captain

I also visited Rhyl Ocean Beach a few weeks ago and must say that it`s the most ugliest "park" on the british island. By the way can any insider tell me why they are building this new Southport waterpark Splash World(http://www.splashworldsouthport.com/index2.htm) exactly infront of the entrance of the Pleasureland. I think the splash world investors are really angry about this decision.

I`m really sad that another park has to go. We visited the Pleasureland about one moth ago and thought it was really okay, but of course not a top park (you`ll find a full TR with photos from our big UK Tour including Pleasureland in our www.coasterfriends.de/forum , but at the moment just in german - english will follow here at TPR). I think it`s a bit strange decision because they`ll open a new waterpark next door 2007 and the other park near Southport is Camelot, which is scheduled to close in the next 5 to 7 years (told by the head of Camelot in an interview). So Good Bye Pleasureland!

Hello, my tips are: Tokyo Disney Resort is a must (if you`ve enough money try to stay at the MiraCosta Hotel). La Qua is great for an evening. I hate Fuji-Q, but if it`s a nice day (I mean no rain, no wind...) it is a must-do. For the smaller parks I liked Hirakata (you can do it on the same day as the Universal Studios) or the Nasu Highland (but it`s a little bit harder to reach from Tokyo). Expoland and Nagashima is for credit counter. As DubaiDave said, Yomiuriland is the nicest of the smaller Tokyo parks. Beside the parks I also can absolutely recommend Harajuku, a cultural half day trip to Nikko or a cultural side trip to Kyoto. If you wanna see my experiences try and check out the TRs I made: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25130&postdays=0&postorder=asc&sta rt=0 Oh I miss Japan. Andy

Hi to all you guys hitting the parks in the UK, after seeing all the great photos from your trip it`s even harder to think about my decision not to join you because of the world cup here in germany - but hey - we`ll never get the world cup again in the next thirty years or so. So Robb, thanks for all the hard work on updating this forum with your trip photos, I know this is such a hard work every evening after a day at the park (we did the same two months ago in our german forum with our japan trip and man it was real work). I`m sure me and my wife will be able to join on one of your next trips, because the next world cup will be 2010. So I`m really looking forward for the next pictures - but take your time and enjoy your "holiday"! Greetinx Andy

Disney Time Part II that`s it from Andrea & Andy - maybe see you in some parks soon! Japan we miss you..... I think Elissa would like it! this Polynesian Luau Show is really good... thr Gadget Coaster Hello, I want Toontown in Paris nice Toontown biggest attraction a lot of Japanese couples are looking like this one (WTF are they wearing in a themepark?) the parade is so much bigger than anyone else in the world! how cute is this mountain? Splash Mountain Secondbest BTM (after the Paris Version) the great Stitch Parade New Orleans Square mickey shaped waffles! fantastic Pooh! did I say that I hate this roof? Welcome to Tokyo Disneyland - Special Stich Days were going on BraviSeamo - great show! Raging Spirits again Venice

Disney Time another American Waterfront a Sailorshow infront the big ship Tower of Terror, so beautiful what a big, big ship American Waterfront Aquatopia one for Elissa... in this pyramide is the Indy Ride (California Version) Raging Spirits Lost River Delta I was a bit to quick for the photo... Arabian Coast Flying Fish Coaster Mermaid Lagoon Mysterious Island the other side of the lagoon the inside park view of the hotel (which is the background for the italian theming on the big lagoon) the outside side of the hotel the way to your room... lobby shot Disney`s Hotel Miracosta DisneySea Entrance Plaza 4 days of Tokyo Disney Fun! the Disney Monorail

Part 4: Central Park Himeji Our trip to Himeji started with a short walk to the fantastic looking Himeji Castle. After this sightseeing part we took a 30 minutes bus ride to the Central Park. This park has two different parts, the Drive-through safari park and the amusement park. There are four credits to explore. A B&M Inverted called Diavlo, which is pretty nice. A kiddie coaster; Labyrinth, a kind of mine train with a classic steel layout and jet coaster, another boring “scenic railway” coaster. They didn`t offer much more in this park (two or three flat rides, no dark-rides). We think this park was the biggest dissapointment of the whole trip! It was so boring that we took the bus back to Himeji after one hour. Tegarayama Park Himeji This was a little addition to our trip, because the Central Park was so lame and this small park is so easy to reach from the main train station. Tegarayama is a real small kiddie park, with three credits, all are very interesting. Normally I don`t like such small parks, but this park is really nice because they don`t charge any entrance fee and the rides are unbelievable cheap. So it´s more a big playground with some rides. The first coaster goes around a big swimming pool (it wasn`t open at this time of season) so it`s really strange just to do a big circle with a coaster. The second coaster is a kind of wild mouse, but it`s very special and is really funny. The last “coaster” ist not really a coaster, I can`t describe it just look at the photos below. Overall worth to spend one hour in this small park. Tokyo Disney Resort Another 8 days of our trip ended and we took the Shinkansen again back to Tokyo to go straight to Tokyo Disney Resort. We really looked forward to visit the Tokyo Disney Resort for a lot of years. We decided to stay directly in one of there two hotels, and we chose Disney´s Miracosta Hotel. Oh boy, this hotel is so amazing and so beautiful that is really worth the extra money. The best part is, that the hotel lift is going straight into the park. The rooms are really big, the lobby is beautiful and the restaurants offering world class architecture and design. We stayed three nights and so we had a lot of time to explore the whole Resort. DisneySea We started off at Disney Sea. We heard so much about this park in Tokyo and we`re really were afraid if it can stand the big expectations we had. But it could! This park is by far the most themed park in the world. Every detail is perfectly themed like in no other park. The Italian part of DisneySea looks absolutely like a lot of Italian cities – No - DisneySea looks much better than the originals. The ArabianCoast looks so good you think to stay somewhere in Marakesh (okay all the noisy salesmen are not there!). American Waterfront looks like you always imagined this Hollywood style of harbour somewhere in the 20s. Okay enough about theming, what about the attractions? This is the only thing what is “lacking” a bit at TokyoDisneySea and for me the main reason that it is not my number one Themepark in the world (don`t understand me wrong DisneySea is not Number One but definetly Top Ten). They`ve the Californian Indy (in a big Maya pyramide) and the DisneyParis Indy coaster, here it is called Raging Spirits (but it looks better). They`ve some kind of “It`s a small world” boat ride, called Sindbad with the greatest animatronics worldwide. They`ve two unique Dark-Rides: Journey to the center of the earth (using the Test-Track system, this ride is very famous worldwide but I`ve to say that the ride is a bit to short and the “wild part” a bit to uninteresting) and the other is 20.000 Leagues under the Sea. I haven`t heard much about the ride and so I was blown away from this amazing ride. I would rate it as one of the best dark-rides worldwide. Besides some more real good attractions (f.ex. the 4-D theatre for Stormchaser is real good, Aquatopia real interesting....), DisneySea also offers some great shows and of course the colorful Water Carnival (in its last season) and the great evening event BraviSEAmo (kind of Illuminations style). What they really need are some more rides. In the next month they`ll get the Tower of Terror (this DisneySea Tower is the most beautiful one), and so they`ll offer another major attraction. If they would add one or two more great attractions (something with water?) in the next years this park will change from the best looking park in the world to simply the best overall park in the world. Tokyo Disneyland I don`t have to say a lot about this themepark, because all of you guys do more visits to Disneyland California or Florida than I do. I just say some words about the main differents: The main street has a roof (this makes a shopping-mall feeling and we hate this), Japanese people like to line-up for everything and especially parades. Winnie the Pooh`s Hunny Hunt is really the best kiddie dark-Ride in the world. We liked there Space Mountain layout very much (one of the smoothest enclosed coasters) and the diner or lunch Shows are really great (but you`ve to book it in advance!). After 3pm a lot of school classes are in this park and its get even more crowded. After exactly 3 weeks our Japan Trip came to an end. It was such an amazing trip with so many parks, so many sightseeing, so many friendly people and so much impressions. We can recommend anyone to visit Japan. Here we are in a coaster forum but our advice is to take some more time and to explore some of the major temples because they are outstanding (like temples of Nikko, Kyomizudera and other temples at Kyoto, the Island of Miyajima). We definitely will come back in the next years to see some more parks we couldn`t manage to see (Kyushu area, Parque Espana and so on). But first we`ve to top the “70 coaster credit holiday” with some other tours like a big East Coast / Mid West US Tour in 2007 with much more coaster. At the end of my TR I would like to apologize for my bad english and all the mistakes but writing such a long TR isn`t that easy for a bavarian guy! If you got further questions in the future you can visit us at www.coasterfriends.com you remember - cherry tree blossom this is a weird coaster... way to big for this one one person per car the nice, but old mouse coaster the park is on two levels... the orange track is the Jet Coaster, which goes around the big swimming pool map of the park Tegarayama Park Entrance another Labyrinth shot the B&M Inverted was the only thing that was good at this park Labyrinth, not very good... ...a big dissapointment! Himeji Central Park... the most beautiful castle in Japan we started our Himeji day with sightseeing...

@chris Yeah, the Sakura season is amazing. We tried the busy Ueno Park in Tokyo and the Maruyama Park in Kyoto, both on weekends. This great friendly festival feeling was amazing. We loved the different food stalls and ate so many varieties of food - unbelievable. One of the best issues eating at this kind of festivals is that our evening "diner" was so cheap and good. Will def. comeback for another Sakura experience Greetinx Andy the last Part IV will follow tomorrow.... food stalls at Tokyo`s Ueno Park in food tasting at the food stalls Marayuma Park in Kyoto for a evening experience....

Hi Robb, we actually rode it but made no pictures. We waited about 10 minutes for a ride op to open the gates. He was really shocked to see that someone would like to ride his attraction. They really tried to copy the Disney Jungle Cruise, but their waterways were dirty, the "jungle" was just the normal japanese forest, and all the animals (I think about ten animals?) didn`t move any part of their body. It was a long ten minute ride, no narration (maybe because we were the only guests - but I think they never narrate) and it was boring as hell. So you really didn`t missed this bizzarre clon. And yes, April is such a great month. If you can miss some hot weather and the opportunitiy to go to a waterpark this is the month to go! You can expect spring temperatures (about 55 to 65 fahrenheit or 15-18 degrees celcius)and some rains (it rained four days of 21) but otherwise you`ll get the greatest scenery ever and great evening festivals. If you`ll like to see some temples this is the most beautiful time.

What board do you read first? Normally just the Donkey board and sometimes the Ask Alvey board. How often do you visit? Every day, with three or four visits per day. Normally I`ll stay for about 20 minutes per visit. How many pages through each board do you read? Most of the time only Page1 because there are so many topics! Are there certain types of posts you read more than others? Only topics that I`m interested in. No TRs without Photos. Topics from people I had some kind of contact. Do you do anything else besides reading the forum? I used to read all the Japan planning information. That was so helpful! Tell us anything else you want about your TPR visits! It`s really great that this forum growed so fast, but on the other hand it`s so hard to follow some stories because the topics are falling down so quick. With the time there are so many topics and you just can pick some of them! Is there a chance to build a new forum category??? I`ll often miss the sticky topics. Maybe you can change the colour of the sticked topics or us another font? Normally I`ll enter TPR through the front page. And by the way I never looked at the UK forum, because I`ve to let you ride all the Uk coasters alone (we had no vacation at this time of year otherwise we had loved to join you)

damm my connection broke down, here we go again.... the only good thing - the world class ASKA! he was glad to see one of the 8 visitors! Dreamland`s Jungle Cruise is a joke! corkscrew in good condition great main street Matterhorn with the ugliest bobsleigh ride ever great castle... yap, it`s one of the crappiest parks in the world! Nara "Dream"land coming to the Studios is really simple - just take the Spiderman Metro... how cute is this... Ernie & Bert Reloaded some Parade action... ...but Spiderman in "the mummy"`s house like in Orlando... I see, they`re buying rain coats! the same Splashdown, but hey isn`t this Japan, where they don`t like getting wet? like Islands of Adventure yes, I`m in the Jurassic Park again looks familiar ...here he is! wating for Snoopy... we hate this roof

Part 3: Expoland After some rainy days where we did some sightseeing in Kyoto, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Nara and so on we travelled to Expoland, a park with 7 coasters, some weird but good dark rides, two water attractions and a lot of flat rides. This park missed a good theming and so it`s not the best atmosphere because you feel like you`re in a rundown park. That`s a real pitty because we liked this park and we think that they miss the chance to create a real good park. The best coaster in the park is the Inverted B&M Orochi, we liked this one very much. The weirdest coaster is Daidarasaurus, which is the longest „coaster“ in the world. It takes 6.30 min to travel from the start to the end! You think this is great? No, it`s really boring. Because this coaster used to be a duelling coaster and now there`s only one car which takes the first track and then the second (and both are really boring). They`ve some other crazy stuff too. There`s a house which looks like the entrance of a dark ride. Once inside you can see snow and frozen flowers – and you feel that it`s getting colder and colder. Damm, it`s getting real cold, and suddenly you recognize “yes, this is all for real”. This “dark walk through” has a inside temperature of – 32 degrees celcius (that`s – 26 fahrenheit). Another crazy ride is the splash boat wich is totally covered (that makes no sense at all). The other coasters are some kiddie rides, a Standing Togo (which was okay for us), an Arrow Corkscrew and a Wild mouse. All in all this park has a lot of things to explore, but lacks a good atmosphere. Hirakata After Expoland we travelled to Hirakata, another Osaka park. This one is more for the whole family, with a great kiddie land and a real nice scenery. The first kiddie is a real small kiddie coaster, the second kiddie coaster is really large for a kiddie and the bigger Red Falcon coaster is really boring. The spinning coaster “crazy mouse” is called crazy mouse because it doesn`t spin, and I think this is crazy for a spinning mouse. The last coaster is a small Intamin woodie called “ELF”, which is really nice and smooth. We really liked this one. The park other attractions are a rapid ride (do they take off this plastic sheets in summer?), a water ride where you don`t get wet and some nice dark rides for kids. Overall, this park was a little surprise because we didn`t expect this nice theming. Nagashima Spa Land 90 minutes from Kyoto, in the middle of nowhere is this well known park. Nagashima has to offer the typical hot springs, a real big water park (which was closed in april) and the amusement park. It doesn`t has to offer much for the little ones, they`ll really concentrate on coasters (there`s just one dark ride and only some flat rides).The saddest part was to see this great looking Steel Dragon 2000. What a shame to see such a interesting ride closed for some years now. Please Nagashima open it again or sell it. The other 9 coasters are a big variety of coasters, like the Togo pipeline (I`ve never been on one and now I`ve to say I like it), the Schwartzkopf Shuttle Loop and Looping star (this one is really nice), two tracks of Macks wild mouse, a kiddie coaster, this lame Togo jet coaster (what the hell is this, a scenic railway where you can`t see much scenic?) and last but not least the real beautiful “white Cyclone” a big Intamin Woodie, our Nr. 3 woodie in Japan. On our day Nagashima was so empty, we even had to call someone to open a coaster we wanted to ride. Overall this park was well worth a trip, but we missed this special moments we normally have in good parks, and so Nagashima is just average. Universal Studios Japan Okay, we`re from germany and so we don`t have the chance to visit Universal Studios every year (I think we`ve been some 7 or 8 times to the Universal Resort in Orlando and once in California). This was the reason to make a visit to this park in Osaka. They have a small City Walk (at the moment there`s a extension going on). The whole park looks real similiar to the one in Orlando, but the main street is covered (this is ugly) and the lagoon is a bit different. Also they`ve added some Islands of Adventure things like the Jurassic Park area and Spiderman (inside the mummy house). They miss Men in Black, the mummy and twister (but they have backdraft from California). They also has some shows (like Waterworld, Animal Actors...) and Shrek 4-D. So we really, really liked this park and think it easily can be the best of the three studios if they might add a good coaster (like Hulk or the Duelling Dragons) and something unique. But for americans on japan tour with no time to waste this park is not a must-see. Nara Dreamland We`ve heard so much from this park, and so it was really no shock to visit this ugliest park in the world (okay we thought it is the ugliest park in the world until we saw DubaiDave`s last visit to Egypt). It`s really bizarre to see the Disney rail station, some kind of run-down main street and a castle. Also there`s this ugly Matterhorn and this unbelievable Jungle Cruise experience. At the time we wanted to ride the kiddie coaster we had to wake up the operator because he slept in his operator house (there were 8 visitor in the whole park). The Arrow “screwcoaster” was really not in good condition but the 1961 matterhorn bobsleigh was in so bad condition that my girl was the first time frightened on a coaster. The “fantasy coaster” was broken and so we missed this credit forever. But hey, there`s one thing which you don`t expect in such a crappy park – ASKA. Their last coaster addition (1998) is a brilliant woodie, once again from Intamin, and we loved this one. It`s so smooth and has amazing airtime for a woodie. This was our favourite woodie in Japan, and for me its one of the best woodies in the world (how strange is that – one of the best woodies in the world in this rundown park). One week after we came back to germany we read that Nara Dreamland will close on the 31st of august 2006. After our impressions this is no wonder. It`s always sad that a themepark has to close but I think this is a loss which is not to big. My only hope is that they`ll move Aska to another place, but I think Aska will end with its park. here we go again - Expoland the little Universal City Walk Universal Studios Osaka - celebrating 5th birthday greetinx from Nagashima the corkscrew real good Intamin "White Cyclone" beautiful cherry tree Schwartzkopf Macks Wild mice Steel Dragon 2000 this one is too wet for japan the bonebreaker killer machine we liked this Togo pipeline thing Nagashima Spaland from above we put the camera on the ground and see what a beautiful shot it made please take it off for me, because I`m from germany and I`m used to rain another stupid thing - why they don`t wanna get wet??? this is a large kiddie coaster another nice themed area the park was so empty that we could do a relaxed photo shooting while riding ELF Red Falcon and the not spinning spinning mouse the not spinning spinning mouse I tried not to ride the lame Red Falcon nice themed area Hirakata -what a cute little park Orochi by B&M Arrows corkscrew Daidarasaurus boring track a shot from above (you see parts from the corkscrew and Orochi) this is the crazy Ice World! the Togo standing coaster and this is the splash boat, it makes no sense for a SPLASH?!? first they gave us this sheet of instructions to read while standing in queue (which q ??? nobody else wanted to ride). These are safety instructions. Good that we can read everything!!! okay this is the splash (looks normal) but... oh boy, do I look stupid okay, this one is really "beautiful" the wild mouse - nothing special

you bringing your girl with you? we can give her a dirndl for one evening!

thanks to everyone for your comments. Part III will follow tomorrow, because I`m a bit to busy this evening. So thanks for your patience....

Hi Derek, what a great TR. 1994 I`ve been to Canadas Wonderland and it changed a lot. But what the hell you doing with the poor girl? You know I see you in september and I`ve to warn you : on oktoberfest a lot of munich girls wearing Dirndl, so you can see a lot of....great things. And don`t grab them, because otherwise they think these american guys can`t stand this sexual attraction some shots for you that you know what awaits you....

Okay, now I know a bit of your vacation plans. First of all it`s nearly impossible to get any tickets for the world cup. The cheapest black market tickets start at 400US$ for some uninteresting games. There are some 3 million tickets and over 30 million people wanted to buy them! But don`t be to sad, there are so many events here in germany that you can enjoy the worldcup in other ways. For example every single game will be broadcast here in munich at the olympic park, with thousands of people every night on a large screen. And ths is free of charge. Your choice of hotel at Disneyland is really good. You can take a free shuttle which needs about 15 minutes. We`ll be in Paris and especially at Disneyland on the first june weekend with a group of 30 people. So when you`ll be there? I think for Zurich, the matterhorn and Geneva your relatives will help you with a lot of tips. At Brussels you can try Walibi Wavre a real good park. Amsterdam is such a cool place! Try to do a boat trip on the river. My recommendations for trips outside Amsterdam: Zaandvoort (a beautiful north sea town) and for themepark reason: Walibi World. On our site http://www.coasterfriends.de/TripEuroTour2005_6.htm you`ll find a short Photo TR. At Cologne you can visit the Cologne Dom and try to visit Phantasialand, with its great new coaster Black Mamba. Strasbourg? I`ve been about 3 times to this city and I don`t like it to much. It`s really not a nice city, very boring. Why you want to visit this? I`ll recommend some smaller towns not far away like the Rhine or Mosel towns of Rüdesheim or Heidelberg. These towns look like the typical medieval villages all americans love to see. At Europapark your choice of Hotel is not good, because this one is some kilometers away from the park and public transportation is not so good their. Try to stay in Rust, every hotel is located very good. I`ve been 12 times so ask if you need further assistance. Okay now to Munich, my hometown since my birth and so I`ve a lot of tips. Please let me know the dates and length of your stay and I can recommend some touring. Your munich hotel is okay, nothing special at all. The location is very good for travelling around, because its at the main train station. Innsbruck? What the hell you`re doing in Innsbruck? Innsbruck is a good location if you want to go in the Alps to ski, but in summer? It`s not that nice. You`ve to go to Salzburg for some real nice austrian city. Meran and Samnaun (even Innsbruck and Strasbourg) are some exotic places because I`ve never heard of a first time visitor to see this places. Meran is a typical South Tirol major city, nothing bad at all, but also nothing special. Samnaun is such a small place, a lot of people even don`t know where it is. It`s far away from any bigger attraction or bigger city. We`ve been there in the last years because near Samnaun are real big snowboarding areas and Samnaun is a place to buy tax free things. But that`s it. So my opinion is to change some travelling if possible. What about Lake Garda or the Lake Coma? Both are not to far from Geneva or Meran. What about Rome? Or if you are in Amsterdam, what about a trip Hamburg, a real nice seaside city. Greetinx Andy

@chris I`m sorry, I meant Fuji-Q where we saw you. At the time we`ve been to Yomiuri there were only twenty other people, and non of them looked like a Chris. And Yes, this SL Coaster was one of the worst coaster in Japan!

Hi there, what a interesting tour schedule! Where are you from? I`m from munich and so I`ve tons of tips for a lot of these places. But first of all it depends on what you`re looking for. You`re just on vacation? How many other amusement parks do you want to visit? What about cultural stuff? You`re travelling in June/July? This is the time where half of Europe is freaking out because the football world cup is in germany! Why you choose Meran and Samnaun - real exotic places if you do a europe trip? So let me know something more specific what you`re looking for and I try to help. By the way Disneyresort Paris hast two parks and so it`s really not possible to do both on one day (maybe if you miss all the shows). Also Europapark is hard to manage on one weekendday, but also possible. Greetinx Andy

@chris maybe we saw you too in this park. We just saw five caucasian people in this park, and one of them looked like this typical "TPR" guy searching for some new photo spots to show the world a themepark But I can`t speak to anyone who looks like this, because they maybe think this german guy is nuts! It was just the two of us visiting Japan. @Derek Yes, we`re really looking forward to see you guys. Its always a big pleasure to be with some guests and friends in one of the big oktoberfest tents and celebrating together. We`ll try to make it a night to remember...

Part2: Yomiuriland Yomiuri is a big media company with a big daily newspaper and also the owner of one of the most famous baseball teams in Japan, the Yomiuri Giants. They also own this Tokyo park which is well hidden in a suburb area of this big city, nestled in a mountain terrain. The first great thing is that you`ve to transfer from the main train station through a gondola (which fly over the park) directly to the park entrance. The natural park landscaping is really beautiful, but in spring with all the cherry tree blossom it`s amazing. The park offers some flat rides and 5 coasters. The best of them is Bandit.This coaster goes through the whole park, using the natural up and down of the mountain terrain. It`s not a coaster with much airtime, but it`s smooth, fast and makes just a fun. The wooden coaster “White Cyclone” is just wonderful – if you see it from far away. If you`ll enter this coaster you`ll think this one really sucks – it hurts so bad that it makes no fun at all. The third coaster is a standing and sitting coaster. They`ve two cars and you can choose if you`ll lik to sit or stand. This Togo coaster is really smooth for a Togo and the standing cars are comfortable too. The other two coasters are a kiddie coaster and some weird coaster which goes down to a lake and up to the station, really boring. Overall we liked Yomiuriland and we`ll think if they would add one or two major attractions this park can be a real good themepark. Toshimaen After Yomiurland we went straight to Toshimaen. It`s a inner city amusement park with no great atmosphere or great landscaping. They`ve tons of flat rides (even on the roofs of their restaurants or arcade houses). The 4 coasters are nothing special at all – okay one of them is special. It`s called “Cyclone” a 41 year old Togo coaster, which has kind of sofa like seats. It goes round the park, with no big hills or sharp turns. So it`s more a fast scenic railway than a coaster. A Mack powered “Blauer Enzian” coaster built on a roof, one smooth Schwartzkopf shuttle loop and an Arrow Corkscrew, that are the other coasters at Toshimaen. We didn`t like this park too much, because we missed a good atmosphaere. In our opinion its one of the worst parks we`ve been on our tour, but it was okay for a coaster tour visit. La Qua This was park number 3 on this day and we`re really looked forward to visit this park. Why? Because we had the chance to visit Bubba Gumps, the restaurant chain we miss so much since our 2005 trip to Hawaii & California. Okay, we also looked forward to ride Thunder Dolphin, the Intamin coaster who goes straight through the roof of the shopping mall. We heard that a lot of people didn`t liked this coaster and we can`t understand why. It has a good first drop, nice speed, a good scenery, nice seats and most important: it makes fun. It misses some airtime, but overall it just makes fun and that`s our main reason to ride coasters. The only thing to discuss is the security procedure ro ride Thunder Dolphin. It`s so ridiculous, that you`ve to take every single thing out of your pockets, even some papers. They`ll look at you and try to see if you`ve hide something in your pockets. They also try to see if you chew a gum and if you do so you`ve to take it out. It`s a bit too much, La Qua! The other coasters are a Maurer Söhne Spinning Coaster and the Intamin Linear Gale. The last coaster, the enclosed Togo “Geo Panic”, is so amazingly boring that you`ve to remember that you`re on a rollercoaster and not on a dark ride. Overall La Qua is not a real themepark, it`s more a shopping mall with some coasters and entertainment opportunities. And if you see it that way, it`s nice. Tobu Zoo This park is about 90 minutes away from Tokyo, and it belongs to a big railway company. It is devided into a zoo part and an amusement part. The zoo part is so sad that we don`t recommend it.I`ve nothing against zoos at all, but if you make a zoo you`ll have to offer great space and nice surroundings for all your animals. A lot of Japanese zoos look like they are in a third country nation. I`m moving on to the amusement part of Tobu Zoo, which is really nicer than the zoo part. There`s a Zierer kiddie coaster, some flat rides, the typical great ferries wheel and a strange 3-D theatre. The two main attractions are a Togo Wild Mouse, which has a looping (!), weird but cool and Regina. This wooden coaster, built from the german company Intamin, is a really good wooden coaster. It has airtime, is smooth, has speed and a good length. For us it was the second best wooden coaster on this trip. At the end we left Tobu Zoo with a mixed feeling: amazing Regina and a nice Togo Mouse on the one hand and on the other hand the sad Zoo. Our first 9 days ended in Tokyo with a lot of great impressions. Nice people, safe and clean city, not so expensive as everybody thinks and so stylish and modern that New York looks like a small town. We now moved on to our next hotel stop, the Granvia Kyoto. If you ever want to stay in the middle of Japan, this is our recommendation for a good hotel with a great location, because its right in the middle of Kyoto central train station. So you can easily access all the places and parks around. This was our place for the next 8 days and for part III. Geishas are hard to spot, but we were lucky.... our first day in Kyoto was all about cultural sightseeing and cherry tree blossom. I cant`t leave without one of the typical Tokyo night shots our last coaster for part II - the wonderful Regina. Intamins woodie is smooth and fast. nice theming Togos Wild Mouse with a looping makes a lot of fun. Japanese people like those big wheels this little kid is telling her mum that this big girl has taken the bunny from her.... the kiddie coaster did I told you from those moving animals...? Welcome to Tobu Zoo, where all the animals don`t like to live but the coasters are in good conditions this was a shot from our room in Tokyo the Maurer Söhne Spinning Ride even if they have to make holes in their roofs.... every shopping mall should add a ride like this First drop of Intamin`s Thunder Dolphin. Besides all the critics we liked this coaster! this is LaQuas wheel some water action in april... Toshimaens Shuttle Loop another Bandit shot... the Kiddie Coaster "after driving a dog I`m playing the Bongos" This sounds like a typical themepark fan. "yes, I`m driving a dog!" the Standing seats the "choose your car" ride - sit or stand - a smooth Togo, even if you stand! it also has some ugly cars this one sucks... this is a real strange coaster - it first goes down and than it goes up -and - that`s it - what a boring ride this is their main mascot it`s really "busy" inside the park (like a lot of the smaller parks in Japan) nice park - happy girl in the background you can see those big golf cages. They are everywhere in Japan. Yomiuriland - set in a wonderful landscaping. You can see Bandit going through the terrain, and in the background the terrible Woodie "Cyclone" If you`ll ever have the chance to visit it, do so. The buzz is so amazing, and afterwards you`ll get a 8.00 am Sushi breakfast with the freshest fish (okay my wife had some problems after all the blood and smell in the halls and to start her day fish) our first stop in the early morning was the biggest fish market of the world: Tsukiji

@ chris What a pitty we didn`t see you at Fuji-q. We had so much freetime at Fuji-Q that we had loved to talk to you. Can you remember where you saw us? I just saw one "caucasian guy" in the food court. By the way I think someone can have a good day at Fuji-Q, but you`ve to catch the best weather and less crowds - I think that`s really hard at Fuji-Q. Fuji-Q was our first big park in Japan and so we were frightened the whole trip if wind or rain will cancel some more coasters on our trip - but nothing at all happened. We even rode ASKA in Nara Dreamland during heavy rains. So I´ll think the owners of Fuji-Q are looking for this "bad weather conditions" and saying "Hey, let`s save some money". @Elissa The hamster coaster was about to open on that day and we waited one hour to ride it. But after one hour they decided to close it again. So we said "okay, Elissas ride has to be left alone".

Hello TPR-Forum, now it`s time for our massive tripreport from Japan. We toured this great country the first three weeks in april, needed some weeks to calm down and now I`ve a bit of time to write an exclusive coverage of our whole trip (we did a a daily coverage in our forum www.coasterfriends.de/forum, but that was only in german). I`ll split the whole trip in 4 parts (over the next days), because we did over 70 coaster in 19 parks and a lot of cultural sightseeing (okay this one will be left out in this forum), I shot over 1.200 photos, and I`ll try to upload about 200 of them. Before I start with Part One I`ll like to thanks Elissa, Robb, Rollermonkey, Mr. Morgan and all the other forum members who helped a lot in planning this trip. Please feel free to leave your comments in this thread or visit our new build english forum thread at www.coasterfriends.de/forum. Part 1: Tokyo (Aqua Stadium) Fuji-Q Nasu Highland (Sega Joypolis) Yokohama Sea Paradise Yokohama Cosmo World Part 2: Yomiuriland Toshimaen La Qua Tobu Zoo Part 3: Expoland Hirakata Nagashima Spa Land Universal Studios Japan Nara Dreamland Part 4: Central Park Himeji Tegarayama Park Himeji Tokyo Disney Sea Tokyo Disneyland Disney´s Miracosta Hotel Part1: Okay, now straight into the buzz. We departed in Munich-Germany, through London-Heathrow right into Narita Airport. We arrvived after a 20 hour journey, taking the comfortable limousine bus to our hotel the Park Hotel Tokyo. We decided to end this long first day with a short trip to Aqua Stadium, a small indoor amusement area at one of these big hotels in Shinagawa. The main reason was the launched Intamin coaster “Galaxy999”, which was quiet short but smooth. Nothing special at all. Next day started with some sightseeing around Tokyo. It was cherry tree blossom time and this is such a big event in Japan you can`t miss it. It really stands the big hype and it`s so beautiful to see the whole nature changing colours and to see all the drunken japanese people celebrating it. But hey, this a coaster forum and so I`ll left this part out. Fuji-Q First topic in our packed Japan schedule was the park on the bottom of Mount Fuji– the Fuji-Q-Highland Park. A lot of people are saying this park is really bad, and we thought hey give them a chance – but this park really sucks. It has no theming, the unfriendliest stuff in whole japan and looong queues. You think the park has some great rides, so this all doesn`t matter? You`re maybe right if you`ll ever have the chance to hit a good day at Fuji-Q, because they`re looking for every little wind, rain, dust or whatever to close the damm attractions. So we started on such a beautiful day in Tokyo, blue sky, no wind, no clouds, nothing at all. But we arrived at Fuji-Q with a little wind, the kind of wind you`ll maybe experience 200 days a year. And guess what? All coasters were closed (only the lame indoor Zola7 coaster was open). So we strolled around the park, tried the biggest Japanese Walk-Through Horror House (hey another 7 $ extra but not bad at all) and waited, and waited and waited.... for our next bus back to Tokyo (just a two hour drive). What a great day at the park. Nasu Highland Park Another day waiting for us, with temple sightseeing in the morning and Nasu Highland themepark in the afternoon. This park is really, really far outside of any mayor city and a little bit harder to reach. We took the great Shinkansen train for 2 ½ hours from Tokyo and than a 30 minute taxi ride. This park is one of the nicer parks in Japan. There are 9 coasters, 4 of them are inside each other tracks what makes a nice picture. Some theming and some nice kiddie rides, one of the nicest ghost houses (most of them are really crap in Japan) and friendly stuff. Well worth a visit. Sega JoypolisThis big arcade is a kind of Disney Quest stlye arcade, but with much more interaktive rides and it makes real fun to visit this “park”. They also has a small indoor coaster called “speed boarder”, the special arranged seats makes this ride a little uncomfortable. If you`re hitting this arcade please try all the special interactive things on the last floor, I can`t say what to expect but it`s really funny, even for non japanese people. Yokohama Sea Paradise This small seaside park, is famous for its Sea World like shows, but we weren`t interested in that and so we went straight to the two main attractions – the Blue Fall – the extreme 107 meter (about 320 feet?) tall freefall tower, which has a tilt modus to get it even more funnier. The only remaining coaster in this park is the “surf coaster”, a Togo coaster which is really smooth for a Togo. It also has a nice setting with a little bit of the track going over the sea. Yokohama Cosmoworld This is a small kind of amusement park, like the old seaside parks, but it`s not really on a dock, its more near the sea in the middle of downtown Yokohama with a great skyscraper scenery. We didn`t like it that much, because it was a little bit to expensive for what you get.. The bigger of the two coasters was a Senyo coaster called “Diving Coaster:Vanish” because one drop goes directly into a tunnel, built in a small lake, what makes an nice effect. The other coaster was a Reverchon Spinning Coaster, but nothing special at all. The typical two dark rides (ghost house and a shooting dark ride), the big ferries wheel and some arcade games, that`s it. Now straight on to the photos, because this is the thing you`re waiting for.... I`ll try to set up Part II tomorrow...[/b] another Yokohama shot is ending Part One.... the Reverchon Spinning Coaster the Diving Coaster with its effect nice setting.... Yokohama Cosmoworld not too bad for Togo! Togos Surf Coaster... here it is - 107m (about 320 feet) tall and with the tilt modus on the top of the tower... Yokohama Sea Paradise is greeting with Blue Fall... they don`t eat Sushi all the time, there are more Crepe shops than sushi restaurants.... the kind of coaster who fits in your garden... it`s fun to ride on some toy fresh prepared catch you also can fish at Nasu nice kiddie theming at Nasu Vekoma`s Inverted F2 Fright Flight (not as smooth as it should be) some nice caroussel they also have a Lego exhibition the Camel Coaster a nice overview, with the mountains in the background Batflyer with vertical lift Rock`n roll theming Corkscrew, but smooth 4 coaster - one labyrinth this park is not so easy to reach, but well worth the extra energy Next try, another park - Nasu Highland Hey the vending machines are working.... okay so we`ve time to take some photo shots (you`ll see the bad weather, this is the reason for closing down the coasters!?!?) okay lame Zola7 is open.... Dodonpa is closed...all the other coasters are closed....WTF.... ...the new one is still not open.. no problem we knew that... oh we`re so happy to be here in the park and we`ll pay a lot of money.... here we go... a wonderful day to get to Fuji-Q...we thought Yes - we Like it too....(the cherry tree blossom not the drunken people...) the people like to picknick under the trees, and getting drunk in the evening this is the perfect time for Japan some cherry tree blossom impressions before we start with coaster-touring... First Night - First Coaster - Intamin`s Launched Galaxy 999 - indoor and nothing special

My vote goes straight to Tokyo and the Miracosta. I`ve stayed their last week and it blow my mind. It beats every other Disney Hotel when you like a good location, because the hotel is in the park (DisneySea). And when I say IN the park I mean IN the park (step out your room, take the lift and you stand in the middle of the park, and not like the hotels in Anaheim and Paris where youa´re in the front of the park). Besides the great location it`s simply beautiful, have big big rooms and some of the best restaurants. I`ll post some photos of my Japan Trip in the next days, including some MiraCosta photos.

There are only some games left in july (semi finals / finals) so I wouldn`t expect to much foreign crowds who are visitig the wc games, BUT july is the only month the whole country are on school vacation, also nearly every neighboring country is on vacation - so july is always really busy (especially the motorways). On the other side july is a nice time to travel. @davidmorton: by the way I wouldn`t expect to much from your team, Sven Göran did a brilliant job in demotivatating his players But I also think no one in germany will go bananas because our team will be not to lucky this time.

Hi, thanks for all the great photos and reports. I`ve some questions: I`ll stay for three nights at the Miracosta and would like to know if you first checked in at the Welcome Center to get your monorail passes and tickets or did you go directly to the Ambassador? Because we decide to go to the Welcome Center first, get our tickets and leave our luggage their (the`ll send it directly to the Miracosta) to hit the parks and do the check-in later at our hotel. Where did you eat? Any recommandations? (beside the popcorn) Greetinx Andy