la2lvtom

The Thunder Dolphin load time was murder, because of the rain only me and 6 other people rode it (this ran in the rain but Linear Gale was closed due to the rain) and between the time the train entered the station and we were sent up the hill had to be 8 minutes, you have to put everything from your pockets into a locker then they made us pull our pockets inside out to show nothing in them and since I was wearing cargo shorts the ride op put her hands into my lower pockets to make sure I had nothing in them (I did not mind this part) it was crazy I can only imagine in the summer when they have a 2 train operation and a huge line.

Going through all my hordes of pictures I found some miscelaneous and random stuff so here goes Soy sauce and butter popcorn, Mmmm Caramel popcorn, it actually smelled like pancakes Curry popcorn, Mmmm Black pepper popcorn Honey popcorn, Pooh would be happy Milk tea popcorn ??? Halloween tapestry - Mickey Mouse Minnie Mouse Donald Duck Daisy Duck Chip and Dale Goofy Tokyo Disneyland hotel lobby Tokyo Disneyland hotel gazebo Disney Ambassador hotel lobby Monsters Inc. Ride and go Seek lobby Space Mountain line... not to ride but to get a fastpass This mist machine was a great idea unfortunately it was the only one I found in the park Mickeys mailbox nicely detailed Finally Roger Rabbit gets some Disney love You can't have Roger Rabbit without Jessica Rabbit being far behind Gadgets Go Coaster in action Big Thunder Mountain - from this point the wait was 90 minutes Big Thunder in action The peaks of Big Thunder Mountain For all the UP fans Disneyland mail service "To all who come to this happy place - welcome" in both English and Japanese On one of my mornings the rain was coming down in buckets but as you see it kept the crowds away Even 15 minutes after the park opened to the public Pooh was a walk on (this ride normally had a 90 minute wait no matter what time day or night) Pooh's Hunny Hunt... words do not begin to describe how amazing this dark ride truley is (watch one of Robb's videos that feature this ride to get an idea), I easily rank it at the top of my favorite dark rides next to Spiderman and Harry Potter at Universal Christopher Robbins bedroom Inside the attraction Tree of pumpkins outside of Haunted Mansion Holiday Dumbo Found at the exit of Splash Mountain... get it? Thanks for dropping in... I'll stop now Mickey as the Sorcerers Apprentice Pirates Of The Carribean never had more than a 10 minute wait, even with the movie makeover We are random statues here to take the soul of anyone who pays attention to us, wait... is that someone taking our picture, boogie boogie boogie you are now under our control... wait, where are you going? Oh well there goes the only person who will notice us today So the Jungle Cruise is in Japanese but the boat drivers are so animated you can't help but laugh at them Photo spot This is the crowd on a Wednesday morning, 45 minutes before Disney Sea opens, these poeple are serious about getting into Disney Sea No unfortunately not a submarine ride like at Disneyland Disney Sea has a lot of fountains and waterfalls The American Waterfront station for the electric railway For all the TPR members who enjoy a little liquid refreshment This traquil body of water is located under the electric railway track in Port Discovery New York facades This is one of my favorite pictures, the electric railway traveling in front of Mount Prometheus POV shot on Aquatopia heading for the geyser, if you look closely you will notice no tracks on this ride So scary, found in Indiana Jones Instead of looking for hidden Mickeys at DisneySea you look for hidden references to Harrison Hightower, the owner of the Hightower hotel (tower of terror) I found 3 references around the park, this crate was located at Raging Spirits with the label reading "deliver to Hightower Hotel" The 2 story carousel Lots of different types of fountains Electric railway with the sailing ship Columbia in the background The little tug that could Wow, historically important Oh good, I thought he went out of business Inside the Sinbad boat ride you follow Sinbad on his voyage to find wealth for his home, here he is freeing a geanie with a magic feather Once free the geanie and Sinbad sing a song you will not get out of your head for days Inside journey to the Center of the Earth the lava theaming carries over into the water fountain Sign for the gift shop in Tritons Kingdom This is the shopping area in downtown Disney The Disney store in Ikspiari They have a Rainforest Cafe with menus for us geigings And in the food court they had the California Diner. I ate here alot, they had a small burger, small fries and small drink for only 680 yen ($8.01) wait that was actually kinda expensive now that I think about it Here is the Cirque De Soleil theater on property where the show ZED is performed There was this GIGANTIC ferris wheel just off Disney property in a park like setting, it would have been nice to go to but the JR line did not stop near it On the other side of Tokyo Bay they were building (or dismanteling) this large bridge All the rides at Laqua travel over the roofs of the mall, unusual but I guess a good use of space Inside the mall at Laqua, just like a mall you would find in the states They had American stores like Eddie Bauer They had a fountain show at Laqua, not as fancy as the one here at the Bellagio hotel but neat none the less Outside of Laqua, apartment buildings surrounded by office buildings If anyone can read Japanese could you please translate this sign, I am real curious as to what it says Found this statue in downtown Tokyo when I ventured from the subway station to see the buildings Downtown Tokyo The day I went to Laqua I was greeted by this torenchial downpour when I woke up. This is from my balcony and visibility was maybe 1/8 mile Saw this sweet Merc wagon Downtown. The Japanese cars are so much cooler than their American counterparts While waiting for the bus to go back to Narita airport this left hand drive Hummer pulls into the hotel

Thank you very much, this was my first trip report that I have done on here. These parks were numbers 18, 19 & 20 for me in the 2010 season (and none on a TPR trip ) maybe I should have done more reports.

Yep, your right, so much stuff to remember from this trip it's all like a blur to me right now. When I go back it won't be all new for me and I will be able to take it in better. Looking forward to my next trip to Japan and checking out more of the culture (and other parks of course)

On to the second part of the update So now it's time to figure out the subway system, if you don't know what you are doing it is extremely confusing and contrary to belief at the JR line Maihama station there are no english speaking employees (or they had the day off) so I had to wait 20 minutes for an American to exit the station so they can explain buying a ticket to me. You just buy in incriments of yen and hope you buy enough to get out of the station at your stop... or just buy a day pass for 1000 yen The world famous Tokyo Dome, any wrestling fan from the 80's knows this place well and for me it was exciting to see it. The bridge was lined with women holding these signs in Japanese, I didn't know if they were looking for husbands or what I finally make it to LAQUA at Tokyo Dome The main event of my Tokyo trip, Thunder Dolphin. Not my favorite coaster but I had a blast on it anyway The first drop, it does not look that steep but it sure felt steep Making the first turn over the roof of the mall Being spit out of the building after traversing the mall roof Traveling through the center of the creepy ferris wheel Heading up to the roof of the mall again to perform the bizarre slow speed side to side track element thingy Obtaining a ticket for Thunder Dolphin is extremely easy considering the ticket machine has no english on it anywhere. Deposit 1000 yen ($11.69) and out pops the ticket, very easy The elevated carousel with the water chute ride traveling underneath Linear Gale was closed due to the rain in fact half the park was closed due to the rain which kinda sucked Spinning coaster Maihime, a standard spinning wild mouse This vending machine dispensed sushi and noodles and rice, Mmmm Hey look at that KFC served beer and only $2.92. I wonder how big the glass/cup is Yay, a McDonalds in the Korakuen (Tokyo Dome) subway station. Finally a meal I could eat You could get your haircut in the subway station and the best part they were using flobee's (its a haircutting device that connects to your vacuum such as "as seen on tv") Random shot of people on the subway Back on Disney property and I am greeted by Mickey, Yay Just a reminder it's Halloween time heading to the monorail staition My interpritation of the Disney monorail, enjoy On to Tokyo Disneysea an amazing park with so much detail Heading under the hotel Miracosta archway to get to the park The park has also been treated to a Disney Halloween makeover Mount Prometheus the icon of the park houses Journey To The Center Of The Earth Even the water fountains are treated to the nautical theme Nothing was missed when it came to Halloween decorations Journey To The Center Of The Earth broke down so we had to EVAC and this was the best picture I could get of the ride vehicle Tower of Terror, theamed differently than the ones in the states but same ride except they use over the shoulder seat belts so you lose some of the airtime during the drops So this Duffy the Disney Bear is HUGE in Tokyo, almost everyone (female) was walking around with at least one (this girl was carrying 3 in front of her plus a Duffy backpack which had a Duffy bear sticking out of it). They are launching them in the states but I don't know if they will catch on like in Japan. The one bad thing is this has taken over the pin trading business in Tokyo because pins are almost non-existant out there The electric railway takes you from American Waterfront over to Port Discovery Port Discovery, this area only has 2 rides but they turned out to be two of my favorite rides of the whole trip, Aquatopia (a crazy out of control boat ride, with no rails) and Storm Rider (what a motion simulater ride should be, lots of things happening inside) Aquatopia... spin spin spin This was the best smelling popcorn anywhere. The aroma drenched the entire Port Discovery area They had these "oversize" cars driving around everywhere. They were built "oversize" to fit us lazy fat Americans hahahaha... oh the world hates us This restaurant is over by the gondola ride and is the only place I could find non-fish pizza This Mayan temple houses Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, it is a clone of Disneylands version but Indiana Jones is Mexican...HUH??? When riding Indiana Jones please remember no Turkey legs and no ceramic cups of coffee, thank you Raging Spirits is a compact coaster with a loop (which they warn about probably 10 times by the time you get to the ride) plus SINGLE RIDER line, score Here is the scary loop on Raging Spirits Some watercraft just chillin' on the water Archway to Arabian Coast Flounders Flying Fish coaster, hey a credit is a credit On this coaster you are not allowed to bring your smoking fish. Sorry them are the rules Triton's Kingdom is an indoor kiddie section Now that is one happy snail. It's probably because Disney Paris is where they eat snails The crowds were actually not that bad Old luggage wagons used to take bags to the Columbia sailing ship The Cape Codde section of the park A Cape Codde lighthouse (I'm not misspelling codde that is how it is spelled out on the signs) Yay all American hot dogs (if you like black peppers in your hot dog) It was a stormy day which I thought would be a great backdrop for Tower of Terror Floats from Braviseamo making their exit Hey when your tired you just gotta take a nap to refresh yourself "Fish so fresh your mother would slap it" Hmmm are they talking about milfs? I really did not know there was more than one kind of rope, good to know The three Tokyo Disney icons, Cinderells castle, Mount Prometheus and Tower of Terror Disney good neighbor hotels all right next to each other Cool Disney transportation busses Universals Portifino hotel... Sorry that's actually the Mira Costa hotel. Seriously they look the same Disney's Ambassador hotel, this is the lesser of the three Disney hotels but it is actually quite nice you still get the free monorail passes but you just do not get the 15 minute early entry into either park. Next time I might stay there Avatar in Japanese coming October 6 So this VW R32 just casually comes driving by me so I gots to get a pic of it, it's one sweet ride The last day here and the sky is finally clear and you can see downtown Tokyo clear as a bell it was actually quite impressive The flight home was on a 777 with its 20 year old ghetto seats. I want my 747

I will add LAQUA and Disneysea later on tonight

So I just got back from my trip to Tokyo and am a little jet lagged but I figure I will try to condense 900+ pics into a reasonable post for all to see. I suggest everyone visit Tokyo Disney for Halloween 'cause they really take it seriously but it is a blast. Enough of my gabbing on to some pics. Ahh, the fantastic 747 awaiting my arrival Me in my first class suite For dinner filet mignon (airplane style) while watching A Nightmare On Elm Street on the 15" monitor (the movie was actually pretty bad, do yourself a favor and just rent the original) After a 12 hour flight I arrive in Japan My home for the next 5 nights the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel This is the front desk clerk Etonomo, I asked her "anatano sha-shin-o totemo desu ka" (can I take your picture?) and she came running out from behind the counter and took me to the Mickey statue. Really cool and very friendly My room (the bellhop is not included... what kind of a Japanese hotel do you think this is???) Two queen beds with a trundle bed under the right bed... nice An ammenities tray on the bathroom counter in case you forgot something at home I found the hard liqueur drawer, it's a good thing I don't drink 'cause the stuff is expensive (880 yen or $10.25 for the 50ml bottle of Chivas) My artsy shot of the fountain in the garden The snack rack in the gift shop. I have no idea what any of this is This is the view from my balcony. They advertised this as a non-view room, I love the view, I wonder what a view room is The monorail station with the Disneyland hotel in the background The Tokyo Disneyland entry, the park was all decked out for Halloween and it looked amazing THE iconic shot, Walt with Mickey and the GYNORMOUS castle in the background Space Mountain - A clone of the Disneyland version without the cool soundtrack Unlike Disneyland in California guests are encouraged to come to the park in costume, here is Snow White and Prince Charming The Alice In Wonderland gang I'm guessing here but I believe a New York city dance crew Naughty Alice in Wonderland Mary Poppins and the Dick Van Dyke character The girl in the red dress had an amazing costume, the dress was made from velour, silk and lace and the flowers in her basket were real, definately not something you wake up in the morning and say "I'll just throw this on". There was alot of work in this costume This was a group of friends who had these very elaborate costumes on. Notice the big guy in the rear has on a home made Emporer Zorg costume, very very detailed There was a rumor that the naughty Minnie Mouses and the Naughty school girls were going to rumble but it never happened... so sad The Halloween theme carried over into every land These girls posed like this for their friend but stayed in this position for a few minutes so everyone could get their picture. Japanese people are fun The Halloween theme even carried over to the trash cans There was a 20 minute wait to get a good picure of this statue... I diid not wait Mickeys house decorated for Halloween They had a Halloween parade that ran 4 times daily, you had to grab a spot at least an hour before the start of the parade. The Japanese people are really serious about Halloween The Haunted It's A Small World float The performers in the parade wore very elaborate costumes It's A Small World ride op Mark Twain river boat, the canoes and Tom Sawyer Island Big Thunder Mountain is a clone of the layout in the states except it has this big drop at the end which was a really nice element Haunted Mansion Holiday featuring Nightmare Before Christmas. Come on Florida get on the ball and add this makeover Haunted Mansion garden Tokyo Disney has a lot of employees per ride so they run very efficient. Load/unload times were amazing Splash Mountain is a clone of the Florida version including the side by side seating Good 'ol American railway. The train only goes around Adventureland and Westernland but it runs 3 trains and the wait time was never more than 10 minutes Main Street Main Street Main Street Main Street Me with a princess. Here is my only complaint about the park, all the "live" characters were "white" why not a Japanese Snow White or Cinderella? Just my thought The pirate band performing The attraction wait time board, if you look closely you will see Mickey Mouse meet and greet had a 120 minute wait and that was not incorrect, the line was huge

I just got back from Tokyo so the last coaster I rode was Raging Spirits at Tokyo Disneysea.

^wow, I really hope I can attend that trip, my trip in September will be fun but only Disney (and LaQua) and I would like to hit up some of the "other" parks in Japan.

I just finally watched the whole disc and it is amazing. Last night I had all the lights off in the house and watched it on my Mitsubishi Diamond series 73" DLP tv (the LCD tv's are brighter but I prefer the picture quality of the DLP) and WOW, obviously Intimidator 305 is the highlight of the video but there are many other standout "demo" material segments on this disc, I had pops watch a bit of it and he was complaining of motion sickness thats how realistic it is. With a limited run of 75 discs I highly encourage anyone that is into HD to pick this up quick before they are all gone. I am truley looking forward/hoping for more editions from Robb and maybe if a coaster expeditions disc is being planned in HD Robb can take advantage of the BLU RAY format and do a 7.1 THX certified mix on the audio tracks, that would be awesome. P.S. can I make a request for the next volume? El Toro please or maybe the rides on top of the Stratosphere tower to take advantage of the depth created in HD.

^That has got to be one of the worst songs I have ever heard (sorry Robb if you used this song in one of your coaster vids) with choreography by a 4 year old but it gets my vote for the best video I have ever seen, I can't pull my eyes away from it.

^^Is it me or did someone not think this video through, there are the 2 foot prints behind home plate then "walking" footsteps heading to centerfield where apparently Kong busted through the out field bleachers. My question is how did Kong get behind home plate without destroying the stadium behind said home plate, this probably should have been caught in editing then again Universal did create Twister, the movie with the most mistakes in film history. That said this new Kong attraction should be really fun.

We booked First class on United (all them frequent flyer miles I have been acquireing over the years have finally come in handy) I didn't know they use 2 jetways in Naiarita that does make things go quicker. Only 4 months away and I'm really getting excited about going. Domo arrigato gozai mas Elissa for all the info.

Wow, that sounds like you are going to have a fun summer this year, I am hoping to make it out to the U.K. in a couple of years want to hit up Disney Paris, Alton Towers, Blackpool pleasure beach and make it to a taping of Top Gear. For me this is my 2010 so far. January : DID Sea World Orlando, Universal Studios/Islands of Adventures Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa February : DID Disneyland/California's Adventure California March : DID Sea World Orlando, Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure Orlando, Epcot/Magic Kingdom/Disney Studios/Animal Kingdom Orlando April : DID Carowinds North Carolina, Disneyland/California's Adventure California (for Captain EO) May : DID Cedar Point Ohio, Kings Island Ohio, Holiday World Indiana June : BOOKED Sea World Orlando, Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa August : PLANNING Canada's Wonderland Toronto Canada September : BOOKED Tokyo Disneyland/Disneysea Tokyo Japan December : PLANNING Epcot/Magic Kingdom/Disney Studios/Animal Kingdom Orlando (Osbourne lights)

^^ I've never been on a 747 before do they load/unload at the front of the plane (first class area) or is it like a 757 where they load/unload like 12 rows back?

Man I've been looking for hotels by the park and there are none close and a rental car in Canada will cost over $200 for 2 days. I did a mapquest search of the area and it looks to be either residential or warehouseing all around the park. I want to visit the park cause I just got my passport and Carowinds platinum pass but I hope the park is worth the planning.

We plan on taking carry-on luggage only with us so your saying there is a good chance we might still be able to catch the last bus? That bwould be nice and easy but I do appreciate the info on the trains just in case.

Hey all, looking to visit Canada's Wonderland in August (before I head out to Tokyo in September) and was wondering is there a week in August that will be better to go than any other (planning on hitting the park on a Wednesday and Thursday)meaning less crowds/kids? Thanx in advance

Thanx all for the advice, looks like it will be a great time when me and pops go, I see Star Tours will be closed (no biggie for me don't really like the ones out here anyways) and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (by the description it sounds like a shorter and smaller version of the Disneyland subs so no biggie either). We were too late to book at Mira Costa so we decided to spend the extra 20,000 yen and book at the Disneyland hotel but Robb mentioned in a trip report that he really liked it there so I guess thats cool. I do have a question though, our plane lands at Nairita at 4:35 p.m. and the last "limo bus" leaves at 5:10 so I don't think we will make it through customs in time to catch it so anyone have experience taking the densha / chikatetsu (train or subway) from the airport to Disney?

Actually when they closed the park at 7:30 I went back to the room (I was staying at the Super 8 across the I-71 from the park) and turned on the T.V. and the local channels where all doing live weather and apparently a tornado touched down in a field a few miles from the park but not being from the area I could not tell on their map exactly where it did

Just pre-ordered my copy (using my $10 CLUB TPR discount) so it looks like I will be anxiously sitting in front of my 73" t.v. with the PS3 all warmed up ready to watch my new "Roller Coasters In The Raw HD" blu-ray disc, guess I'll put off watching Tombstone blu-ray for another week.

Technically they were running both trains (blue on Wednesday and red on Thursday) but what they did for the first couple hours or so was load 1 train send the next empty, load 1 train send the next empty

Same for Kentucky. We've actually had 2 tornados hit our city in the last 10 years each of which caused moderate damage. However, that's 2 hits for probably 1000 sirens. I found it interesting/comical that someone would find one so exciting. But then again, if I was in Cali and there was an earthquake (even a little one), I probably be pretty excited about it too. Growing up in California I've been in my fair share of quakes and yea they are no big deal now but many people are terrified of them out there, I was working in an office building downtown L.A. on the 17th floor when a 5.7 hit, thats actually fun 'cause the buildings are on rollers in downtown instead of shaking the building rolls back and forth now thats a once in a lifetime experience.

Call me crazy but I just love the Hurler at Carowinds (not the Kings Dominion version, tooo painful) even though it opens later than the rest of the park I wait for it to open. I really like the speed, the over banked first turn and the bunny hop airtime hills it is just a fun ride for me. By the way being a former California resident at Halloween they run 1 train on Colossus backwards and in the dark, that is really fun.

several years back I went to Orlando the day after a hurricane hit, it was still windy and rainy and most of the area was still without power (Disney was open of course) so I really wouldn't want to be at a park if I knew a hurricane was coming into the area I would just cancel my trip. Although like I said for not getting on any rides it was a fun time at Kings Island. On a side note I asked several employees if they heard any ramblings about the future of Son Of Beast and was told that Son Of Beast does not exist so I asked if they heard its being torn down and I was again it does not exist so I don't know if that was some kind of running joke between the employees since they are not being told what is going on with it. Oh well lets hope for that steel track replacement rumor I keep hearing about.