robbalvey

Day Nineteen: Parc Asterix and more Disneyland Paris! OMG! Tonnerre De Zeus is BACK!!!! Wow, I couldn't believe it! A woodie that was firmly in my top 5 (or at least in my 'A' category) from '97 - '00 fell SHARPLY in 2002 when it was performing terrible. It was rough, sluggish, and overall just a huge let down. I'm happy to report that today Tonnerre De Zeus was BACK to it's old self! In fact, after riding it, it easily plants itself into the top of my "A" list along side other woodies such as Balder, Pheonix, Colossos, and Raven. It was THAT good! Crazy airtime all over the place, insane laterals, it was running FAST like a bat out of hell. I'm not sure what was wrong with this coaster in 2002, but I'm happy to see that it's back in top form now! It might not be quite as smooth as when it first opened in 1997, but it certainly is NOT what I would consider 'rough' or 'sluggish' like it was in '02. As for the rest of Asterix, well, the place totally rocked today! The day started off with a little bit of rain, but cleared up by mid-morning. It seemed like it kept the locals away, because there wasn't a queue more than 10 minutes long for any ride all day! That meant as many rides as possible on the awesome running TdZ. It also just confirmed my thoughts one more time on what a completely stupid time of year the ACE ECO trip was planned. I mean, let me just go on a rant here for a second.... On the ACE ECO trip in 2002, just about every park visited we were met with HUGE crowds, school group outings, hour long queues for most rides, etc, etc.... We were lost on many occasions for hours at a time, missed out on ERT, and even lost out on some ERT due to ACErs who were too big to fit on coasters trying over...and over...and over again! If you can't fit, DON'T RIDE, and stop wasting our time!!! After that trip we thought for sure "Wow, if this is an organized group who have hired a professional company and there were so many things that went wrong on that trip, how the hell can we ever do things on our own?" Well, what we realized is that it was a lot easier than we ever could have imagined! And oddly enough, not many people on that trip saw the mess we did. I guess our standards must be set a bit higher. Gee, so we want to go to parks when they aren't crowded, and we don't like to get lost on the way to parks. Why is that such a big deal? Had someone actually done a little research like we did, they would have found that the middle to end of July is *NOT* a good time to go to Europe theme parks!!! On our trip, none of the parks we have visited have been crowded, we never got lost, not once, we have not missed out on any coasters, and we have actually gotten MORE rides in during this trip than we did during ANY ERT session during the ECO trip. The moral of the story....let Robb & Elissa plan your coaster trips!!! Ok, rant over....back to Asterix. The park was great. No crowds, TdZ was amazing, the bobsled was fun as always, the log flume was nice and wet, Elissa got her kiddie coaster credit that was closed during the 2002 trip, and we got in more riding in the 5 hours we were there this year than we did during the ECO trip being there almost all day with an hours worth of ERT. Go figure! Asterix has always been a favorite of mine as the park is VERY clean, well kept up, and nicely themed. I've visited the park about 10 times since 1997, and I'm glad this visit can wipe out of my mind the bad visit I had in 2002. After Asterix we headed back to Disneyland Paris for the last few hours of our night. We spent most of the time just taking photos and shopping, but we did grab a couple more rides on Rock N Roller Coaster and Space Mountain: Mission 2. We went back to the hotel, packed up most everything, and then went to what is the last dinner for the group together. That's right, this is the end of the trip. *sob* However, this is not the last Photo TR as we'll do one more when we get back home with a little 're-cap.' It's been an amazing trip so far, and now after having done Japan in October and covering most of Europe this trip, with both trips being flawless, maybe it's time we take the next step and start doing group trips. I think we've got a good shot and being able to do them right! We'll see. Anyway, thanks to everyone who has read these reports for the past three weeks. This has seriously been some of the best times of my life, and I'm really happy I've been able to share it with everyone and see the great response on the boards. It's really made the trip for me being able to share it with all of you! And it's been so great being able to meet all these people for the first time! That made the trip really special. So..... Onto today's photos! Our final dinner in the Disney Village with our Europe group and Nicolas, Fredric, and Louis! Thanks for hanging out with us! Oh, and for you dirt lovers, this big hole of dirt will soon become Paris' version of Tower of Terror. And to complete the trifecta of Vekoma multi-loopers today, a spin on Space Mountain: Mission 2! This ride is really hard to capture in photo, but you can kind of get an idea of the lighting inside. Back at Disney it was time for a few more rides on Rock N Roller Coaster. Our group photo with Zeus' panties after a GREAT day at Asterix! Joey is bracing himself and Dan is just hoping that it won't hurt too much! While Tonerre De Zeus might have been running better, Gouderix on the other hand, was not! Parc Asterix' bobsled ride is the only bobsled NOT themed to a bobsled! He wants paper, not a greasy fist!!! It seemed as though almost every hill was producing massive amounts of airtime! You can tell by the hair the amount of airtime this ride is producing. It was amazing, sick, crazy, all of the above! ...and this is what you see on the right. Going up the lift hill this is what you see on the left side.... I am happy to report that Tonnerre De Zeus is BACK! It ran AWESOME today. Right back into my top woodies along side Balder, Phoenix, Colossos, and Raven! We prepare for our first ride on Tonnerre De Zeus a little unsure since this didn't ride too well in 2002. Bah! Who can be afraid of an ancient god who wears spotted panties? Beware! The "Thunder of Zeus" will strike you! Asterix, who is a very popular French cartoon character, greets everyone at the front of the park. The park looks a LOT different from when we were here on the ECO trip in 2002. First off, there is NOBODY here, second, it's not a billion degrees out! Today started out a little wet. No one really seemed to mind though....well, no one other than Dan!

We just got back from the Character Dinner at Cafe Mickey's. Dude, this was AWESOME! Since we had one of the DLP Cast Memebers with us, we were sort of 'flirting' with all the charaters and they were writing us funny stuff on the napkins! Once again, Mr. Smee was the coolest character! If you remember our 2002 Europe DVD when Mr. Smee was all over us making jokes and stuff, it was the same tonight! The funniest moment was when we told Mr. Smee that Joey worked for Universal, he wrote on a napkin "Shut it Universal Boy" and every time Joey would try to say something, he would put his finger over his mouth, point at Joey, then point at the napkin! We were cracking up!!!! And then he took the "Cafe Mickey" napkin and changed it to "Cafe Smee!" The characters here have been awesome (did you guys see in the previous update we got attacked by Baloo!) Anyway, I just thought I'd post a few more photos from today since we had such a good time, we wanted to share it with you! And thanks again to Louis for being such a good tour guide! Dinner tomorrow with Frederic, Nicolas, and everyone should be a lot of fun! --Robb Now onto the photos! "This one is for you Soren!" "Rodent Orgy" Which one does Elissa like more? The Rodent or Louis? "Shut it Universal boy" says Mr. Smee! LOL! "Joey works at Universal???? Noooooo!" Mr. Smee remembers me from 2002! I like my women small and rodent shaped. This time around Dan and Joey get attacked by Baloo! Baloo even tried to order dessert for Dan...poor dan, there was nothing "sans sucre" on the menu.

Yes, but it's actually one of the actors that are picked, then they had the remote control to the actor. The cool thing about it here is that the person that has the remote control is actually out in the middle of the stage, so the car zips right by them. When we saw it in Orlando, the person with the remote control was behind the gates. I'm guessing they probably has some real insurance problems in America having guests out in the area where the cars go racing by! No, the pre-show it totally different. Same premise, same room, same Aerosmith, BUT it's like 20 seconds long! The group is standing in front of a model of a roller coaster and Steven Tyler says something like "...and then when you get to top of the loop you get 1 G's, 2G's, 3 G's......Going Dowwwwn....(queue Aerosmith music and doors open!)" It's awesome. I hate the pre-show in Orlando (Give me a stretch...make that a SUPER stretch!) so this pre-show being over in like 10 seconds is SO much better! We haven't done that in a few years, but maybe this year we will! --Robb

Day Eighteen: Disneyland Paris Day Two! Today was our 2nd, and "full day" at Disneyland Paris! Our morning started off over at Disneyland getting a fastpass on Big Thunder Mountain. I still prefer this Big Thunder to all the other ones simply because of the cool tunnels that take you back and forth under the river where all the track is. (For those of you that don't know, Big Thunder in Paris is located on the island where Tom Saywer's Island is at all the other Magic Kingdoms.) The second tunnel getting you back to 'land' is the best as you fly down underneath the river, get good speed and even a little airtime! Still, it was a morning ride, so it wasn't running to it's full potential. Maybe tomorrow after we get back from Asterix it will be running better. We took a quick spin on Phantom Manor, again, the best of the Haunted Mansion's IMO. It's very different from the original layout, at least the last few rooms, and it seems to make more sense here. Then on over to Disney Studios Paris, which, I just want to say that I really don't think this park deserves the bad rap that it gets. For what it is, it's nice. There's nothing wrong with it. The only thing wrong is that there just isn't enough to do yet. I think after Tower opens, and if they get one or two more "D" ticket attractions, this place will be on par with several other 2nd gate parks. Remember, when Disney/MGM Studios opened in 1989, that park had almost nothing: Great Movie Ride, Indy Stunt Show, Backstage Tour, Animation Tour, Superstar Television, Monster Sound Show, and a couple of other crappy shows. Anyway....we did the Motors - Action stunt show and I have to say that my thought after seeing this show in Orlando remains the same....the Paris version is better...WAY better! First off, there is no 'guest interaction' part, which I think really adds to the comedy of the show the way it's done. They basically pull a bunch of people out of the crowd, have them "audition" to play a part, then put them down on the stage in the middle of where all the cars drive and have them "act out" a little scene while all the action happens. It's very cool! And the fact that Elissa managed to be one of the "actors" made it that much funnier today! Second, the show just seems to go much faster. There are still long gaps in between each sequence as they get all the stunts set up, but they seem to go much quicker and don't drag as much. I remember in Orlando thinking that I just couldn't wait to get out of the damn theater because it took SOOOO LOOOONG to get to the next stunt. Here it was very quick and they put you right back in the action. Third, they didn't play that HORRIBLE Lindsey Lohan Herbie trailer. Sure, Herbie still comes out and there is a little montage of the old movies as they show off Disney's "most famous automobile" but it didn't feel like a cheap commercial for everyone to watch while they've got you captured. After that we hit up "Cinemagic" which was new to us, and while it's 'filler' material for the park, it was pretty good filler stuff. Basically it's a movie with some live action, where they show you clips of some of the most popular movies ever. But it's done in a very clever way with the story being that the guy on stage gets 'sucked into' the movies. The effects are very good, and it's certainly worth seeing at least once. The best part of it was the 'misting effects' that got Dan "I don't like to get wet" wet! We moved back over to Disneyland and into the Alice Labrynth where we proceed to get Dan "I don't like to get wet" wet some more!!! We are mean and horrible, but I'm sure he'll forgive us at some point! The maze is great, though. Something that I wish would come to more Disney Magic Kingdoms. It's always a good laugh, there are fun little effects, and it took us a long time to get through it since we let Joey lead us. His excuse? "It took Moses 40 years to get my people out of the dessert, so what do you expect?" Elissa and I still recovering from our cold headed back to the hotel for some McDonalds and rest. The McDonalds here in Festival Disney...wow...what can I say...it really is the worst in the world and it's always been jam packed! Oh well, we eventually got our food, got some rest, and now we'll meet the others for Dinner in Festival Disney. Tomorrow is Parc Asterix and More Disneyland!!! Onto some photos! Time to go into the hedge maze! We have a secret plan to get Dan wet! :evil grin: While the show is pretty much the same as Florida's, the addition of the guest interaction part, and the fact that the show 'flows' a bit better here in Paris just makes it much better, IMO. Let's take a closer look at that! And there she is out in the middle of the action running from the cars and motorcycles! It's even better when Elissa tries to "act" in the show. Here she is auditioning for the part of "Obnoxious screaming girl!" The Moteurs Action stunt show we thought was better than Florida's Lights, Motors, Action show, and turns out it is! And there are a lot of these skeleton dudes hanging around too. Get's the shaft by this angry dude here. Basically, this chick here.... DLP's version of Phantom Manor is the coolest of all the Magic Kingdoms. It actually has a story! Time for an early morning ride on Big Thunder to wake us up. Our obligitory photo with a Disney character! Did we mention how much cooler the castle is here than all the other Magic Kingdoms? Worst McDonalds EVER!!! ROBB!!!! WATCH YOUR SPEED!!!! "Hey Dan, is this an acceptable level of wetness?" Dan doesn't look too happy with us.

The track layout is a clone, but the show is totally different! While the Orlando version is themed to a 'fast trip to the show' the Paris version is themed to you being at the show and you 'ride the music.' Basically, it's just a spectactular light show with great use of fog, lights, and other visuals. IMO, the lighting inside Rock N Roller Coaster is much better than in Mission 2. While it's hard to get photos of it, here's some video grabs from our last visit in 2002: That kind of gives you an idea of what I mean. For what it's worth, Elissa perfers the Orlando version, but everyone else here who has ridden both (Dan, Joey, Dave, and myself) all prefered the Paris version. --Robb

^ Well, I can tell you that my rides I had on Tonerre De Zues in 1997, 98, and 99 would put it firmly in my #1 spot. However my rides that I had in 2002, were much, much worse, and the ride would have dropped out of my top 20. Now that was before having ridden Colossos and Balder, which are fantastic, and IMO, better than my original rides on TdZ. If TdZ is running on Monday like it was in 1997 - 1999, it would be in my top 5. But if it is still rough, I doubt it will be in my top 20 or 30. --Robb "I've been to Asterix about 10 times and yet to see that park empty!" Alvey

Day Seventeen: Walibi Lorraine and Disneyland Paris Today continued our "Credit Whoring Journey To Paris" with Walibi Lorraine. This was our last stop until getting to Disney and after visiting Walibi Rhone-Alpes, we were afriad we would fine another dissapointing park. And we were right. Walibi Lorraine wasn't as bad as Rhone-Alpes in that the park had nicer landscaping and decoration, but it was almost as bad with it's selection of rides. We had met up with Matthew who gave us some insight to the park, and it seems that ever since they got rid of the Smurf theming, the park has gone downhill. There were several empty or boarded up buildings and play areas that used to house rides and attractions that are now gone. It was kind of sad. As for the ride lineup, they had a wooden coaster that was basically the "PGA Grizzy of Europe", a Vekoma Loop-screw, A log flume, rapids ride, a couple of flats, a few kiddie rides, and the new Huss Topple Tower. The Topple Tower was the main reason we were here. At first we didn't know if we would get to ride it since it didn't open with the park, and we weren't going to be here very long. About an hour later, the ride opened up. I have to say it was kind of dissapointing. From the photos I had seen (and from the photos we took too) the ride looks REALLY bad ass! I mean, it's one of those rides that looks much better in pictures and watching it as a spectator than it does to ride. The ride is very tame, and I really thought that when it 'toppled' it would do more of a 'drop', but it doesn't at all. The main ride vehicle spins, slowly, and while spinning the tower leans over, slowly. It was a nice ride, but it was very gentle, and very tame. While it was a weird experience, it's not one that I would consider 'thrilling.' We left shortly after that and made our trip to the Disneyland Paris resort. After meeting up with Frederic and Louis, we took a ride on the newly revamped Space Mountain: Mission 2. What can I say? I like Mission 1 a LOT better. *sigh* At least the ride wasn't quite as rough as when we rode it in 2002. It was still bumpy and you can tell it was a Vekoma, but it was very rideable, and we will certainly ride again tomorrow. As for the show scenes, quite honestly, not much has changed. There's a nice new paint job in the queue, and they have also closed up the areas in the queue where you used to be able to see into the ride. That was a dissapointment as it used to be very cool standing in the queue watching the trains go through the course. The new soundtrack is 'ok', but it's a fairly generic techo soundtrack, and I really felt that the old soundtrack felt more 'classic.' There were a couple of new effects in the mountain, but to be honest, nothing that was too memorable. Mission 1 used to have 'story elements' that tied the ride into the Jules Verne theme, while Mission 2 just seems to have random effects and a techno soundtrack. The one effect going into "hyperspace" with the red swirlly lights sounds a lot like one of the effects they have added to the Disneyland ride. I'll let you know once I ride the DL version! So overall, while Space Mountain seemed more rideable this time than in 2002, I miss the old show. =( We took a lap around both parks, but since we got here late we didn't have too much time. We rode Rock N Roller Coaster a couple of times and I still like this version a lot more than the WDW version. It's smoother and I really like the "light show" during the ride. The tram tour is still just 'ok', but the Reign of Fire effect at the end is very good! Indy had returned to being a forwards coaster again. Some of us got a lot of head bashing, some of us didn't. Weird. Then we had dinner at the Hunter's Grill in our hotel (Sequoia Lodge) which is like the "French Ohana's" as you are servered random meats on a big skewer and by the time dinner is done, you feel like you've had way too much to eat! It was a great time hanging out with Frederic and Louis, thanks for showing us around the park! Now onto some photos!!! For dinner we ate at the "French Ohana's" at our hotel in the Sequoia Lodge. (The photo is not blurry, that is how Dan really looks!) The balloon ride over the resort looks awesome! We will ride this on Monday. So this is where all the props from Horizons came to die. =( While the movie Reign of Fire didn't wow anyone, this awesome fire effect based on the movie during the tram tour sure does!!! Brace yourselves...it's going to get a little bumpy up ahead! Hey look! Indiana Jones is running forward again! While Space Mountain was a little smoother since the last time we rode, we all agreed that we liked the theming and story elements of Mission 1 much better. Hey look! This Disneyland has a castle you can actually see! Yay! We finally made it to Disneyland Paris! We met up with Matthew and I hope we can spend more time with you if we see you in Florida in October! "Hello, I am angry bird-creature ride thing! Gimme some candy!" To be honest, it was a little dissapointing. While it was fun and all, it didn't spin very fast, and the 'topple' was VERY slow. Overall, the ride was very tame. The new Huss Topple Tower was the main reason for our visit (well, that and the two coaster credits!) Robb has finally found a chair that makes him feel thin! Also on display for the event was a collection of the "worst early to mid-80s" cars. It was very strange! Coincidentally enough, it was "American" day at Walibi Lorraine, where they had an event going on with cowboys and "American" music (country! Gag!!!) They also stuck little American flags to every coaster in the park.... Walibi Lorraine has "Anaconda." A Bill Cobb woodie with Morgan trains. Basically, it was the "PGA Grizzly" of Europe! Joey was all "Since there is no Wok, the highly offensive, non-pollitically correct chinese dragon, to be found at this park, I guess I'll hang out with Walibi!" They had some rather wacky theming on their Vekoma Loop-Screw. What is it with us getting to a Walibi park early in the morning and it rains on us for the first 45 minutes??? Welcome to Walibi Lorraine, ex-Walibi Smurf. The Smurfs are gone, and so it seems are lots of attractions in the park! At least this place had an entrance unlike Rhone-Alpes yesterday.

We are staying at all classes of hotels! We have been in everything from "Etap" which is the Motel 6 of Europe to Scandic, which is the Hilton equivalent. From Hotel Ibis, which is like staying at a Ramada in, to a Deluxe Disney resort! The Etaps and Ibis' have been about 35 - 60 Euros a night, whereas the more expensive hotels have been 100 - 150. Keep in mind that on some nights we are also sharing, so for example the Gardaland Hotel, which was 200 Euros per night, was split between four people in one room and two in the other. Accor hotels, the group that runs Motel 6 and Red Roof Inn have a TON of cheap hotels here in Europe. All of them have been nice and most of them have had Wifi. Keep in mind, though, that Air Conditioning is NOT a 'norm' of most European hotels, so if you are here during a heat wave, that could suck. I reccomend a 'travel fan' of some sort as something you should pack when you visit Europe. --Robb "Hope this info helps!" Alvey

Every Boomerang I've ever been on (At least 30 of them) has gone a *little* bit out of the station on the return, maybe 10 feet or so at the most, but this is the first time I've ever seen one go almost all the way back up the back spike, and then back into the boomerang again! At the point that it goes BACK into the station for the very last time is what I'm used to a normal Boomerang doing on the return run. That's why it's different and weird! --Robb

Ok, I added the video to the trip report. Check it out. I forgot to mention that what you see in the video clip is NOT a roll back! It was doing this for EVERY ride cycle!!! Enjoy! --Robb

Europe Trip Day Sixteen: Credit Whoring at Walibi Rhone-Alpes and Nigloland! Today was our "credit whore" day. Basically, we had a LONG drive from Gardaland and Disneyland Paris and when mapping out the trip we looked at ways to break up the drive. Being that we have Walibi passes, we noticed that, if we routed our journey in such a way, we could almost pass right by two Walibi parks, Rhone-Alpes and Lorraine as well as Nigloland. Credits that help break up a long drive? Sure!!! Everyone had told us that Rhone-Alpes was pretty crappy and that we shouldn't even bother, but we figured since we had to drive right by it, and it was basically free, why not? Well, everyone was right! The place was pretty crappy, but it was also pretty entertaining! All I will say is that you HAVE to download the "Abnormal Boomerang" video! And I really want to know if anyone has EVER seen another Vekoma Boomernag do what this one does! Just download the video and you'll see! The had a Boomerang, a Zamperla Wild Mouse, and a Tivoli kiddie coaster. Yeah...quite a quality selection of coasters, eh? And on top of it, the park itself was pretty sad. Most of the rides looked like they were built out in a field with little thought put into path ways, landscaping, or anything. The lake that runs through the park looked more like a malaria infested swamp. Overall, we spent less than an hour, got our credits, and continued the drive. BUT we did take away from the park the VERY entertaining "Abnormal Boomerang!" Basically, it acted more like a Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop! Just watch the video and you'll see. Onto Nigloland! We had about a 4 hour drive in between the two parks and we got to Nigloland with about 3 hours left in their operating day. At first, we thought they might have been closed since absolutely NO ONE was in the rows of parking! Turns out they had a very small lot 'up front' which kind of looked like the "Marketplace Parking" on Grand Avenue at Knott's. And not even all those spaces were full. If we saw 50 other people in the park today, I'd be surprised! Arriving at this park we were expecting another "Let's credit whore our way through this crap hole and get out of here" but what we found was actually a pretty nice park! Let's check out the coaster line up: Powered Mack Mine Train, Schwarzkopf City Jet, Wacky Worm, Indoor Mack Coaster, and....drum roll please....a Pinfari Inverted Coaster....YES! A looping, invcrted Pinfari! Does it get any better than that? Oddly enough...the ride was just fine!!! :shock: If you have been on a Pinfari looping anything, you know how :shock: :shock: :shock: we were when the ride was totally smooth, and we didn't get jolted or bashed ONCE! Did we luck out or is the ride always like this??? The rest of the park was very nice. Good landscaping, fun coasters, some good dark rides, well themed flat rides, a few 'interesting' signs (check out the photos) and overall it was really "cute." The indoor Mack coaster was great! It reminded me a LOT of Euro-Sat at Europa Park. It used the same trains, same sprial lift system, and had the same violent, but amazing quality to it! Elissa's favorite ride was the rodent themed 'outdoor dark ride', which I kind of get the feeling was the reason we came to this park in the first place. They also had a haunted house dark ride, which was another one of Europe's "Bench: The Ride" systems. I think it's so funny that people have joked for years about "Bench: The Ride" to the point where I don't even remember the origin, but now that I've seen all these dark rides that litterally have a bench attached to a ride vehicle, I wonder if this is where it started! Anyway, overall we had a great day of credit whoring and finding a little gem in Nigloland! On to some photos and be sure to download that Abnormal Boomerang video! BEST. SIGN. EVER!!!!! (this was outside the General Store in the western themed area!) Dan loved Bench: The Ride!!! (It actually was a very good dark ride!) "Bench: The Ride." What is it with Europe dark rides with them bolting a park bench to a ride vehicle??? They had a "Dinosaur Walk Thru" attraction. Totally random, and totally weird. We loved it!!! Yes, we are STILL credit whoring our way around France! But oddly enough, this ride was completely smooth and almost fun! The Pinfari Inverted "Bat Coaster." It just looks like hot death, doesn't it? The Rodent Themed Dark Ride is probably the reason Elissa wanted to come here! Here is one for you Schwarzkopf fans! This looks a lot like the new re-do of Disneyland's Space Mountain...hmm...I wonder if it took Nigloland three years to do this? "It's amazing, but I hate it!!!" Inside this building houses a Mack enclosed coaster similar to Europa's Euro-Sat. Nice landscaping and "cute" theming was all over this park. "Wait...I'm confused...I thought this park was going to suck??? It actually looks like it has a decent amount of stuff!" Nigloalnd ended up being a really nice little park! Yes, we are indeed credit whores!!!! "Damn, My seat is wet....oh...wait...now I've found a good use for my park map!" The French made Dave ride alone. Ahh, a Zamperla Wild Mouse....thanks Mark! This Boomerang is doing something I've never seen any other Boomerang do. Download the video to find out! Dan and Dave are doing thier best to stay dry. Luckily the rain didn't last too long. "Here we have our Vekoma Boomerang, except that it thinks it's a Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop." "...on the right we have the milaria infested lake. Swim at your own risk!" "Welcome to Walibi Rhone-Alpes....On the left we have random rides ploped down into a field where you need to navigate through nature to get to them...." It was cold and raining, so we helped keep Elissa warm with her fantasies of a three-some. Although somehow I get the feeling her fantasy didn't include some fat guy and a jew! :o When the entrance to Walibi Rhone-Alpes consisted of a small fence that you couldn't even see and a couple of umbrellas, not even a turnstile, we knew this wasn't going to be a candidate for "best park of the trip!" abnormalboomerang.zip "Abnormal Boomerang!" Here is the video of the Boomerang that thinks it's a Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop. Has anyone else seen a Vekoma Boomerang that does this???

Namco did release a US version of Taiko No Tatsujin for the US PS2 called Taiko Drum Master. Unforutnatley, the US version really sucks compared to the Japanese version. My reccomendation would be to get the Japanese version and a modded PS2 instead! Nice TR, BTW, John...makes us want to go back to Japan even more! --Robb

No, they were there, but just not for us. If you read my trip report again, you'll see that I wrote that we got rained out of the park that night. After the poor customer service experience we had, we decided NOT to give the park any more of our money the next day. Especially after the great time we had at Movie Studios Park, we kind of thought ending our tour of Italy on a good note would be a great idea! We did not have an 'awful' day at Gardaland, it just wasn't that great. Certainly not as good as we thought it was going to be. So 'awful' is not the correct word to use. "Dissapointed" is more like it. Overall, I understand that policies are policies, but when 3 of us in our group have all worked at Guest Relations in a theme park, you also know that you do make acceptions when they are deserved. Between the 6 of us total, we had spent nearly $1000 at the Gardaland resort, spending two nights at the hotel, purchasing a 1 day park admission, and dinner. The park closed most of the attractions after we had been there for 3 hours, and no one wanted to even allow us to purchase the difference between the one day and the two day pass. We couldn't justify another 200 Euros to go back the next day for a couple of coasters and water rides. We missed the Vekoma SLC, the kiddie and the two water rides. Considering that no one in our group are really into water rides (we'll ride them when we can, but we won't go out of our way for them, even if someone says it's the best water ride in the world, it's just not our thing) we didn't feel it was a good value for money to spend yet another 30 Euros each to go on two uninteresting coasters and two water rides. Overall, had Gardaland actually taken care of their guests, our review would have been MUCH different. Movie Studios seems to be a park that knows how to take care of guests, and I hope that park continues to expand in the future, because if they did, based on our experiences, we'd go back there before we'd go back to Gardaland. --Robb "Gardaland was nice, but it really lacked substance and service, IMO." Alvey

LMAO!!! Yeah, Ted is right! What you are looking for doesn't exist. I mean, our lipstick camera was about $700 and it's not wireless, and it's certainly NOT un-noticable. It has it's own battery back, a seperate mic, and wires leading to the deck. To buy equipment like this, it's serious cash, not cheap stuff. We use the same lipstick camera that is used on Fear Factor. You're not going to find something for less than $500, let alone $200. --Robb

I didn't really notice. I just saw the words "Big Mac" on Dan's styrofoam box (yes, they still use those there.) It might have said Le Big Mac, but so what? It's not as though it's called "Le Rotten Dead Animal Flesh Squished Between Duex Buns." Now THAT I would take a picture of! Why is this a big deal? --Robb "Who fails to see the humor in this." Alvey

A "good one" like the one we have, will cost you between $500 and $1000, and then you also have to have a DV cam or a DV deck to plug it into. If you're just want to 'go shoot some POV' it's not worth it. But if you are investing time and money into making coaster videos, then I reccomend it. Also, you can't just go slapping your lipstick cam onto a coaster train, that's sure to get you kicked out of a park! All of times we have used the equipment it's been through the park's PR or management with special permission. --Robb

^ Dude. I don't know what the fuck you are talking about. We are in France now, and we went to McDonalds tonight. A Big Mac is called a Big Mac. What are we missing here? --Robb "Confused" Alvey

Europe Trip Day Fifteen: Movie Studios Park @ Canevaworld, Italy WOW!!! What a total suprise this park was!!!! Originally, we thought we would go here just because it was right down the street from Gardaland. We didn't know too much about it, other than it looked lke a knock-off Universal Park that opened a couple of years ago. This place was GREAT! And if they add a few more attractions in the next few years, this could be the best park in Italy! We started out in the walk-through haunted house, which easily beat out anything Knott's Haunt had to offer, and was on par with stuff you'd see at Holloween Horror Nights at Universal. No crappy "shaker cans" in this maze, this was the real 'movie studio' like effects and sets. We all walked out of there with a :shock: look on our face! Then we went on "Magma" which was kind of like thier version of the backlot tour, but it was more like "Catastrophe Canyon" but had three different scenes: A water tanker, an earthquake, and a big fire and water area. The best effect of the whole thing was at the end after the big fire and water part where the truck starts up the hill toward the end, but then stalls out, goes BACKWARDS down the hill and SPLASHES back into the water area. It really took us by surprise and we all got off the ride with a :shock: look on our face! Next up was Terminator 2. Now this isn't the 3D movie you are used to at Universal, this is a live show, very similar to Backdraft or Twister. Where you go through a couple of pre-shows, then into this huge Cyberdine Systems Factory (or something like that) and you watch the final effects show from three rows just like Backdraft. The fire and special effects were incredible! There was also live action actors in the mix and the stunts were great! We were seriously more impressed with this than we were with either Backdraft or T2-3D! :shock: We went and had lunch with Zorro, and the photos below will do that justice, then we moved onto the Rambo stunt show. Rambo is just so fitting for Italy. A stunt show based on a film with the Italian Stallion filled with lots of explosions? Sure! And the show was also great! Just as good as Waterworld, Indy, or any of the other big stunt shows. After taking a quick spin on the park's powered coaster, we decided to head out and start our long drive back to France. Originally we thought about going back to Gardaland, but knowing the long drive ahead of us, and being so dissapointed with Gardaland we decided to bag the SLC and kiddie credit and get to our hotel early. Onto today's pics! There was even still snow in the alps! Here we are driving through Italy on our way to France... And then it had even MORE fire!!! The Rambo show had lots of fire! The powered coaster may not be a 'credit' but it was still fun! ...NOT Zorro The Gay Blade style!!! We ate at Zorro's restaurant. Elissa prefer's her Zorro's to be more of the 'real men' style... We never found out what the "Specialties" were. The best park of Magma! The truck goes roller backwards down that hill and SPLASHES back into the water! This park LOVES fire and water! Magma was kind of like a backlot tour and Catastrophe Canyon...but better! Our group photo hanging out with some friends from http://www.parksmania.it/ Movie Studios Park - a total surprise for us, and a really great park!

Europe Trip Day Fourteen Part Two: Gardaland Gardaland was a big dissapointment for us. And I think this might be the first time on this trip we have really felt that way. First off, we get to the Gardaland Hotel, and from the outside, this place looks FANTASTIC! It's like a smaller scale version of the Grand Floridian, and for being one of the more expensive hotels on the trip, we were really hoping this would be great. For the most part, it was, but the customer service seemed VERY lacking, which would end up being a theme for most of our time spent at Gardaland. It just seemed that the people there weren't really 'with it.' We would ask them stuff like "do you have wi-fi internet access?" and they would respond "I think we might have it in the main lobby...but we're not sure." Or "Our phone doesn't seem to be turned on, can you fix it?" "Oh, I'm sorry, but I don't know anything about how the phone system works, call back tomorrow morning." WTF?!? For $200 per night, this wasn't really living up to the price. The Europa hotels were MUCH better at customer service. Now onto the park..... Sequoia Adventure is one of the dumbest rides I've ever been on. Good, I got that out of my system! OMG, what a total let down. I was really looking forward to this S&S contraption after being so impressed with Powder Keg. But this ride is completely 'pointless.' You're in a Wild-Mouse type car. You go up a lift, you slowly go over the edge and hang upside down for a couple of seconds...rinse, repeat....rinse, repeat....rinse, repeat. What the hell??? There was actually nothing fun about this ride at all. And on top of it, no one else seemed to really care about it either. It was very interesting watching the faces of the riders. They got off the ride with this look of total 'indifference.' And that's exactly how we felt. The ride seemed like it was a floor model prototype for a element that might actually be cool in another coaster. For example, a Wild Mouse that had an upside down bit to mix up the layout a bit. But when this is ALL THE RIDE DOES, it was totally and completely pointless. I'm not even 100% sure I can count it as a coaster. It's so controlled that it felt more like a flat ride than a coaster. I really, really hope that S&S can put this system to better use. Anyway, so that was dissapointing, but what about the rest of the park? Overall, there was just nothing that interesting here. The park LOOKED great! But it had no substance. A Vekoma corkscrew, a kiddie coaster, a Vekoma SLC, a couple of dark rides (one of them was actually very good), and a lot of your standard fair kiddie rides that you see in pretty much every other park. This place lacked anything really unique or really interesting. The only thing that looked remotely interesting was the Intamin drop tower. Then came a HUGE rain storm! Complete with massive winds and tons of lightning! It looked like a good, kick ass Florida storm! Almost immediatly, everything in the park closed "Knott's Style" but the park did remain open. (If this was Knott's the park would have been shut down and people kicked out left and right!) So we decided to stick it out a bit, have dinner, do a couple more dark rides, and then get the rest of the credits (we only needed the kiddie and the SLC) After about another two hours, when it became clear they weren't going to re-open any rides. At this point, we headed to guest services to see if there was anything they can do. Since we had only been in the park about 3 1/2 hours, we were at least hoping they would allow us to upgrade our one day ticket to a two day ticket. "No. You must purchase your two day ticket at the booth when you enter, there are no upgrades." While I can apprecaite that the policy is the policy, it really did kind of suck that between everyone in our group, we had basically spent about $1000 at the resort (we stayed at the hotel for two nights) and only got in 3 1/2 hours of the park, and they told us that, no matter what, we would have to buy another full price admission for the next day. Wow, that sucks. Combined with the fact that the park removed trains on coasters to go from two train operation to one train, even when the queue was full, there was a 'no more ordering drinks or food at the restaurant after your initial order' rule in order to get people in and out of the restaurants quicker, and they weren't going to re-open rides after it was clear that the storm was passing, we all felt they just didn't give two shits about their customers once they got their money at the gate. It's too bad really, because this park LOOKED like it should have been AWESOME! What do you expect from a park that calls it's Vekoma Corkscrew "Magic Mountain?" Very fitting!!! Onto some photos..... In the rain we decided to ride the Carousel and Dan was determined NOT to get wet...AT ALL!!!! Joey found some...um..."interesting" stuff in the gift shop. And I thought this was supposed to be a 'family' park! Most of the faces looked like this when the ride was over. This is pretty much the same face I make when I have to go get my taxes done. The cars are very similar to something you'd see on a Wild Mouse, and if the upside down bit was an element added to a traditional wild mouse, it might be fun. You hang upside down most of the time. Why is this fun? It's not. Sequoia Adventure - the most pointless ride...EVER!!! ...but the damn thing is called "Magic Mountain" so you know it's gotta suck! And it did! They tried really hard to make thier Vekoma Corkscrew as pretty as possible... The entrance to Gardaland. We should have known that no matter how good a park looks, when they greet you with a Vekoma SLC, that's NOT a good sign! The Gardaland Hotel. Looks GREAT! It really wasn't. At least it had air conditioning!

^ There weren't any. Although they were only running one train on everything, it was about a 2 train wait on average. I figure that if they didn't have the wacky red light/green light turnstile system, and people actually filled the station, it would be a one train wait at the most. --Robb

Europe Trip Day Fourteen Part One: Mirabilandia. Originally we hadn't intended on doing both Italy parks in one day, but when we realized that Gardaland was open until Midnight, we thought this might be possible. Mirabilandia was a nice park, although nothing spectacular, but nice. Katun is obviously the main draw as the rest of the park has your typical "amusement park" offerings: A mediocre woodie, a wild mouse, a Vekoma roller skater, a kiddie coaster, a log flume, a rapids ride, etc, etc. The other thing to note about both Mirabilandia and Gardaland is that they used this 'wacky turnstile counter' system. There is a red light and a green light on the turnstile and when the light turns green, you go through. The turnstile counts how many people should be in the station to fill one train, and then the light turns red. Sounds simple? Yes. Does it work? NO!!! Because of this system, just about every train of Katun had 4 or 5 empty seats. Because larger parties didn't want to split up, because people weren't paying attention to the lights, whatever. Luckily, it seemed to be acceptable to 'line jump' your way to the front if the light was still green, no one was going through, and there were empty rows in the station. For example on Katun, we would be like 10 people away from the turnstile, see a green light, see like 10 empty seats in the station, but for whatever reason people weren't going (they all wanted the back row, etc) feel free to push through! Weird, indeed. Overall, Katun was very good. It's right up there with the 'old school' bigger B&M inverts like Raptor, Pyrenees, Montu, etc. It's got a LOT of forces, it's a great layout, and it's a hell of a lot of fun. I just don't understand why they don't make them like this anymore, and instead we get tamer 'family' rides like Silver Bullet and Talon. While it's no Nemesis or Dragons, it's one of the better B&M inverts, and the Italians are lucky to have it! On a side note, we were told an interesting story about the park's S&S towers. They were originally called the "Twin Towers" and had an air force theme to them. After 9/11 they remaned the ride since it was called "Twin Towers" and had airplanes around them! :shock: So what did they re-theme them to? Space Shuttles Discovery and Columbia!!! And then the Columbia crashed! :shock: :shock: It's a good thing they never renamed them again, because this ride is obviously doomed! Anyway, on to some photos from today! And it wound up being themed to yet another recent disaster!!! The shot towers used to be called the "Twin Towers." For obvious reason they changed the name.... Dan loves Vekoma Roller Skaters SOOOO much, he just had to touch it! Hang on, this is NOT going to be smooth! The park's woodie "Sierra Tonante" didn't leave us too impressed. BTW, who makes those trains?!?!? Elissa and Marko go for a ride on the Roller Skater. We found the "Drum Game" at Mirabilandia!!! We couldn't believe it! We haven't seen one of these machines since Japan! This is our new video game addiction. See ya, DDR, and hello Taiko No Tatsujin! Group photo with some friends from http://www.theparks.it/ This gives you a pretty good idea of the layout for the 1st part of the ride. This is right up there with Raptor, Pyranees, and Montu. It's got one of those narrower style cobra rolls which someone told me they only started building those recently. Well, here's one from 2000! I loved this helix so close to the ground. It reminded me a LOT of PGA's Top Gun helix. Very fast and very intense! Here is Katun, an 'old school' B&M. Lots of forces, a great layout, and a lot of fun! Here is the entrance to the park. It looks nice from the outside, looks nice on the inside, but it's got very 'common' offerings.

Day Thriteen: Europa Park Hey everyone! I'm going to have to make this TR very short since I haven't had internet access for two days now, and in case you didn't notice, the site was down yesterday, and I had to fix that too. All I can say about Europa is it still remains one of our favorite parks in Europe. The park does not dissapoint. We'll do a full Trip Report when we post our "big" Europe update! Thanks again to Miro for showing us around, we had such an awesome time! Tomorrow I'll post the pics for Mirabilandia and Gardaland (Katun was awesome!) Onto today's photos! And what update wouldn't be complete with our group photo? Thanks again to Miro for showing us the park and all the backstage goodness and stuff! Dan is all ready for Jim!!! "Hello, I am Elissa....being up here on Euro-Mir is a scary crisis dilema!" We got some nice photos from the top of one of the towers. Euro-Mir is one of the coolest, most wacked out coasters ANYWHERE! Damn, this shark won't need to eat for a month! You can get some REAL close up shots with the train FLYING right past you from up here! Here we are on the mid-course of Silver Star! Silver Star ran really good this trip! It didn't seem as forceless as our previous visits and the trims didn't seem to be on as tight. We had a few really good rides on it! Early in the morning before the park opened, we got to ride the transfer track while they were adding the trains. Europa is on par with the quality of Disney or Universal parks. I've always thought this park should get it's own Travel Channel show or something.

When I get back from Europe I am going to fix all this. Sorry about the trouble. I am convinced there is no good webhosts in the world! --Robb

Holy Crap that was a lot of photos! Great stuff Soren! I love the hamster wheel photos! I can't believe how much time we spent on all the slides of death. Looking forward to your photos TR's from the other parks! --Robb

Yes, we contacted all the parks here about a month before our trip. We were very surprised to see how many of the parks download all our videos and read the forums! Most of them have been keeping up with this thread also! --Robb "So thank you to all the parks for your help!" Alvey