip? yeah, that one I did ride (spoiler) it's hard to take a bad picture of this park. . in particular the hillside rides. wow.. got Atmos Fear actually running! (and Helix there too) yeah. .about the only level of spin I was wanting to do at the moment. just a photo op cup. it was time for our dinner reservation. .so we met up with the others and headed into the Haunted pub. the outside menu wasn't in English, but they had translations inside. it was pretty busy too, so I took that as a good sign that the food was good. hey.. another table of TPR folks! Chris, Hawk, Doug, Shane, and Eric and the group I was with was just one table over the English menu. I ended up having the pork belly loaded fries. the atmosphere in here is just great! the lights flickered, there were creaking noises.. etc. . jon got a fru-fru drink (so did I). .but they were really pretty good. my pork belly loaded fries. it was so much food, I don't think I was able to finish it. but I remember it was very tasty. leaving the restaurant. .that deserted dance hall from earlier? yeah, it was busy. and got MORE packed the later it got. letting the food digest a bit, I just wandered around and took some pics. .. like Valkyria on it's drop. . and the wave swinger. there were TONS of games like this, where one could win a giant box filled with candy. but I was more intrigued by the ride behind it - called Mechanica. it frightened me, but i was determined to ride it- tho not so soon after eating, so would save it till tomorrow. but, I mean. . look at what this thing does! it was getting close to our ERT time, so I headed over to near Valkyria and Balder, and checked out some of the games over here. loved this "norse mythology" themed shooting gallery (with crossbows!) and this "Fascination" type game, where you won a dragon by moving your roller-coaster. no.. really. the park was shutting down, and more TPR folks were showing up for our ERT meetup (hi Erik and Brad) but we were starting on Valkyria. . and I used that as an excuse to take this pic - tho really I was just delighted by this man , who was covered in tattoos, and was schlepping around a giant box of Toblerone, while wearing a Peter Pan hat. So I wanted to get a picture, because I really loved he had no shits to give. had to lock up everything, but before I did, snapped a couple of quick pics of Valkyria's station. . *very* "Nordic" and then after a few rides, we were over to Balder for final ERT of the night. I loved this ride so much, that I rode every train dispatched for our ERT. that's a rarity for me, but this ride was SO rerideable, I didn't take any breaks at all. .and just kept riding until they told us they had to close for the night. I loved this one pretty much anywhere, tho the middle/front seemed to give the best floater air. end of night pic, to thank the Crew, the park, and Robb/Elissa for the fantastic day! and we headed back to the hotel thru the now empty park. . one final pic from Robb's rider cam on Balder that got sent to the group. And with that. . I took a shower and crashed hard. (tho I think some of the folks ended up going out to see Metallica this night, or go bar hopping) it had been a really full day, with a TON of walking. and tomorrow was another full day at this fantastic park. . so time for bed for me. (tho we could hear Metallica thru the windows)

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).

Part 16 Selfies, Hype, and a Tornado: Sarkanniemi About all I remembered about our second Finnish park, Sarkanniemi, from a previous TPR trip was that it had a dark ride, which was fun; the first Volare I’d ever ridden, which was not exactly fun; and an Intamin inverted coaster named Tornado, which was fun. Well, the dark ride is gone, which is too bad; the Volare is still there, which is also too bad; and Tornado is still there, which is very good. There used to be an Intamin Half-Pipe on top of a building, but it’s gone, too. I remember the park itself as being a bit generic, but it did have a nice setting on the water. It’s changed a bit since then. A parody of social media has seized the midway. It’s much more colorful now, and somewhat generic rides have been given names like “Hype” and “Boom.” There’s even a handy spot for taking a selfie, which helpfully sports a sign that says “Selfie Zone.” The social-media midway has the usual assortment of flats you might see in any European park, along with a Premier Sky Rocket 2 (the aforementioned Hype) and one of those Zamperla Moto Coasters. There’s a nice observation tower, a small aquarium, and even a “farm,” as well. A look at the park from the other side of the water. It amuses me that Hype (Sky Rocket 2) sits next to Boom (drop tower). We’re visiting the park tomorrow, so this is where we are for now. Let us now explore the city of Tempere and take in in this exquisite work of art. Now this is a tasty work of art. This pizza joint was a short walk from the hotel, and many of us ended up eating there, along with a lot of locals. It’s too bad that they haven’t build more of these Intamin inverts. I think the only other one is in Spain. This one even features a zero-g roll in a cave! This ERT session was a lot of fun, as Tornado is very smooth and re-rideable. (Photo by Elissa, I think.) I love the fluorescent yellow and orange trains. What sorcery is this? Fluorescent orange is the color of Zen rides. While fluorescent yellow is the color of “whee” . . . wait, that sounds wrong. To ensure safety, be sure to take all selfies in the designated Selfie Zone only. Let’s see what this is all about. About 150 feet, I think. We all felt magically transported to a Busch/SeaWorld park in the U.S. (I imagine Andy or AJ took this photo.) This is Trombi. I think this might be Finnish for “ouch,” “ow,” or perhaps “!!@#@$#@!!@@!.” “OK, who’s ready to become a social-media sensation?” Sarah was born ready! Is that Eric . . . or Dr. Strange? Hmm . . . I suspect that AI provided the name of this food stand. Robb shoots his most intense backseat POV ever. Either Elissa took this photo or I have an enormously long, invisible arm that’s holding my phone out for a selfie. Let’s check out the view topside. I wonder where the toilet fountain is? The park isn’t too big, but you really have to search to find the entrance to this rapids ride. Either the sea is calling me, or I really have to use the restroom. This is my best picture from the aquarium, which isn’t saying much. This is the only shot of the park’s “farm,” as I had to rush through it right before we left. I hope you like dog statues and sheep butts. We're off to Helsinki!

I mean look at the face on this thing. High as a kite! Kills me every time

Thank God. We were getting spoiled.

Day 3, LegoLand Mini-Land pictures: these figures partied too hard with the sheep, and passed out after