robbalvey

Yup! Here it is.... Still even creepy... Still creepy... Creepy... Creepy clown dark ride. Elephant Poop! Thanks to Hanno for the photos!

^ Nope.

Nothing...that's why it was so pointless. It's supposed to tilt and shake during some parts of the ride to make the curves appear to be more extreme. It doesn't work and the entire ride is just dull and pointless. --Robb

Our final day of the Scandi trip was spent at Linnanmaki. This is another "city park" which is right smack in the middle of Helsinki. Linnanmaki is quite a big park with a fair number of coasters and flat rides. I have to be honest, there isn't really anything here that "stands out" but what they do have makes for quite a great day! Today's "challenge" would be to "pass the egg" on the Scenic Railway. Huh? You ask. Well, turns out the local news station didn't think a group of theme park maniacs could hold and pass an egg while the coaster was running without breaking it. Did we do it? Let's have a look.... Goodbye Scandinavia! We will see you again soon! I just want to say thanks to Hanno, Craig, and everyone else who's photos I used for these updates. Oh, and there WILL be an Ikea and TPR Grand Prix update coming soon! The Alvey women have had a great trip...now we have to go back home and get ready for...that's right...ANOTHER TPR TRIP!!! Yes, they are loading cars onto our plane! Do you know what kind of car that is? If you do...EMAIL DAN!!! mrt0ad13@aol.com Now the sad part...it was time to head back to the airport and go back to reality. Why do TPR trips have to end? OMG!!! There it is! Do you see it? I sure do! He also likes to suck his beer through a really long straw. We asked him why and he just simply said "I like long straws." We don't get it either, but we love Dave, so we don't ask any questions. Dave shows off his straw and napkin engineering talents and builds and actual working SCAD Tower for Ice Bat! ...I think some kind of potato thing...did we mention there was beer? We had beer...some kind of meat...more beer... The park put on a fantastic private dinner for us in one of their restaurants... Ok, KidTums, you ready for our farewell dinner? It seriously just flips you around with no mercy at all. I had no idea what was happening to me during this ride. Whatever this ride is, we LOVED it! Could this have been the best flat ride of the entire trip? The most HORRIFIC picture ever or the most action Ice Bat has ever seen! You decide! "Meh, what's the big deal? The wet look is in!" Oh, yeah...they're wet...they are ABSOLUTELY wet!!! Oh, yeah, look at that, the boat is now totally engulfed in this strange Finnish liquid... Here comes the boat...that looks like a lot of water...Dan would not be happy... Not even because it's that great of a coaster but because of how insanely ridiculously SOAKED you get! The clear winner at the park is easily the Premier water coaster "Vonkaputous!" FAIL! Next up was the Mack E-Motion coaster. Sorry guys, this has to be one of the most pointless rides ever. It did have a ball of fire so that instantly made it cooler. All it needed is on board audio and that would have been really Bizarro! Hey guys, try not to look TOO excited, ok? Salama aka Salami Coaster aka Maurer Söhne spinning coaster was probably my least favorite of the Maurer spinners. It was big like Tarantula, but just didn't seem to do much. There are even guitar playing baby chickens named "Fanny." Yes, this ride is quite awesome and NOT to be missed! That's right! The Egg Ride is an outdoor dark ride where you see cows and your favorite barnyard animals. And speaking about egg challenges, did we mention this park has the awesome "Egg Ride?" As you can see, the boys are getting ready for the giant penis part of the ride! OMG! I had no idea Rosie O'Donnell was on the trip! I will say that while Kirmu wasn't THAT intense, it still produces the best facial expressions! As poorly demonstrated here! You get the idea. Roller Coaster? Nope! Penis? YOU BETCHA! And I don't care what anyone says. That right there. That...is a penis. Oh, yes...they had one of these evil contraptions there too! Now this one was NOWHERE NEAR as crazy as the Grona Lund version, but there were still a couple of good OMFG moments on it! Yay! TPR loves Vuoristorata!!! SUCCESS! No problem! In fact, we passed the egg for three or four rides and requested that we try to pass the chicken the egg came from, but we were denied that. (The chicken wasn't available on that day.) Mid-ride you can see Fran on the left side handing off the egg! Did we do it? The hand-off! Here we go, passing the egg from the front of the train, to the back of the train, and the up front again! Hmm...that looks like quite a ride...do you think the TPR crew can do it? The local news crew have dared us to hold this egg and pass it back and forth while the coaster is running without breaking it. My response - "Are you kidding? No problem!" You all look very happy, but are you ready for a challenge? We started our day with some ERT on "Vuoristorata" also known as the Scenic Railway. The final day of the trip is here! Linnanmaki!!!

Here is some Big Bad Wolf B-Roll the park sent me: [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=BigBadWolf_30o9[/coastertube]

^ That's good to know. They did something similar to X2 to quiet the lift. --Robb

Yay! More Dollywood! We will end this trilogy of Dollywood updates with some awesome Thunderhead ERT and probably my personal highlight of the trip, a backstage tour of Blazin' Fury! I've always been a fan of Blazin' Fury and I love to see how dark rides tricks were done "back in the day." I used to work in New Orleans Square at Disneyland so I had the opportunity many times to walk through Pirates and Haunted Mansion after the park closed and it always amazed to me to see what designers were able to do with little to work from. Blazin' Fury is exactly the same! Without much modern technology they are able to pull off a ride that still lives up today! On to the photos.... And so our visit to Dollywood comes to a close! I just want to send a big THANK YOU to the park for ERT on three coasters, back stage tours of two coasters, VIP seating and a Q&A session with the writer of Sha-Kon-O-Hey!, a great lunch, Q-Bots, and overall an amazing visit to the park! THANK YOU!!!! Wait! We can't leave without doing the car ride!!! "Maybe eating that cinnamon bread wasn't the best idea..." And then we got a few lights on rides! They brought us back into the station where we could check out the trains. SKLOOSH!!! Water, water everywhere, you're gonna get wet! After the "Ham and Beans" we ate yesterday, there just may be something explosive down here! You guys all ready to get a little wet? And here is the final drop into the splashdown section! Old school hydraulic systems. Amazing! As the coaster goes down the drop, the bridge collapses around you! The burning bridge is another key moment in the ride. Classic dark ride stuff! Gotta love it! Any TPR members willing to volunteer? "Are you my mother?" "Please be sure to duck under that light saber as you walk by." This is probably the most famous scene in the entire ride. I hope you don't have a weak back Mr. Fireman! Shorty! My favorite character in the whole ride! Me guesses these are all people who worked on the ride. Poor Wes. He really was an honest man. Some old-school animatronics, and don't worry, you really can't see that speaker with the show lighting on! NOTED! Today, TPR members will play the role of the "train" as we move slowly around the track. Blazin' Fury is part dark ride, part roller coaster, and build 30 years ago you can really see how the designers put together such an amazing ride with very little technology. Pete Owens of Dollywood gave us an AWESOME tour of Blazin' Fury! "Hey everyone, what are we going to do now?" Yay! Dollywood welcomes us back for our second day of fun. KidTums aka "The Frog Hopper Enthusiast" gives this one two big thumbs up! Oh, yeah, did we mention they supplied us all with awesome Q-Bots? The reason why Dollywood rules so much. The final train of the night! (Check out Allison and Adam in the front seat! Yeah!!!) SIGNATURE SHOT!!! Did we mention we had perfect coaster riding weather both days? Thunderhead was running fantastic and many people came away from Dollywood with a new #1 wood coaster! The last few rides of our ERT looked like this. And yes that blurry stuff is the train flying through the station! It got darker as the session went on... While our evening ERT started while it was still light out... Hey group! How about some Thunderhead ERT?

Gladly. http://youtube.com/watch?v=7PiQ3tsT104 Wow, we just can't please anyone today. From complaints about the wrong terminology for moles to more bitching about "where's the update? Where's the update?" You know, I was actually going to do the Linnanmaki update today, but f**k it, I'll just take the weekend off and do it sometime next week. --Robb

Actually, I would really discourage this. I'm 100% sure the last thing the park wants to hear is complaints from a bunch of whiny coaster enthusiasts telling them why not to take the ride out. Please remember that these guys have been operating a very successful theme park for quite a few decades. I have a feeling they know what they are doing, even if it's a decision many of us may not agree with. You have NO IDEA what their plans are or what uses they may have for that area. Perhaps whatever the intentions are, while they may not be for 2010 (and we don't know this for certain), but the prep work for a future attraction may take a lot longer than you'd think for an attraction in 2011 or even 2012. Better yet, you should just start an internet petition. They always seem to have such great influence on decision makers. --Robb

Can we please stop the nitpicking of my report... PLEASE? It's responses like these that actually make me not want to do any more reports. If people can't appreciate them for what they are, forget it, I'm done. Seriously. The last thing I want to do after spending time sorting through photos, re-sizing them, uploading them, creating captions, posting it to the site is to be corrected on animal terminology like this was a 4th graders biology test. It really takes a serious amount of time to do an update. Please enjoy them. Don't pick them apart. Please. --Robb "Thank you." Alvey

^ Remember that TPR trip reports are more for the entertainment value, not really for factual information. I felt that "Mr. Mole" sounded better. And technically they are turtles not tortoises, but "Mr. Turtle" had a better ring to it. So this report only gets a C+ for accurate animal information. I can live with that. --Robb "Please enjoy the reports, don't nitpick them..." Alvey

And with that I'm actually going to lock this thread. There really is no need to feed a troll with the same ol' discussion that's been had over and over again. --Robb

Six Flags Great Adventure report is up! http://www.themeparkreview.com/parks/photo.php?pageid=35&linkid=6248 Yes! The TPR crackheads invade New Jersey! And we ride tiny little wood coasters like El Toro! Click the link for the full report! --Robb

^ At World of Coke in Atlanta they show you this amazing movie at the start of the tour and one of the last things you see in the movie is these two characters talking to the audience and one of them says "Be sure to try the Beverly!" I thought that was hilarious! --Robb

It's a storage area.

Ahh, that creepy Coke bear! They had that at World of Coke in Atlanta too. I actually was really impressed with what it could do, but yeah, it was a little creepy. --Robb

In Development!

^ When they can attract a decent crowd WITHOUT charging less than $9 for admission, I will agree with that statement. --Robb

^ I'm torn between thinking this is all very SMART or very PATHETIC. I'm not sure which. But it got the park on the front page of msnbc.com which is more than I can say for Hard Rock Park. --Robb

Moral of the story - Don't be a dufus, be a DoRight! --Robb "Thank you MiB!" Alvey

What, you mean the 1,500 videos on CoasterTube are not good enough for you? The link is also found on the ToS page: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=177 Look at section #6. --Robb

^ Yes you can. The difference here though is that Cedar Fair isn't looking to turn a story...ANY STORY into a press release to drum up more buzz for the park. --Robb

^ I don't think you quite understand what he is saying. I get it. While she may know some things that are going on in the park, most ride operators, heck even more supervisors are quite a few steps removed from the people who are making the actual decision of what capitol is going into a park. Thus making her a "source" of information, but not a reliable one because as things may change (and they do) she's not going to be one of the people "in the know" as soon as those decisions are made. If you told me she was a director at the park, that would be another story, but if she's just a ride op, then she's not a reliable source, sorry. A ride op telling you what new rides a park is getting is like a gaffer telling you how a movie is going to be edited. --Robb "Hope that explains it better..." Alvey

It's a good idea. we would have to do it like TP Dave said. But it would need to be set up and managed and that will cost time and money. I think it's something we can put on the back burner right now until we get done with this years' trips. --Robb

Hey everyone! I did get some news from the park about event packets being left at Will Call. If you arrive at the park AFTER the registration you CAN pick up your event packets at Will Call. So if you want to come for the entire event, or just part of it, you can still pick up your packet later in the day. If you have not registered for Bay Area Bash yet, do it now! There are still a few tickets left: http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?productID=45 --Robb