printersdevil78

Looks good! A friend of mine did this a couple years ago, only he split the corks in two and boiled them so they would expand a bit, allowing him to work with fewer corks. His came out much the same way as this, only less circle-y and more rectangle-y.

1. What are your initial thoughts? It sounds like a great value, especially factoring in the $15 in store credit. 2. Can you think of anything else we could be offering? Sounds like a pretty good slate of benefits already to me. 3. Is this something that interests you? I'm not sure how many coaster club events I would necessarily attend, but I am definitely interested in priority placement on TPR trips, exclusive trip offers, additional perks during TPR trips and events, and early entry/discounts at select parks. 4. Why would you NOT be interested in this? My only hesitation is knowing that this will be one more annual expense (albeit a slight one--$3.25 a month when extrapolated) I need to budget for. As it stands, I am planning to sign up as soon as the option becomes available. 5. Any additional feedback you can give us based on the information you see here. I can certainly see the reasoning behind this, and it seems like a win-win-win--continuing to provide free content for casual viewers, cementing TPR's status as an "enthusiast club" and providing a potential new revenue stream for site bandwidth and operating expenses. The TPR model seems to be to promise a lot, then deliver a lot more. For every dollar I've spent here (and that's getting to be a lot of them at this point), I feel like I've gotten at least $10 worth of enjoyment in return. I seriously doubt this endeavor will be any different. ^Reminds me of the early days of D23. When they first announced the club, some Disney enthusiasts were reluctant to join because the only benefits seemed to be a lithograph, magazine subscription and access to an "exclusive" section of the message boards. By the time they announced the potential opportunity to tour the Walt Disney studios and unveiled the D23 Expo, membership became a much easier decision.

It's officially Christmas morning on the East Coast! So far my haul includes: From fiancee: An EZPass (Delaware's version of the virtual toll payment system), engraved pen set, two sweaters, a jacket, gloves, some Jelly Belly jellybeans (because I raved about them after the West Coast Trip) and a three-day weekend at a mountain resort. From boss/co-workers: $50, a hand-carved wooden pen, a gingerbread man Christmas ornament, and assorted homemade candies, cookies and other baked goods. From friends: A gift card to Outback Steakhouse and a pre-packaged Betty Crocker "goodie" box. From family: Two "Rockford Files" DVD sets; an "Early Edition" DVD set; a "Hidden Secrets of Disneyland" DVD; a "South of the Border with Disney" book; an autographed Wally Boag autobiography; a "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" book; various non-sports cards; Old Bay snack mix; candy; two pairs of pants; gift cards to Red Lobster, Chili's and a local Italian restaurant; and money to put toward my plane ticket for the UK Trip. Remember, 'tis better to give than to receive... but receiving is a close second!

If anyone would like to tag me as "the chick magnet," I officially grant permission! Jason "I bet most of this would make more sense to me if I was actually on Facebook" R.

About a month ago I posted my Busch Gardens Christmas Town experience in the "Theme Parks, Roller Coasters & Donkeys" forum (Clicky here) and promised that the non-theme park portion of our trip would be coming soon. Well, "soon" is here! Enjoy! On our way back to our car, we spied some Colonial cows! And then we went to Christmas Town. And then we continued our travels northward. Coming up next: Virginia Beach. Of course, what is any tourist town in the early 20th century without a faux trolley? Nice to see those silly colonists finally got with the times and started using energy-efficient bulbs! It was a little cold to be eating outside, but whatever this place was serving sure smelled good. "Grrr, I'm a scary warthog! Buy my groceries!" About the only thing we didn't get to do at Williamsburg that we remotely wanted to was tour the original capital building, seen here. However, we needed to get back on the road for our second night at Christmas Town, and based on what we did get to see at Colonial Williamsburg, it probably was no big loss. Burial grounds at amusement parks = creepy. Burial grounds at Colonial Williamsburg = historical. Welcome to ye olde nick-nack shoppe! That be British firewood, it be! "I'll take one with a lady, please." Out back: a nice, kid-friendly pile of coal! Yay! By the way, is it just me, or does everyone at Colonial Williamsburg look severely pissed off? Must be all that taxation without representation. What could be more thrilling than the Anderson Blacksmith Shop? Play that funky music, white boy! We stopped here for a snack. To keep things authentic, we only purchased items that were available in Colonial times. Like ginger cakes. And hot cider. And Aquafina. Why, it's ye olde firehouse, of course! And what's this lovely little cottage next to the magazine? Those items, of course, being the drums. This is the guard. He watches over the most important items stored in the magazine. Pardon us while we hit the powder room. To the magazine! (Personally, I prefer "Mad," but this old building will do, I guess.) Excuse me, is that your gun, or are you just happy to be here? Inside the courthouse, some guy was talking about stuff. That's as honestly about as much detail as I got out of it. This is what the Hill Valley Courthouse would have looked like had it been in Williamsburg instead. And come to think of it, if that movie had taken place in Colonial Williamsburg, would Marty have realized he had gone back in time in the first place? ...but how many have the "child in leg stocks with the sun in her eyes" version? Now, everyone has the standard "tourist in stocks" picture of Williamsburg... "Excellent, excellent... send me more children to eat!" I'm not sure, but I think I see some violations of child labor laws here.... Tweeteley-deeteley-dee... tweeteley-deeteley-dee! OK, enough of that... here comes the fife and drum corps! And now we pause for a view of the scenic Virginia countryside. Meat! This, in my opinion, was the best thing at Colonial Williamsburg. The food looked kind of disgusting, but it smelled great. Take the tunnel... again! As you can clearly see, the early governors of Virginia were big Kid 'n' Play fans. After the dances ended, usually between 1 and 2 a.m., the govrernor would treat his guests to a post-party dinner in here. That dish on the left is supposed to be pigeon. This, of course, would be the stove that heated the ballroom. Apparently they kept it kind of cold in there to encourage guests to get jiggy wit' it. This is the ballroom--and what's a ballroom without a harpsichord? This is where Thomas "T.J." Jefferson did the nasty in the pasty. Assuming he didn't kill them first, this is where the governor would have cheated at cards with said visitors. Every square inch of the entryway of the governor's mansion was covered with guns and swords. According to our guide, this was to let all who entered know that the governor was badder than Shaft (I may be paraphrasing). Pardon me, sir, but your pantaloons are showing. Next stop: the governor's mansion. "What say ye, guv'na?" This is what the finished product would have looked like. Goody Smith (or whatever her name may have been) tried to show Lauryn how to make a traditional Christmas wreath. I timed it; it took Lauryn a full 39 seconds to get bored enough to walk away. They had lots of carriage rides, but fortunately (because it meant I didn't have to pay for one), they were all sold out by the time we got there. Like this church, for instance. Yep, that looks pretty old. But enough of that. Let's go see some historic-looking stuff! "Treeland, Treeland, little girl and--" no wait, that doesn't rhyme.... The outdoor market in Merchant Square was going full force when we showed up. I have the utmost respect for Colonial plumbing. Kelly was worried about Lauryn's ability to keep up with all the walking we needed to do, so a couple weeks before the trip, I managed to save this giagantic stroller from the Dumpster (a neighbor was about to throw it out when I intercepted). It barely fit in the car, and on the way home it ended up getting wedged in and breaking my suitcase. We nicknamed it "Strollzilla" and are in currently the process of trying to find someone stupid enough to give us $50 for it because neither of us want to see the (expletive deleted) thing ever again. It was, I believe, the first weekend of the Christmas season. Even the lampposts were decked out. But you've already read about Christmastown... so fast-forwarding to the next morning, we were bundled up and ready to check out Colonial Williamsburg (check out the fashionable "Pirates of the Caribbean" headgear). Since this was the day before Thanksgiving, we brought some leftover turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce sandwiches for lunch, then we settled in for a long winter's nap before heading over to Christmas Town. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Take the tunnel! First stop: a random gas station in Eastern Shore Virginia, where I'm sure "smoke the legend" has multiple meanings....

Fixed!

^lol, thanks! I actually took a similar photo of miniature golf balls for a newspaper article I was working on a couple years ago that I used as my background for awhile. I tend to like close-up photos of large groups of small, colorful objects (jellybeans or M&Ms, anyone?). I took this one during a Labor Day weekend parade and then used it as a promo graphic for an event I chaired this Halloween. Golfy golf, golf, golf, golf... golf!

If you're a sci-fi or cult TV geek, then yes, this kind of stuff is highly collectible. That's most of what today's trading cards aim for. Back in the '70s and '80s, there were trading cards for most hit TV shows ("Happy Days," "Knight Rider," even "M*A*S*H"), and they were strictly for the kiddie audience and even more strictly to help these companies push gum. But they haven't packaged gum with these cards for a long time because in the '90s there was a big boom, and people realized they could make big money off some of these cards. Since then they've been made for everything from promoting AIDS awareness to attracting fans of TV shows that aren't geared toward kids in any way, shape or form. That's a big reason I like to stick to the vintage stuff (1930s-'60s), though I do have a good deal of '80s and '90s cards in my collection from when I really was a kid). And I'll usually try to pick up a set whenever the Disney theme parks release one (every five years or so)... but that's for an entirely different collection!

I was too busy this fall to post TRs about a few fun spots we visited as the trips happened, so now that I have two weeks off work for the holidays, it's time to catch up! We'll start with this little weekend journey in early October to eastern Pennsylvania, where... well, the photos will tell the story. Enjoy! Lauryn gave the chili cheeseburger and chocolate milk a thumbs-up, too. And thus concludes our October Pennsylvanian adventure. Thanks for reading! Yocco's chili dogs, pierogies and a birch beer--it doesn't get much more Pennsylvanian than that! Um, thanks, but since this place is renowned for its chili dogs, I think I'll just have a couple of them instead. They're world famous, apparently. Hooray for pic-nic-pacs! We left the "factory" at 10 minutes past closing time and made our way to this landmark Allentown eatery (the chain is a landmark, anyway; not sure about this particular location). Here are some facts for you to digest. However, the highlight here was the world's largest crayon. I wonder why all their landmark crayons are blue (note the color of the 100 billionth many photos above). Inside: crayon tubes! Back downstairs, the giftshop entry featured a mural of color swatches representing just about every Crayola crayon ever produced. Some of these toys definitely had seen better days. The final floor of the "factory" was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association of Engineers or some similar group. Basically, all the exhibits here had to do with building things. I didn't? Well then, yes. Trains were also present. Oh, did I mention they also had trains! In the first room, kids took their boats through an obstacle course. In the last, they were encouraged to build their own course and see if a boat could make it through without getting stuck. I don't have any theme parks or roller coasters in this TR... so I guess I'd better squeeze in a donkey! These stiffs were just hanging around for Halloween... I think. Disneyland may have taken out its keelboats, but they live on at the Crayola Factory! Fun with pulleys! This is what a real canal boat looks like. Approximately. Take the tunnel! This is how the canal locks work. It's kind of like the birds and the bees, only with less actual sex. Lift hill shot! Screw the coloring; Lauryn said this was her favorite part of the "factory." Each kid was given a toy canal boat that they had to navigate through a waterway obstacle course that took up an entire room, learning about the physics and mechanics that make up Pennsylvania's canal system along the way. As a bonus, the National Canal Museum is also located in the Crayola Factory, and admission is included. Let's take a look! Mine was a Christmas wreath. They had stations set up with actual melted crayon wax. You were encouraged to dip an extra-long Q-tip in the wax and then dab it onto a paper shape, where it immediately cooled. But nothing beat this exhibit in terms of uniqueness. OK, so apparently Crayola makes this stuff called "Model Magic" that's kind of like Play-Doh, only completely dry so you can color directly on it. It's pretty odd, but it was so much fun that Lauryn decided to redeem her last two tokens for not just one but two samples of it. Chalk zone! This was the coolest exhibit there, and I'm kind of bummed that we didn't get her the at-home version for Christmas. Remember the old computer light pens of the '80s? Crayola has brought them back, and this time they're in different colors! EDIT: Kelly saw this TR and just informed me that there WILL be one of these under the tree on Christmas morning! Apparently it's been bought and wrapped for weeks. Shows how much I know! ...while Kelly made a "Jason" puppet! Honestly, I don't think it looks a thing like me. I don't own an orange tie! Next up was the puppet-making station! Lauryn made a "Mommy" puppet... ...and have lunch! At this point in the tour, Lauryn took a break to spend some time in the "factory"'s interactive indoor playground... Aww, Lauryn made some new friends! Actually, this was pretty cool. They would take your picture with the Crayola Fairies or with Tip (they had a walk-around version, though we never saw him) and print it out for you as line-art coloring page at no extra charge. Unfortunately, that page has long since been colored, crumpled and thrown away, so I don't have an example to post here. This made Lauryn very excited (and the fact that we were able to sneak right past the hands-on fingerpainting booth located behind this exhibit without her noticing made US very excited!). Did I mention the Crayola Factory also had CRAYONS? Boy, they really need to find a better cleaning service! Why, it's a color shadow projection screen that allows you to recreate some of the best trippy '70s music videos of all time, of course! And what's this thing? They had a little mirror thing where you could adjust the lighting to make it look like your head turned into a lizard's head. I didn't really understand what that had to do with Crayola, but whatever.... TPR hoodie represent! TPR represent! ...and even write on the walls! ...make Halloween decorations out of construction paper... ...color scenes from "Cars" with color-changing markers... Regardless, there were plenty of actual fun things to do at the Crayola Factory. Like try a sample of Crayola Color Explosion paper... After the show, they invited all the children in the audience to a little hole in the plexiglass, where they handed out free cray-- er, Silly Putty. Which totally made since since the show had absolutely nothing to do with the manufacture, nor even made any mention, of Silly Putty. This is how many crayons had been made so far that day... and counting. This part of the tour was a slight letdown. The last time I was here, nearly a decade ago, they had a little booth in the room where they showed how crayons were made and one where they showed how markers were made, all with one-on-one interaction. It was very cool. Now it's all mashed together as a little "show," complete with posted showtimes, where the audience stands on risers behind a completely glassed-in, corporate-approved area. The "factory" also housed a folk art collection sponsored by Crayola. For some reason, this one reminded me of Dave Thomas (the TPR Dave, not the Wendy's Dave). This is the company's most recent marker innovation. These were the original Crayola markers, issued in 1978. Ever wonder where the name "Crayola" came from? Now you know! What, you thought I would lie to you? This was the factory's 100 billionth crayon, made by Mr. Rogers. These would be some of the new crayons that replaced them--at half the pay and fewer benefits. These are the "Hall of Fame" retired colors. Now all they do is fish all day and complain about "those dang young whipper-snapper crayons." Upon paying our admission, we got tokens for various machines and redemption areas scattered throughout the "factory." A Crayola marker machine seems like something they should have in Tokyo somewhere. Off my head goes to be made into a pie! "Grrr! I'm crazy Frankenstein's monster! Gimme some crayons!" They had a month-long Halloween promotion going, so in addition to getting free candy, we checked out some photo ops. "Aaaah! It's a big red Tip!" OMG, their mascot is named "Tip!" *giggle* Look out below! Anyway, enough of the boring stuff. Because right next door in Easton, PA, is the one... the only... Crayola Factory Tour! (Don't get too excited. This place has as much of a crayon "factory" as Hersheypark has a chocolate "factory"--they're both fake, cheesy and fun!) The show was held in an antiques mall, so afterward we shopped around there, as well. Hulk Hogan wasn't for sale, but I did buy some comic books from the booth down the hall. Trading card companies also use the show to showcase some of their coming products (I personally am more into the vintage stuff than the new issues, but there are plenty others for whom this advertising--and the free samples that come with it--pay off handsomely). Just like comic cons, they have guest artists signing their works each year. And just like most comic cons, I have no idea who these people are. This was one section of the showroom. It looks a bit bare-bones, but if you're into the hobby, this place is Mecca. First stop of the weekend (and the impetus for the entire trip): the semi-annual Philly Non-Sports Card Show in Allentown, PA. (It was held in Philadelphia for many years, until it was priced out, hence the "Philly" part of the title.) If you aren't sure what "non-sports cards" are, they're basically baseball cards, only with pictures of TV shows, movies, comic characters, etc., on them instead of baseball players. Check out the sign for examples.

You did a great job picking your one picture per park! I'd like to visit a lot of these places based on that "one picture."

Man, I really enjoyed that! I'm going to get to Coney Island someday, if only for Nathan's and the Cyclone. I forgot about Wendy's, as well. There's one right across the street from me at work. Maybe I'll stop in there one day and try to cash in my wristband!

Wow, I never knew this awesome thread existed! It may be a couple years old, but the above quote reminded me of something I saw once on a TV show (wish I could remember which one). A guy was dating this woman in Los Angeles who was unhappy that her son, in college, didn't like the guy. In true sitcom fashion, she made him try to "bond" with him, his first attempt at which was to tell the son "If we leave right now, we can make it to Disneyland just before it closes!" The joke was supposed to be that he was treating this 20-something son like a 10-year-old, but all I kept thinking was, "What's the point of getting to Disneyland just before it closes?" Anyway, back on this year's topic, yes, cold weather sucks. Temperatures don't seems to have an impact on effeciency around here (where everything moves slow anyway), but throw a little precipitation into the mix and be prepared to move at 2/4 time.

We're not quite to the Legoland portion of the official TR yet, but this seemed like the appropriate place to post this tidbit. The fact that many of us on the WCT got to experience the American "lite" version of much of what this auction offers should officially put to rest any argument about whether TPR trips are "worth it": http://www.charityfolks.com/cfauctions/auction_bid.asp?auctionid=17792&catname=For+Kids&scid=13571&mcid=13558 It's up to $17,000 as of this post. Now that would buy a spot on one heck of a TPR trip! Jason "I'd rather hang out with Renate anyway" R.

That was awesome! Thank you for sharing.

Why do I look so pissed off in everyone's photos? I really was having the time of my life! Honest! There are some amazing wipeout photos here! Again, sorry to hear you were sick for half or more of the trip. I honestly had no idea. Guess I was too busy standing around looking like I wanted to strangle everyone....

Wow, thanks for doing this! It would be difficult to think of a better pre-Christmas gift than 24 free TPR videos!

Great photos! Sorry about walking into the first one.... It's hard to believe this trip was four months ago already. I can't wait for the 2010 TPR trip season to open!

Hooray for Captain Lee! This looks like a fun event. Thanks for sharing!

In all fairness, that was a bit of sarcasm on my part. The enclosure did very much resemble a pet store fish tank (Kelly came up with that observation, actually), but I'm sure it was technologically ventillated, chilled, etc., to give the penguins whatever climate they needed to survive, and I'm also sure (or at least I hope) that enclosure was for display purposes only. I can't imagine they make the birds live there 24/7. Thanks to everyone, by the way, for all the congratulations on our engagement. We're very happy and currently in the process of tentatively planning the wedding at a local wild west theme park (hey, we're nothing if not fun).

Thanks, Scott. For the record, I didn't call guest relations over the issues we experienced (see my original post for our past experiences with that office), but I did drop a letter in the mail today stating not so much, "I hated your event, and I want my money back," but "Thanks for putting on this event. Here are some things you might want to take into consideration for next year." I understand the argument that it was a first-year event--that would account for things like the Festhaus crowds, which I'm sure will be handled differently in future years. But basic things like the times changing after our ticket purchase, which was just 10 days before the event; guest relations having no clue about how to answer questions about the different tiers of tickets; and the handful of unfortunate encounters we had with employees are what cause me to raise questions about how organized this event really was to begin with. What I don't buy is the argument that we should have cut them any slack just because it was a first-year event. Between admission, food, hotels, gas, etc., this was a $372 weekend. Let's say instead of going to Christmas Town, we spent that money on a skateboard (granted, a really expensive skateboard), and as soon as we got it home, one of the wheels fell off. If I call the factory and they say, "Well, that was the first skateboard we ever made, but they'll get better as we go along," my response isn't going to be, "Well, it was your first one and it does still have three wheels... so I guess that's OK." It's going to be, "What are you going to do to fix or replace my dang skateboard?" But I'm repeating myself. And I'll take my lumps from the fanboys. Heck, after having faced the wrath of Cedar Point and Knotts fans in the past five months, I'm up to the challenge! Besides, before this past weekend's experience, I would have been right up there defending BGE with them.

^^^There's another thing. Now I'm finding out that there were rides and even a whole land (Italy) that opened up, but that we missed because they weren't on the map or in the literature the park gave us with the tickets (and if it was on a board or anything like that at the entrance, then I missed that, too). Most of what we did that wasn't listed on the map were things we accidentally ran into, like those two kiddie rides. It just seems like this conversation took place sometime on Monday or Tuesday of last week: BGE Exec No. 1: "Oh crap. Marketing has really been pushing this thing, this... what's it called? Christmas Land?" BGE Exec. No. 2: "Christmas Town." Exec. No. 1: "Yeah, this Christmas Town. I even saw it on a billboad today." Exec. No. 2: "What are we gonna do?" Exec. No. 1: "Quick! Get some money out of petty cash. I'll get the intern up here, then we can send him to Wal-Mart for some Christmas lights." Exec. No. 2: "Then what?" Exec. No. 1: "Then who cares? We'll make it up as we go along. I'm leaving for Thanksgiving. See you Friday." Maybe my problem wasn't that it was a "bad" event, per se; maybe it just wasn't what I was expecting to come from a place with standards as high as Busch Gardens has seemed to have had in the past.

No, in reality, I wasn't going to sue anybody. But the fact that they were out of this heavily advertised product at three (and apparently many more) places barely halfway through their second day of operation was, for me, the final layer on top of a series of increasingly bad experiences that snowballed throughout my two evenings at the park. By that point I could completely see where Clark Griswold was coming from at the end of "National Lampoon's Vacation."

OK, for those of you "in the know," yes, I decided to go through with my plans to ask my girlfriend, Kelly, to marry me during the first night of Busch Gardens' Christmas Town (the other option was to wait for our WDW vacation in January... but now seemed like a better time). And yes, she said yes! Now for the bad news: I have been to Busch Gardens Europe/Williamsburg many times, and I've never, ever had a single bad experience at this park that I can remember. Unfortunately, Christmas Town made up for that in spades. I'm not sure how much of it was opening weekend bugs, how much was "We're being sold, so who cares?" and how much was just flat out poor planning (I attribute a lot to the latter), but with the exception of a couple relatively bright spots, we had a pretty miserable time overall. A prologue: We decided to go to Christmas Town about two months ago, at which time I couldn't find a lot of information on the BGE Web site, so I called guest relations and was told children's admission was full price regardless of what type of ticket the adults had, there was no ticket we could buy that included parking, operating hours were 4-9 p.m., and Quick Queue would not be sold for any attractions whatsoever. We went ahead and booked a one-night hotel room, but no tickets yet. Five weeks later, when it looked like we might want to add an extra night to partake of all the extra activities that were announced in the weeks leading up to opening weekend (shows, etc.), Kelly called again to confirm. Most of what she was told directly contradicted everything I was told. The hours remained the same, but now there was a "bounce ticket" that included three days' admission to both BGE and Colonial Williamsburg, and it also included a free child's admission and free parking for less than what we were planning to spend on free tickets and parking before. Kelly starting asking questions about what the bounce pass got us into at Colonial Williamsburg and was basically told, "Look, lady, I've told you how much the ticket costs. I haven't got all day to spend on the phone with you." So finally, we called the Williamsburg Tourism Office, and they told us exactly what the three-day bounce pass was and what it included both at Colonial Williamsburg and at Busch Gardens, but we still had to go through BGE to buy it. How sad that two phone calls to Busch Gardens couldn't get us accurate information on a ticket that they sell, yet an off-site facility had all the correct information right at its fingertips (and seemed genuinely pleased to offer it). We later discovered that most of the other information BGE guest relations (as well as some that had been posted on the Christmas Town website) was grossly inaccurate, as well. Had we had all the facts we requested up front, we easily could have done this event in a single evening, saving us a lot of time and money in the process. Busch Gardens has my money now... but it likely won't be getting any more for a long time to come. More rants below... but hey, at least the lights (in the areas they managed to get around to putting them) are pretty! On the way out, someone made the mistake of asking me to fill out a guest satisfaction survey. I wore the pencil point down to a nub, and I'm sure they weren't very happy with what I had to say. I have a letter ready to go out in tomorrow morning's mail, as well. When we reached our hotel in Virginia Beach that night (we were unable to get a second night in Williamsburg, having booked on two separate dates), there was a family of six in the lobby looking at a Christmas Town brochure and wondering aloud whether to give it a try the next day. I gave them the Reader's Digest version of our experience, and the mother put the brochure back and said, "Oh... maybe we'll find something fun to do here in Virginia Beach instead." Word of mouth can be a killer sometimes. Good riddance, Christmas Town/BGE. You won't be seeing me again for a really, really, really long time. But little did I know that Busch Gardens was saving the best for last. A little less than four hours into our second day of Christmas Town, we were beyond ready to leave. But we had promised Lauryn a peppermint fudge hot chocolate to go (and quite honestly, I wanted to try it myself). Pretty much every single kiosk and restaurant at the park had this stuff on its menu. So I walked up to the kiosk closest to the exit and paid for two cups. The employee put a cup under the spigot, turned it on and... Nothing. Apparently they were all out, and then it took her a good five minutes to figure out how to give me my money back. We tried a second kiosk. Nope. A third kiosk. Nope. Finally, at the fourth kiosk we tried, I made the pronouncemet (a little too loudly probably) that if they didn't have it, I was going to guest relations and making someone there personally walk me to the nearest kiosk or restaurant that sold this particular drink (that supposedly they all sold) under threat of a lawsuit against Christmas Town, Busch Gardens and the employee personally. Miracle of all miracles, they had it, and the woman staffing the kiosk gave me a 10 percent discount for our troubles. The woman behind me said that was the third kiosk she had tried for it. I heard from some other people a few minutes later that they had tried to order it the evening before and were told that every location in the park had run out. That pretty much put the icing on the "ridiculous" cake we had been eating all weekend. These things are freaky. Yes, they are. Alas, I don't learn my lessons easily because at the very next shop we stopped at, they had small tubs of Christmas pudding, which I've long wanted to try (they had large tubs of it at the candy store; I didn't want to try it enough to pay $16). So while Kelly is shopping for a Christmas ornament, I take my small tub of pudding to the register, where the cashier rings it up, holds it up to her nose and SMELLS it! I'm standing there in disbelief... and then she does it again! Finally, she says, "What is this stuff? I can't smell what it is." Pardon me for a second... YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SMELL WHAT IT IS! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SMELL IT AT ALL! WHY ARE YOU SMELLING CUSTOMERS' PURCHASES!? I put it back and got another one. I might not eat it right away. It doesn't expire until June 2012, which is kind of scary in itself. I found another employee and bought some candy cane fudge instead. And had I ever seen candy cane fudge at any store near where I live, you can bet I would have gone there for it instead of giving BGE another cent. The candy shop in England had some really nice looking Christmas candies! Too bad its employees' demeanor didn't match. I asked to buy something that was listed on the price sign and was told the shop didn't carry it. I protested and told the woman that not only was it on the sign, but I could see it on the counter directly behind her. She yelled at me that they didn't carry it, they never had carried it, and she didn't know what I expected her to do about it. "Welcome to Christmas Town! Now bend over!" Oh well. At least Lauryn enjoyed being eaten by the giant tree. And miracle of all miracles, it wasn't even an upcharge (someone's going to get fired for missing that one). We had promised her one last ride of the trip, which we thought would be Cork Screw Hill (which we were Cork Screwed out of riding), so we gave her another spin on the Li'l Clydes instead. I had mentioned before that it was a shame that we didn't ride Cork Screw Hill our first night at the park. Why? Because by our second night, it wasn't running anymore. The attendant we talked to said they had been working on it all day, but probably wouldn't have it up that night. OK, so Busch Gardens decided to open only 12 rides out of the whole park for Christmas Town, and they couldn't even keep all 12 running at the same time after the first DAY? Give me a break. And the fact that they apparently had been/would be working on it for a long time leads me to believe this wasn't just a minor issue. You know, BGE, yeah, stuff happens, but maybe next time you're spending untold hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising a huge new event, you should take a few thou out of that budget and put it in... oh, I don't know... maybe maintenance so all DOZEN of your freaking rides freaking work all freaking opening weekend! I got the barbecue slider sampler. I really wanted the brisket platter, which is what I got during my last visit three years ago, but apparently that's no longer available (or at least wasn't that day). The brisket slider was good; the pulled chicken not so much. The fried pickles were excellent. Kelly got a sampler platter that included a quarter chicken, which she really liked, and some ribs, which were pretty nasty. And that green velvet cake? It was stale, and 28 hours later my poop is still coming out that color. That done, we made our way to my second favorite restaurant at Busch Gardens, Trapper's Smokehouse, where we once again dropped a cool $43 on dinner for two adults and a child. She named it "Potty." This time, exhausted and completely frustrated with the whole Christmas Town experience, we gave in. Directly outside the exhibit, of course, they set up a makeshift penguin "duck pond" game. Lauryn had seen this the night before and cried for a good 20 minutes because we wouldn't let her play it. "You made me stand in line for 15 minutes for this?" ...all both of them. In their three-foot-by-five-foot fish tank. Now, something you have to understand is, this penguin exhibit? This was supposed to be Chrsitmas Town's HUGE signature attraction. This was vehemently stressed during both our calls to guest relations ("We have no idea how much tickets cost. But be sure to see our live penguins! Bounce pass? Never heard of it. But we're going to have live penguins! Did we mention the penguins? Lady, I don't have time to waste talking to you, just come see the live penguins, OK?"), and it was heavily promoted throughout the park. So this is going to be something big, right? The cheesy Christmas trees and streamers and almost-static displays, they're just to build anticipation, right? And then we turned the corner, and there were the live penguins... ...and slightly animated, department store window display-quality caricatures of themselves. ...walkways that for some reason are covered with pastel-colored streamers... ...cheesy plastic icicles... While in line, we learned about penguins. Apparently they like white Christmas trees... ...penguins! After having walked to the entrance from the evening before, we had to walk all the way back around to the other side of the theater to go inside. The original entrance was by then reserved for Quick Queue holders only. Time to go back to New France for... I wasn't thrilled that Kelly actually succumbed to this, but she wanted a photo of Lauryn with Santa to give her mother for Christmas, and she figured this was just as good a place to do that as any. In all fairness, the Santa was very good. Of course, no kid gets to see Santa without a "helpful" elf giving the hard-sell to parents for photos. These are your 2009 Christmas Town "Give Us More Money!" Photo With Santa prices. "Enough of these random photos; it's time to see Santa!" "Wow, look at all those people down there enjoying Christmas Town! It's too bad they didn't invite me to participate...." We see you, Nessie! The next day we arrived right at 3 p.m. and made plans to go directly to Santa Claus, as we had promised Lauryn. Unfortunately, they blocked off entry to Germany/the North Pole until 3:30. That gave me some while we were waiting to get some nice, unobstructed photos of the Loch Ness Monster's theming. As we left the theater, they had Victorian carolers to sing us farewell! I thought this was one of the coolest things about Christmas Town, certainly one of the few high points. We saw them several times the next evening, as well. This was a cute little show about Abby Cadabby's having never heard of Christmas and the rest of the Sesame Street gang trying to teach her about it (Cookie Monster was particularly entertaining, chiming in "christmas cookies" at every appropriate opportunity). It had some fairly major plot holes--one long segment has them all pining for snow and Abby even casting a spell for it, even though on stage, there's already about a foot of snow on every building and even a snowman! And I couldn't figure out why Big Bird was wearing a tie unless it's to cover some sort of zipper. But that didn't take away from the part of the show that really impressed me--the costumes. The characters were all able to sing and dance with both arms and legs AND move their mouths in time to the script at the same time! Even most of the Disney park characters can't do that! By the time "Rejoice" was over, the only thing left operating in the park was the final performance of "A Sesame Street Christmas," which was about to begin. Though "Rejoice" featured a group of men dressed as monks (along with two female vocalists and an impressive live orchestra), the closest they ever got to actually mentioning "God" or "Jesus" by name was singing "Silent Night." They also, for some reason, incorporated John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Christmas (War is Over)," which Kelly and I both thought was really, really odd given the quasi-religious undertones of the rest of the show. Regardless, the singing was good, and the choreography was great (there was one part with a series of mirrors that was especially impressive). ..."Rejoice," which I thought was the second best show at Christmas Town. Kelly liked it better than "Deck the Halls," but that's only because "Rejoice" featured more of the traditional Christmas songs she grew up with in the Catholic church. Our original intent was to catch a ride on Cork Screw Hill (which, as it turned out, we really should have done). Instead, these outdoor enteratiners caught our attention, and we made our way into... ...Ireland! A short walk through Scotland and we found ourselves in... Instead, we caught some more quality entertainment in New France (in all fairness, these guys were pretty good) and then took the train back to Scotland... where all 100 of us debarking at the same time were directed to exit through the gift shop, and due to the construction of the gift shop, we had to do it single-file! Fortunately, this was something they fixed by the next night, directing everyone to exit on the other side of the station directly into the park itself. ...that unless we had Quick Queue, we were pretty much screwed if we wanted to see the "Ice Palace: A Penguin Paradise" display that night. This is a shot of that night's entrance (which changed the next day) lit up as we walked away, not wishing to spend our final 45 minutes at the park in the standby line. ...and into France, where we were told... ...back through New France... After Oktoberfest it was back through Germany... The Mistletoe Marketplace was supposed to recreate a German holiday market, which it did, I guess... if German holiday markets resemble a row of county fair-style vendors in pop-up tents. My favorite was the booth that had "Alaska Jelly"... which was a combination of pineapple and coconut. Both of which, of course, are key exports of Alaska. We rounded out our ride time in Oktoberfest with Der Katapult. She settled for the Werbelwindchen instead (also not listed on the map as being open). Lauryn wanted to ride Der Werbelwind, but she was half an inch too short. ...and Der Roto Baron (which wasn't listed on the map as being open). After dinner, we took Lauryn to ride Der Autobahn Jr.... The finale was pretty amazing. Lauryn said this was her favorite part of Christmas Town. This bit was stolen nearly step-for-step from the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, but it was well executed, nonetheless. What I got to see of "Deck the Halls" was really, really good. Unfortunately, we ended up sitting behind a woman who was saving seats for her entire family (seat saving and people lingering after their meals to see the next show (which we were guilty of) were both real problems here). I spent the first part of the show staring at her backside as she spent thre of the inaugural four songs standing up, frantically waving to her family from behind the stage in a crowd of 1,000 in close to pitch darkness. She and I had a minor altercation when I finally lost it and angrily told her, "Lady, they can't see you! Please sit down so we can watch the show!" She got mad and left. The people behind and beside me agreed that we all got the better end of the deal. After getting yelled at by two old ladies at different tables, who were apparently saving the whole table (Das Festhaus employs communal bench seating) and then some for their 47 family members in line, we finally found three seats near the back. ...and even Christmas beer! ...red and green velvet cake (more on these below)... Other offerings included Christmas cupcakes (or "pupcakes," as Lauryn calls them)... Kelly got the sausage sampler, as well, and Lauryn got soup in a bread bowl. In all, it cost us just under $43. This was the point where I started comparing Christmas Town to that evil North Pole theme park Jack Frost opens in "The Santa Clause 3." After nearly an hour in line, this is what I ended up with (the three-layer cake was Kelly and Lauryn's). The sausage sampler was spectacular as always, and the egg nog cheesecake was pretty good, too. ...because this was what greeted us as soon as we stepped inside! See, what Busch Gardens did was, they put their hands-down most popular show of Christmas Town, "Deck the Halls," and put it in their hands-down most popular restaurant... and didn't require anyone to purchase food to sit at the tables and watch the show. So the line was just under an hour long, and then once you finally got your food, there was no guarantee you were going to have a place to sit. Das Festhaus is my favorite restaurant in the park, which is unfortunate... As I was taking this photo, some creepy guy came up and started videotaping us! I gave him a funny look and started to say something, and he said, "It's OK; I work for the park." That's fine, but maybe identify yourself as such before sticking a video camera in my 5-year-old stepdaughter-to-be's face. Or at least wear and ID badge or something. Come to think of it, why wasn't he wearing an ID badge? I believed him at the time because he had a professional camera, but was there a pedophile in the park that night masquerading as a Busch Gardens employee? (Probably not... but still.) At certain intervals during the evening, it light up in different colors, syncronized to Christmas music as part of a show called "O Tannenbaum." It wasn't bad, but if you've seen one of these types of shows, you've seen them all. Reverse view. Outside, a 45-foot Christmas tree stood in front of Das Festhaus. This was easily our favorite ride of the weekend (I'd ridden it before, but neither Kelly nor Lauryn had). Our first night it was a walk-on all night. The second night there were... issues. There was a moderate line, which is fine; the park was more crowded that night. Unfortunately, the line apparently consisted of a lot of idiots because during the five minutes or so we were in the pre-show room, ride ops had to get on the P.A. system four times to tell people not to sit on the railing, not to open the "Employees Only" doors, etc. And then someone got on the P.A. system and started making loud howling and growling noises, which scared the bejesus out of all the not-so-sure-in-the-first-place kids standing in line. I fully intended to ask the op at the front of the line whose idea it was to do that when they knew the park was full of young kids for Christmas Town, but a woman several guests in front of us beat me to it and was told that "some kids" had gotten hold of the microphone. OK, how does that happen at all, in any theme park anywhere, ever, and on the off chance it does, why did it take a good two minutes for anyone to notice and/or care enough to do something about it? Where are they keeping this microphone that cast members are that far away? First stop in Oktoberfest: Curse of DarKastle! Time to cross another bridge into the Oktoberfest section of the park. The lights here reminded me of old photos I've seen of Tivoli Gardens. Whee! ...as was this nearby photo op. We calmed her down with a ride on the Kinder Carousel instead. The red and green lights and Christmas music were a nice touch... As it was, the line for Santa was so ungodly long that we told Lauryn we were going to have to wait until the next night to see him. Hell hath no fury like a 5-year-old denied the privilege of seeing Santa Claus NOW! This was when we discovered that, unlike what we were told when we purchased our tickets, they did sell Quick Queue, specifically for Santa Claus and Christmas Town's illustrious penguin display (more on that below). Had we done that, coupled with the earlier opening and later closing times than advertised, we could have easily finished Christmas Town in one night, avoiding the need for a multi-day ticket and extra night's hotel stay. I strongly considered telling Santa I wanted my wasted time and money back for Christmas. "I used to be able to see Sears from up here!" Saw forward (pause, pause, pause), saw backward (pause, pause, pause).... Come on. Wal-Mart sells better crap than that. OK, let's talk about the North Pole for a second. Yeah, Busch Gardens spent how many thousands of dollars putting Christmas Town together, yet the decorations for the centerpiece of it all, the North Pole, consist largely of a handful of animated (and I use the term loosely) elves that look strikingly similar to the ones that used to reside at Christmastime in the fountain of my local mall. At least they did from the early '70s until a few years ago when they caught fire and burned the place down.... Hey, where did the naked statue go? The castle marked the entrance to the section of Germany that was set up as the North Pole. "You are enjoying Christmas Town, das? Enjoy it or I WILL EAT YOU!!!" Anyway, as I was saying, on to Germany, where Alpengeist was closed, but this photo op lived on! My camera doesn't do well with moving objects in low-light conditions, so please accept these as my best Griffon photos of the weekend. I experienced a lot I didn't like at Christmas Town, but fair is fair: at least they had a coaster open. ...oh, wait. First, let's pause for some Griffon... through the trees! But enough of that let's walk the bridge across to... Oh, how I love the traditional holiday accordion! Welcome to New France (or as we in the U.S. like to call it, Canada)! There didn't seem to be any special effort to light up the areas around the track unless they could be seen from the footpaths, as well, which led to a number of fairly dark spots. But who needs lights when the train gives you a view like this? The train was *kind of* decorated with lights. They did some kind of funny thing where they would light up one strand at a time for awhile, and then by the time we reached the next station, they'd all come on at once. It was a bit underwhelming... but the onboard Christmas music was nice. Next up: a train ride to the other side of the park (or as Lauryn put it, "I think that's the train that takes us to Hogwarts!"). And ride them, too! OK, screw the map; let's go look at the clydesdales! Let's check the map... Now, let's sally forth into England for our first big Christmas Town experience! Oooh... sparkly! (Kelly's 5-year-old daughter, Lauryn, cried for a long time after this picture; she's been not-so-secretly hoping I'll accidentally fall asleep on some railroad tracks or something so she can go back to having Mommy all to herself--some candy usually helps things along, and I was well prepared!). First on the agenda: "Will you marry me?" Eh, it's no Spaceship Earth, but I guess it's as good a theme park event icon as any. Oh well, mistakes happen... I guess. Let's try to keep our attitudes positive and go inside. Wait, Christmas Town is open until 10 p.m.? When we bought our tickets, they told us it was only open until 9 p.m. Bonus! Oh, wait... it actually opened at 3 p.m. instead of 4 p.m., AKA the time our pre-purchased tickets say to arrive? Yeah, Busch Gardens... that kind of sucks. Christmas trees at Busch Gardens? Something must be going on!

I suck at Photoshop, but here's my valliant attempt. "And now it's time to give... all our cruisers a snack! Plex, help me pass out the Mickey Mouse pancakes! Mickey Mouse-Mouse-Mouse-Mouse...."

Sensory overload! This was an awesome TR. I especially enjoyed the concept art from the Shanghai World Expo. I was hoping to make that my big vacation this year had plans for a TPR trip fallen through (I wanted to go international, regardless).