Barge84

The Alpine Video is getting shared like crazy on Facebook. I can't believe you have Psyclone footage. Please burn it and we'll just act like that ride never existed.

TTA/People Mover at MK is one of my all-time favorite rides. I rarely visit the park without taking a spin.

Day 7 – LEGOLAND Bilund – Part 2 Click HERE if you missed Part 1. Well, here we are. It’s been a short 3 months since my last actual update, but the drought ends to…day. A lot has happened since we’ve last seen each other. Seasons have changed, the holidays are over, and I received this “Christmas” card in the mail from some people in Australia. I’ve been nice enough to censor it so you can’t figure out all of the bad words that were used. I also can’t figure out why it’s not turned horizontally, but I don’t really care. Turn your head. Oh good! A Krampus card!!! Well. I guess that was kind of nice... You can feel the love oozing out of that card, can’t you? Thanks Steve and Priss! That was easily my favorite card this year. Let’s finish up this LEGOLAND trip report, shall we? When we last spoke, some of our group (everyone but me) rode the log flume, some of them getting pretty wet in the process. Not far from there was the Pirate Splash Battle. These rides have become pretty common in the States recently. I’ve never actually taken the time to ride one because I’m averse to getting wet, but it looks like people have a pretty good time. Joe, Chris, Adrian and Cary decided to give this one a shot, while the rest of us observed/checked out the shops. This was easily the largest splash battle attraction that I’ve seen, and it looked pretty well themed. A lot of the ride is hidden from view, but our friends told us that there were a lot of battle areas. They were pretty soaked! We got a little wet trying to spray the passing boats with the spectator water cannon. Unfortunately, the pressure wasn’t at full strength, so you’d barely get the people on the boat, but they could soak you if weren’t careful. A well done Splash Battle. The spectator cannons didn't work very well. Here's comes a boat full of TPR nerds. Getting closer... Here’s a video of Steve trying out the cannon. I’m not sure who the jackass is that’s yelling at him. As you could plainly see in the video, the cannon didn’t work. It became more fun waiting for random people to take a turn shooting it, only to find out that they were going to get pretty wet in the process. A little more shopping was done, then it was decided that everyone should ride Viking River Splash. Since I was already kind of wet, I gave into peer pressure and decided to ride. This was one of the times where it was really nice having our fastpasses (I can’t remember the name of the passes) at the park. There was a decent wait, but our entire group of about 11 or 12 was let in, right to the front. We boarded two separate rafts since there were so many of us, and I started to worry about that final drop. Having done no research on this park, I had no clue that there was a vertical lift rapids ride until we walked past it earlier that morning. I don’t even think that I knew that that was a thing. I’ve had some bad luck over the years on rafts with big drops. I tend to end up being the person with their back to the water at the bottom. I’m sure it has nothing to do with me being the biggest person in the raft. Damn you, science! For the most part, the ride was pretty tame. I’m not sure if it was toned down because of the lower temperatures, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen people get less water on them. You just kind of go around and around, talking to people as they’re walking past the ride. Then, at the end, you get to the VERTICAL LIFT! These are the kinds of things that I for, ladies and gentleman! Watching the specs on the rotary girder initiate the engagement of the chain dogs is something to behold. I could watch it all day long! Enough about that… Our raft was next in line. Up we went, which was kind of an uneasy feeling for some reason. I’d always heard how strange Pilgrim’s Plunge was, but it was closed the only time I’ve ever been to Holiday World. At the top we realized that Adrian and Harrison (I think it was Harrison) were pretty much screwed. We all laughed with delight as they plunged down the hill backwards, and got hit by a pretty big wave of water. I laughed and laughed! My parents always told me I was a treasure. Who wants to get wet? A very rare vertical lift rapids ride. Going down... After we exited, we had a little bit of time to kill before the TPR Takeover of the Falck Fire Brigade. While we meandered around the park, I found a great new look to go with my pink shirt that Steve loves so much! I'm a warrior princess! Once I’d stocked up on all the latest Scandinavian fashion, it was still about 15 minutes before the takeover was going to happen. Little known fact about me… I love penguins. Love them. Always have. My family used to hate whenever a zoo would have penguins, because I’d stand there forever, waiting for them to do anything. For some reason, all of the zoos near us had very docile penguins. Didn’t matter to me, I still thought they were awesome. The penguins had a pretty impressive viewing area. Large windows allowed guests to see both underwater and above it. The penguins were getting cleaned and fed while I was watching them, so they were pretty feisty. The windows allowed you to get some great shots of the penguins swimming. Yay! A penguin. It was a decent viewing area. You could get their attention pretty easily through the glass. This is where Tennessee Tuxedo retired to. Ross is just chilling. I said goodbye to my new penguin friends and started walking back towards the rest of the group. When everyone had shown up, the entire group got in the queue. The ride ops made a deal with us. They’d alternate between letting TPR do a takeover, then let the GP ride, then let TPR do a takeover for the remaining group that didn’t get on the first time. That seemed fair. We were in the first grouping of trucks, and it was me, Joe, Steve and Priscilla. Robb was recording us, and of course we were running our mouths about how we were going to kick everyone’s ass. Robb told the group to wait so that we could get a group picture, but of course a couple of trucks took off. Cheaters! Steve and I were responsible for making the truck move by using something similar to the handle on a railroad hand car. We were going crazy on that thing, but the truck wouldn’t move. After about 4-5 seconds of us not moving, Robb reached in and hit the joystick that chooses what direction your truck moves in. We finally took off, but most of the trucks were nearly to the other side by that point. As usual, we made complete fools of ourselves… When we finally reached the other side, we hopped out. Joe and Priscilla starting turning the cranks that made the fire hose shoot water. Of course, Steve and I were just standing there watching, not realizing that we were supposed to be aiming the hoses! They were spraying everywhere, until Priscilla said something like, “Are you going to aim them?!?!” Oh, yeah, I guess we should do that. Needless to say, we were the second to last group to finish. All that trash talking, on video no less, followed up by that ridiculous performance. Time to slink away… Not our best effort... The group was leaving the park in a couple of hours, so we wanted to make sure we saw the rest of the park before it was time to leave. In the back corner of the park, behind the Polar Xplorer coaster, was the building that hosted the Robo Coaster attraction. I’ve seen similar rides like this at EPCOT, using a KUKA robotic arm to whip riders around on their custom chosen ride program. We used our fastpasses to skip another line, and we were picking our ride program in just a couple of minutes. The interface for this was simple to use, giving you a screen with quite a few different options, depending on how crazy you wanted your ride to be. Cary and I paired up, and tried to make our ride as extreme as it would allow us to. We swiped our card, and it said that the ride program had been saved. After you complete this part, you proceed to the actual waiting queue. LEGOLAND was at least smart enough to buy a lot of the arms. I think there were around 10-12, but I could be wrong. You’re led up a stairway, then across a pit, where all of the robot arms are stored. It’s pretty dark inside the building, but it bright enough so that you can see each of the rides while they’re cycling. Cary and I chose to go left because the line looked a little shorter. We had to wait for a couple of ride cycles, but it wasn’t too bad. We both climbed into our seats and pulled down on the restraints. The computer was saying that the restraint wasn’t down far enough. The ride op released both of them, and got mine to click 3 times with Cary’s help. Cary jumped back into his seat, and they got 3 clicks on his restraint. His said it was ok, but mine didn’t. I didn’t get to ride, but I guess if there’s something that I don’t mind missing out on, it was this. More motivation for the next trip! Robocoaster. Stupid restraints. The exit of the Robo Coaster takes you right past the entrance to Polar Xplorer, so we decided to use our fastpass for one more ride. There was probably about a 30-40 minute wait at this point, but we only waited for 1 train. I love fastpasses!!! It was another fun ride on Polar Xplorer, but I think that ride was covered in detail during my previous report. With all of the rides out of the way, we had some time to finally walk around and check out the LEGO displays. We all kind of split up at this point, taking in the displays at the speed that we wanted to go. A few of us checked out the observation tower as well, getting a bird’s eye view of the park. I have to say that the displays are really incredible to look at. The detail that was put into them is just ridiculous. Moving trains, cars, boats, etc… Bridges that go up and down and a working lock and dam. There was a ton of really great stuff to check out. Rather than blab on about it too much, I’ll just let the pictures (and videos) do the talking. Pretty cool They had the music from the bar scene playing in this area. What the hell's an Aluminum Falcon? Don't remember this. More of the same... Lots of Chewbacca creatures. This is what I look like when I walk on ice and snow. More of Hoth. Panoramic of Hoth. From the prequels... Some sort of palace. I'm running out of captions. I think that's the Starship Enterprise. Maybe not. These remind me of the new automobile that was created on an old South Park episode. For the life of me, I don't remember any scenes like this. Another display. These 2 spun around and "fought" each other. Nerds on the monorail. Steve, Jake, Shawn, EB, Jere, and I think Ross... More ships. So many captions to write... Flying in circles. Save the Ewoks, Chewy. I remember this scene! Not this one, though. Hey, it's not Star Wars related! They do an amazing job with these. Trains, boats, cars, etc... They all move. Very cool. Going up so we could get a bird's eye view of the area. The park is bigger than you'd think. Surprise! Another beautiful park in Scandinavia. Weird... Some sort of castle. This would take me 10 years to build. A recreation of the airport right next to the park. The planes would taxi up and down the runway. Very cool! Another city scene. Back to the airport. A panoramic of the airport. They definitely go all out. I think that's the plane I took to get to Copenhagen. Shooting water! Another beautiful scene. More big buildings. Yep, another building. I think they like red. The park wouldn't let me near this church. They said that I'd burst into flames. Trains! So detailed. Windmills and water. Something you don't see much of in Denmark. I love how they trim all the bushes to look like little trees. I'm not sure why I didn't take the opportunity to act like Godzilla. This reminds me of a cable car in the town that I grew up in. Another church. Hey, we must be close to WDW! This was really well done. People are gathering for today's launch. Probably as close as I'll get to seeing any of this. Safari ride for kids. Just like Animal Kingdom. Red butts. Tee hee! Sick of LEGO yet? I am... One last city setting picture... Rawr. After I’d had my fill of LEGO for the year, we all met up and started working our way towards the exit. There was still about an hour until we had to leave, but we’d ridden everything and the crowds were seemingly getting larger and larger. We chose to just take it easy, sitting on benches and chatting. We also had to make a visit to the Official LEGO store. I bought something for my niece and a fridge magnet for myself, but that was it. Everything was ridiculously overpriced, but it’s nothing you wouldn’t expect to see at any theme park. We were ready to head back to the hotel, and it just so happened that the rest of the group was too. Off to the buses. We said our goodbyes to this great little park, and made the 90 minute drive back to where we were staying. Big pimpin' This was supposed to be a goofy picture. Apparently we aren't very creative. If I were to ever purchase anything LEGO, this would be it. Lady Liberty! Goodbye! Thanks for an awesome day!!! After returning “home”, a few of us found a restaurant and had a nice sit down meal. The owner/cook didn’t speak a word of English, so it was our first really interesting experience. Somehow, it all worked out and we had fun sitting around chatting and eating. I’d just started getting sick, so I wanted to get some rest that night. After finding some cold medicine, it was back to the room for the night. LEGOLAND definitely surprised me. I thought I’d be bored out of my mind, but it was one of the more entertaining days of the trip. I’ll need to check out some of the American parks whenever I’m in the area. I promise it won’t take 3 months for me to put together another update. Thanks for being so patient! ps. Click HERE if you missed Part 1 of this Legoland trip report.

Huh? Stop drinking during the day.

The last 2 years? Yep. It's been horrible. I'll gladly take your Williamsburg winter...

There's been some progress. I actually thought about writing last night. That's a start! I actually think I'll write some tonight. Since it's about -5 F here, I won't be doing anything outside for awhile.

Nice pictures. I live about 2 1/2 hours from WoF and try to get down there 2-3 times a year. Prowler is the crown jewel of the park, no doubt. I like Mamba a lot, but you're right, they need to tone down the mid-course brake. That thing used to go a lot faster in the 2nd half. WoF reminds me a lot of Dorney. Decent park that has a good array of rides, but people seem to overlook both places.

Love the thread! Great to see some familiar parks, as well as a ton of sad, credit whoring pictures as well.

Yeah, I've been slacking. I haven't given up, just been really busy with my job lately. Soon...

Whatever the boomerang is named at Morey's.

I love the new playoff system, but I don't think 2 teams from the same division (not conference) should be allowed in. Alabama and Mississippi State shouldn't both be allowed in, because the SEC West teams will have all played each other and determined a champion. Should be a fun couple of weeks to end the season!

How did I miss this? Great report, Ross. Bears + Pride = perfect for you.

Dave and I are like oil and water. I'm glad he lives across the pond.

I've been really busy with my house purchase, so I'd be shocked if you see anything until November from me. Have you checked your calendar lately, Thad??? At this rate you should have this TR completed just in time for the 2016 Scandi trip! heehee Sorry, Ben! I was just thinking that I still need to get you that video. Sorry, life has gotten in the way lately, and I didn't have internet for about 2 1/2 weeks. Hopefully, I'll get back into it next week. And Chuck's right, you can't rush greatness*. *This TR is not great.

Good news. When TPR was here in August, I asked Rick Knoebel if they were planning on giving it the Iron Horse treatment. He just laughed.

^Oh, then you should be fine.

I care more about the overall park than having an amazing ride at a crappy park. That's why I'll take WDW over anything. Some of my favorite amusement parks include Silver Dollar City, BGW, BGT, Dollywood, Knoebels and one can never forget to mention Liseberg. Parks don't have to be extensively themed, per se, but I like the park to have some sort of atmosphere.

There's about 35 other states that you could say are better than Iowa. Although, I'm not sure that I'd count Arizona in that group.

Nice report, Martin! I was wondering why you guys were all in Arizona together on Halloween. Looks like a fun day. Too bad Rick was there.

Obviously, I'd say Mean Streak, Boss, etc... But I really like this idea. I got to ride Timber Wolf in 1994, and it was a great ride. I go to WoF about 1-2 times a year, and I probably haven't ridden Timber Wolf since 2001. It's just awful now.

Great report, Chuck! I've always had a good time at SFGAdv, and the park really went out of their way to make us feel welcome this year! The surprise ERT on Kingda Ka (x2), VIP ride on Zumanjaro, VIP ride on the safari, and the nighttime ERT on El Toro were all incredible. I was really impressed with the safari, as I'd passed on it in 2013 because the line was enormous. I love that nighttime picture of El Toro. I've seen that shot a million times, but only during the day. Very cool.

I'd never heard of this park, but it's going on my list of parks to visit. I have to try out that new Mack! Thanks for the pictures, Divv!

There aren't any games on Tuesday night, Ross. Just Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Then sometimes later in the season they'll have Tuesday and Wednesday college games! I've been really busy with my house purchase, so I'd be shocked if you see anything until November from me.

I can only assume the park will do a great job with this new land. I really only knew about Piraten when I went there in June, but was really impressed with the entire park.

I believe science has proven that all trip reports containing pictures of me are 200% better than a normal TR.