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Drat, the first week of Spring Semester was this past week so I had to turn my attention away from this trip report, but we're back for more fun. Thanks to everyone for checking it out! We hope you're enjoying it! The next day was our trip to Genting, and if you're going to Genting, you might want to stop at peninsular Malaysia's most important Hindu shrine, Batu Caves. Then head into the big mountains, and you're at one of the most popular resorts in Malaysia. Check it out. It's barely outside of the city. We were there shortly before the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. Apparently the Hindu community shows their religious devotion through the adoption of kavadi, or "burdens", namely by putting metal spears through their skin and using hooks in their skin to carry fruit and other other offerings 15km from the city to the shrine. Just google "kavadi" for the images and you'll see what I mean. A million people show up for this thing. Then you have to walk up the 513 steps to the shrine at the top. Yes, you will be attacked by monkeys at the top. Then it was back into the car with guide Zach to Genting. Genting isn't far from the city, but it's up at the top of the mountains. You don't want to drive all the way up, but the Genting Skyway was closed for its quarterly maintenance. This forced us to take the far older and less modern Awana Skyway. Of course they jam way too many people into this skyway car, and there's no air conditioning. The tradeoff is some nice views. You can see the switchback hairpin turns on the road below. Resorts World Genting is a massive resort on the mountain top, including hotels, casinos, a golf course, shopping... ...and dining! A maze of escalators and corridors brings you to the amusement park outside. There's the Outdoor Theme Park, then a credit outside the gates of the Outdoor Theme Park, then an Indoor Theme Park. Unlimited corridors and escalators to get to unlimited fun. Finally, the impressive gate area. Unfortunately the Cyclone is one of those credits that never seems to come back online. The Malaysian parks (with the exception of Legoland) don't really seem to do a good job with the opening plaza, but there were construction walls that maybe lend hope for a better future. The park could use some updating. Zamperla swings. It's worth noting that it's a lot chillier and rainier at the mountain top resort than down in KL, which is one reason it's so popular, because people can go any time of the year to escape the oppressive heat. Lots of construction walls. Here is Cyclone, listed as SBNO on rcdb. Unilever ice cream ferris wheel First credit! Nothing too special here. I wish I could show some of the headscarves that had to be removed or adjusted in order to ride. There's the other credit, your favorite coaster and mine, a Zamperla Volare. The First World Hotel is supposed to be the world's largest hotel by number of rooms. Elissa's sage advice was to avoid the Genting hotels altogether. Elissa's usually right about these things, and the absurdly low prices for rooms at this hotel pretty much confirmed what she said. Not a single working gag. I asked our guide Zach if any of the parks had fast pass products. He didn't know what I was talking about, but after hearing my explanation, he said that he didn't think such a thing would fly in Malaysia. I still haven't told him about this. Occasionally a little micro-front would bring clouds, cold, and drizzle. I love this. We've seen queue benches, but they're pretty unusual. These seats weren't particularly well-designed, but wouldn't you like to see this kind of thing everywhere? I would. It's wasted on a Zamperla Volare, obviously, but on rides that routinely have 1-3 hour queues, it makes a lot of sense, if you have the extra space. This is the scene looking back over the lagoon. All of that track is actually two coasters. The track to the right with the brown "wooden" supports is Rolling Thunder Mine Train, which is SBNO. The coaster to the left with the green supports is Flying Dragon, which was also listed as SBNO, but we found it operating and rcdb has since changed the status. Too bad we don't count powered. Here's an attraction I wish we had skipped. We were lured in by cheesy animatronics. Two empty boat arrived very 10 minutes or so, and it took 3 cycles for us to get on. Wow. You enter a cave, the entrance closes, the boat stops, and you are miraculously transported to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Afterwards we saw Flying Dragon operating, but we couldn't find a station, so we headed into the Indoor Amusement Park. The indoor amusement park is in a giant mall with shopping and dining, with a bunch of theming. It's called First World Indoor Amusement Park. Here is the powered Euro Express, which was fun. Another Kenny Rogers Roasters? I finally read up on the chain, which had up to 1,000 restaurants at one time. The last North American one closed in 2011, and the chain now only operates in Asia, owned by the Malaysian Berjaya Group. This bizarre indoor gondola ride was down for refurb. There were two more track rides above, a Peter Pan type of ceiling-tracked rides (which was in an earlier shot) and this reindeer ride. Somewhere in there was the indoor skydiving thing. Has anyone ever done one? We always pass them by. We walked around a bit and found the ginormous lobby and hotel check-in area. It was a bit overwhelming. Then we snagged our ride on Flying Dragon, which had been closed for a worker break. This track actually goes outside into the Outdoor Park, and through a closed station. Apparently, that used to be the main station, which is why the coaster is listed in the Outdoor Park. We have learned to trust Pizza Hut in Asia. Here's the huge bus and taxi area for the resort. We met Zach the Guide and headed back down the mountain. Coming down the mountain from Genting back to KL. Scary. We're going to say goodbye to KL and head back to Singapore. Next Up: Universal Studios Singapore!

^^^ I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to eat Kenny Rogers' Roasters in the States! And the monkeys were definitely some of the most disturbing..er..entities in Malaysia. I wish there was a Taiko monkey smiley for this moment.

Yaaaayyyyyyy!!!! I love it when we make the front page. Thank you TPR God and Goddess and the Moderator Angels! After Sunway Lagoon, we headed to the other park within the city's confines, Berjaya Times Square, which is located inside a big mall. According to our guide Zach, Malaysians are totally into mall culture, hanging out in a mall for hours and hours. So it seems that it's a natural place for a fun park. (Scroll down after Times Square pics for the Genting Highland Photos!) Apparently Borders isn't bankrupt everywhere? We didn't go looking for the store, preferring that its status remains shrouded in mystery. Welcome to BTS! There's the sign for the park, and this would not be the last time that we would see Kenny Rogers Roasters in Malaysia. Lots of places were decked out for Chinese New Year. WTF? Awesome. Yay! This is what we're looking for, Supersonic Odyssey. The place is a bit of a maze on several levels, with rides and stuff distributed in seeming random fashion. I started to appreciate that there was some pretty decent theming. There was a lot of good theming around the park. It didn't look splashy new, but you could see that they'd brought in some pros to do it. Of course, it didn't cover every inch. Character Meet and Greet This was a kiddy area, which had really dense, busy theming. There's a glimpse of Supersonic Odyssey. Those bee things were everywhere. Supersonic Odyssey was FUN! Nothing too extreme. Just a fun, 3-inversion lift hill Intamin. This was pretty much the only coaster in Malaysia that we rode more than once. More Supersonic Odyssey. This reminded me of a Condor but I'm not sure what it is, exactly. Note Supersonic Odyssey below... ...and above. Into the brake run. We saw these weird wax hands for sale in various places. Some other cheesy crap. I had some quasi-bubble tea stuff that was pure flavored powered sugar, kept in these containers. They add stuff called "jelly" which sort of tastes and looks like artificial mango. There was "jelly" in a coffee I bought in China. Cheryl could not resist a sweet, crispy, spicy treat of some sort. The next day we did a little sightseeing, including a visit to the Petronas Towers, which were the tallest buildings in the world 1998-2004. They are now the 3rd tallest after Burj Khalifa and Taipei 101. In the evening our guide took us to this famous hilltop, site of some 19th C. battles... ...and we subsequently watched other tourists, who purchased food from the vendors, being attacked by monkeys. The "friendly" monkeys jumped on you for food. The unfriendly monkeys were to be avoided altogether. Then we did this beautiful thing at dusk in Kuala Selangor. We got into a boat with a guy rowing it from the back, and we rowed onto this river into the darkness, and you see these trees on the banks all lit up with twinkly white Christmas lights, but it's really fireflies! It was otherwise pitch black, and then we heard the call to prayer from a mosque in the distance. It was just a really cool experience. Unfortunately my camera couldn't get the fireflies in the dark. But it was a very memorable experience. Thanks for visiting Berjaya Times Square and KL with us! Next stop: The Bizarreness of Genting Highlands! (Scroll down for Genting pics!)

So, they were just "average" great hornbills? lol They were OK.

Because we live in a society where people have realized that if they complain enough, they'll get whatever they want from businesses. Most places are managed by completely clueless idiots that rarely leave their desks, and spend their days napping and looking at goat porn in the internet, and really don't care what abuses the front line people take as long as the cash (and their bonuses) keep rolling in. They're so afraid a customer will post a complaint to Yelp or Facebook or whatever that might threaten their bottom line (and more importantly, their bonus), they just bend over to whatever insane demand the latest crazy person is making, rather than occasionally telling some malcontent that no, the rules do actually apply to them, and telling them to go pound sand instead of giving into their insane demands. This is sad, but this is what happens when you have a society that tells everyone they're an unique individual special snowflake. I personally wish more companies would have a backbone and stand up to these people. I certainly try to patronize businesses that don't let the crazy walk all over them. dt Goat porn? LOL

Cheryl and I have now devoted our lives to trying to maintain our status on Delta even though we no longer have that trans-Atlantic commute. In service to that quest, we did the Malaysia/Singapore thing, which turned out to be a very fun trip. Just an FYI, getting out to these locations is a LONG freaking ride. Be prepared not to be able to feel your ass for a few days after the flight, unless you're flying in Business, where you can at least lie down and let other parts of your body take the punishment of approximately 20 hours of flying (from the East Coast). I believe that the Singapore Airlines all-business-class flight from EWR to SIN is the longest commercial flight currently offered, but we couldn't afford that and we need Delta miles, so this was JFK-NRT-SIN-KUL-SIN-NRT-JFK with the SIN-KUL-SIN segments on Air Asia (thanks for the rec, Elissa!) and the rest on Delta. We were a little nervous because Malaysia was our first Muslim country (We know, not necessarily a big deal except that we happen to be ethnically, if not religiously, Jewish). Malaysia also doesn't recognize the State of Israel, which we find bothersome, but we swallowed our Jewish pride and went for it anyway. It turned out to be a great experience. This is how I roll. This is the Crowne Plaza at Changi Airport in Singapore, the only hotel on airport property. We got in at about 02:00 and had a flight at 08:00. At least we got to shower and sleep for a few hours. Woe be unto those who forgot that they had a joint on them. Then it was on to Kuala Lumpur via Air Asia. Elissa recommended them and they were great. After getting picked up by our very cool guide, Zach, we headed to the premier KL amusement park, Sunway Lagoon. You have to rent this little wristband to get in. If you don't use it to store cash, it's pretty much otherwise useless. When you return it you get a deposit back. It really doesn't look like much when you walk in, which is deceptive. It's a pretty big tract of land. Here's the one credit (not counting a powered). It's a Soquet mine train. They're surprisingly smooth, IMHO. Another pic of the credit. I seem to not have gotten any good shots. There are also some tigers near the entrance, which hint at the park's zoo section. While there is a steep moat separating the tigers from guests (Cheryl thought that Richard Parker was going to roll off the cliff in his sleep), this is one of those places where you know that a reasonably motivated tiger is going to one day get loose and kill a guest or two. There are some so-so flats (teacups and a pirate ship) but then you see this. This is really really cool! It's not that high up, but Cheryl actually got a touch of vertigo. To the left you can see the massive Tornado they're building for their waterpark section, called Vuvuzela. I'm working on finding out if it's ProSlide or not. I'm pretty sure it's not, due to some unfamiliar markings on the tubes. Some decent theming on the right. Here's the view looking back the way we'd come. Here are more pieces of Vuvuzela. An archery booth. We've seen these before in our travels, and it's one of those attractions that you're unlikely to ever see in the U.S. And for the go-karters... There was also a short but fun ATV course, which we did. For some reason, the most challenging part of the course is right at the beginning. I wanted to suggest changing the order of sections so that the difficult part came at the end, when people have become a little more used to the machine, but I kept my mouth shut. They make you wear hairnets and elbow and knee pads. All of this stuff except for a slingshot and a zipline are included in the entry price. We saw a lot of Malaysian women wearing hijab type headscarves, but occasionally we would see niqab clothing with veils covering all but the eyes. There is a lot of tourism from the Arab countries to Malaysia. This further confused me regarding the need for the waterproof bracelet. Flow Rider, again, I think included. Lazy river. The weather was hot and muggy, but we hadn't planned on doing the water park. More slides, including a Burmese Python. And the real thing. I think. This could have been the boa. American prairie dogs in the zoo! Crocs. Some great hornbills. I mean, they weren't that great, but that's their name. So it's not a great traditional amusement park because of the dearth of coasters and flats, but there is a little bit here for everyone. Thanks for visiting. Next up will be Berjaya Times Square.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-daily-disney/os-disney-no-expiration-tickets-chnanges-20130123,0,6094699.story We bought our 10-day non-expiring tickets at AAA. We want to take advantage of the MyMagic system, but does it preclude the multi-day non-expiring tickets? I have to read some of the other threads on MyMagic and NextGen.

Elissa called it.

So this is "on" again? Forgive me Larry, I think the last time I asked you about this, the principals involved had had a falling out. I take it that it's now water under the bridge? Sorry for not following the thread closely enough. I was not a good online participant this last year.

Whoops, forgot one park. So that makes it 72 parks for 2012. If you haven't already, check out one photo for every park we hit in 2012, starting on page 6.

Either Supersonic Odyssey at Times Square Kuala Lumpur or Lost City of Gold at Sunway Lagoon.

I didn't like this park so much when I visited in 2010, with the exception of Thomas Town, which was beautiful. I do remember getting stuck on a long line for G-Force. On the other hand, I think we rushed through the park to get the credits and move on. As Neil said, Ben 10 looks like a great addition. I'll have to give it another chance on the next visit. Super nice photos in your report, btw, especially the shots against the clouds. Very cool.

Cool thread. Mantis, Cedar Point, 1996 Outer Limits: Flight of Fear (now Flight of Fear), at then Paramount's Kings Dominion, 1996 Tony Hawk's Big Spin (now Pandemonium), SFoTx, 2008 Dominator, Kings Dominion, 2008 (But had moved from Geauga Lake) Ravine Flyer II, Waldameer, 2008 T Express, Everland, 2008 Kawasemi, Tobu Zoo, 2008 blue fire Megacoaster, Europa Park, 2008 Diamondback, Kings Island, 2009 Familie-achtbaan, Billy Bird Park Hemelrijk, 2009 Anubis: The Ride, Plopsaland, 2009 Mumbo Jumbo, Flamingoland, 2009 Thirteen, Alton Towers, 2010 Tickler and Circus Coaster at Luna Park Coney Island Opening Year, 2010 Little Dipper, SFGAm, 2010 (but had moved from Kiddieland) Ukko, Linnanmäki, 2011 Twister, Gröna Lund, 2011 Steeplechase Cavalry Coaster, Scream Zone Coney Island, 2011 Intimidator 305, Kings Dominion, 2011 Dare Devil Dive, SFoG, 2011 Wooden Warrior, Quassy, 2011 Green Lantern and Road Runner Express, SFMM, 2011 Both Coasters at Glenwood Caverns, 2012, but both moved from other parks X-Flight, SFGAm, 2012 Dauling Dragons, Happy Valley Wuhan, 2012 A lot of other crap in China that supposedly opened in 2012 but most of it rides like it was built in 1972 Can't list Falcon and Dragon Fly at Duinrell (2009, 2012) or Rolling Thunder at SFGAdv (1979) because those were my home parks at the time.

Werner, we have to come back for the new Toverland credit!

Great stuff.

Thanks, both of you, I really appreciate it. We're doing the Mexico trip and we're trying to join the Japan trip at the beginning or the end.

It's that time of year again, and this seems to be the nearest thing to a holiday letter that I do, so Happy Holidays everyone! This was my worst year of online TPR participation since joining, so this really feels good to be posting again after so long. This was a year of transition for us. After 3 1/2 years of Cheryl and me commuting trans-Atlantically, I gave up my teaching position in Holland and took an assistant professorship in an equally exotic place: Long Island, New York. I'm still studying the local culture. Fortunately, I can see Adventureland from campus. In spite of the transition, it was still a very decent theme park year for us, starting out in Guatemala/Costa Rica and including major trips to Italy on our own and China with TPR, as well as some great North America trips to Colorado, Utah, Montreal, and Upstate New York/Western PA. We managed to hit 70+ parks again for the third or fourth year in a row. This was also the first year that we have ever gone to Orlando *twice*, which is just weird to me. Before taking up this hobby seriously, my visits to WDW averaged every *10* years! Another major achievement this year was actually "finishing" the Netherlands, nabbing all 45 credits. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your POV, Toverland has a new coaster that opened up after we left, so we need to head back there in the Spring-time to mop up again. This year's itineraries eerily foreshadowed TPR's, which wasn't planned. We would always rather do the trips with TPR than without, but school schedules are very hard to work around. We did love the China Trip (Part I) that we did with TPR, and we really look forward to 2013's Mexico Trip and at least part of the Japan Trip. Anyway, Happy New Year Everyone! May your coasters be smooth and your airtime be ejector! Mundo Petapa (Guatemala) Parque de Diversiones Dr. Roberto Ortiz Brenes (Costa Rica) Uncle Bernie's WDW - Magic Kingdom (February and November) WDW - Disney's Animal Kingdom WDW - Disney's Hollywood Studios WDW - EPCOT (February and November) Legoland Florida Duinrell (Dragon Fly Preview) (Netherlands) Zoosafari e Fasanolandia (Italy) Miragica (Italy) Gomma Park (Italy) Liberty City Fun (Italy) Arcolandia Pacifico (Italy) Bonus Park: Girabilandia (This park must have gone out of business shortly before our visit in April. Looked to be somewhat maintained, but it was closed. Now listed as defunct). (Italy) Edenlandia (Italy) Magic World (Italy) Rainbow Magicland (Italy) Zoomarine (Italy) Italia in Miniatura (Italy) Fiabilandia (Italy) Mirabilandia (Italy) Gardaland (Italy) Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park Stratosphere Carowinds Coney Island (Scream Zone, Luna Park, Deno's) Sylvan Beach Seabreeze Darien Lake Martin's Fantasy Island Marineland Canada Waldameer Conneaut Lake Park Kennywood Steel Pier Go Bananas! (Norridge, IL) Safari Land Santa's Village Azoosment Park Six Flags Great America Michigan's Adventure Hoge Beukel Speelpark (Netherlands) De Waarbeek (Netherlands) Amusementspark Tivoli (Netherlands) De Valkenier DippieDoe/Aquabest (Netherlands) LaRonde Lagoon Crab Island Children's Theme Park (TPR China Tour 2012) Crab Island Resort (TPR China Tour 2012) Aoyun Fuwa Paradise/Fuwa Eden (TPR China Tour 2012) Beijing World Park (TPR China Tour 2012) Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park (TPR China Tour 2012) Sun Park (TPR China Tour 2012) Happy Valley Beijing (TPR China Tour 2012) Victory Kingdom (TPR China Tour 2012) Youth Center (TPR China Tour 2012) Langfang Children's Paradise (TPR China Tour 2012) Floraland (TPR China Tour 2012) People's Park (Chengdu) (TPR China Tour 2012) Xinhua Park (Chengdu) (TPR China Tour 2012) Happy Valley Chengdu (TPR China Tour 2012) Happy Valley Wuhan (TPR China Tour 2012) Wuhan Peace Park (TPR China Tour 2012) Wuhan Zhongshan Park (TPR China Tour 2012) Universal Islands of Adventure Universal Studios Florida Lakeside (Whoops, forgot this one. Should be up there after Glenwood Caverns). Thanks for checking out my report! Six Flags Great Adventure (Another whoops, forgot this Halloween visit).

I watch a lot of on-demand and Netflix, mostly streaming but DVDs too. I buy a few DVDs, but rarely. Should probably upgrade to Blu-Ray, right?

Great report! Love TPR trips!

Awesome Chuck, great report! We're overdue for a return to BGW. See you in China!

Great stuff, thanks for sharing!

Yeah, I had a Lola Starr Coney Island shirt on and Cheryl had a retro Great Adventure shirt on. Not really standard coaster enthusiast garb. Cool to hear about the fun house. At which attraction would we have found you?

There were two in California, one in San Bernardino County (Skyforest) and one in Santa Cruz County (Scotts Valley). I would have to guess you're from Southern Cal, Chuck? I found a fansite for these parks. Apparently they had quite a following.

Agreed that it's a great addition. Awesome park with lots of natural charm!

I recently attended my fraternity's annual convention in Chicago, and then Cheryl met me and we went a-whoring for credits, first in the Chicagoland area, and then we zipped up to Muskegon for Michigan's Adventure. Enjoy the report! Day 1: Chicagoland! Our first stop was Go Bananas in Norridge. As you can see, they have games, birthdays, rides, and a monkey. And bananas. Some places are skittish about letting adults in without kids, which really sucks if you're a childless credit whore pushing 50. I've never been explicitly hassled because Cheryl and I go as a couple. Of course, we've dealt with the "no-kids-no-ride" challenge. I think it's simply discriminatory. In any case, we'd called ahead this time. Why go to Rainforest Cafe when you can have this? Credit. Haunted Trails in Burbank was an interesting place. In most ways it was a standard FEC, with a birthday party room, video arcade, batting cages, go-karts, and rides. The difference was a haunted mini-golf course with pretty good theming. I also see on the website that they have a theater that presents educational programs. Crazy. CFTBL 18th Hole. Credit. Safari Land is another FEC. I know you're wondering: Yes, they have giraffes. And elephants. And an indoor Tilt-a-Whirl! Credit. Santa's Village AZoosment Park was the last FEC of the day. This park actually has quite a history. This park in Dundee, Illinois was actually one of 3 different Santa's Village parks built in the 1950's. The first 2 were in California, opening in 1954 (before Disneyland!), and 1957. The Illinois park opened in 1959. All 3 parks eventually went bust. The Illinois park lasted longer than the others, finally going bankrupt in 2006. This park has had 8 different coasters over the years. The new owners re-opened last year, giving over part of the land to a paintball facility. Tons of kiddie flats and it was crowded. Live carousel. Cheryl found this disturbing. You could ride in Santa's sleigh pulled by draft horses. There were some reindeer but they had the day off it seems. Cheryl finds all animal employment disturbing. She even asks about Mickey Mouse's hours and working conditions. There are animals, because it's an AZoosment park. Abandoned funhouse beyond the fence. Credit. We then drove up to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee. It was pretty packed. We had two credits to get here. During our visit to SFGA on the *amazing* TPR Middle America Tour of 2011, American Eagle Red only operated during part of the day and we missed it. The other credit we needed was X-Flight. It was hot and crowded. We only had a couple of hours because we had a dinner date with an old college buddy that evening. We sprang for the obscenely-priced Platinum Flash Pass and guess what? No Flash Pass on American Eagle! Then we got line jumped by one kid. When another kid tried to follow, I blew up at him. I don't feel good about this. But sometimes you have to yell at those smaller and younger than yourself in order to feel like a man. On the plus side, American Eagle was a lot of fun. First time I've seen one of these at a Six Flags. Are they an upcharge? Have they been installed at other Six Flags parks? This was the other credit we needed. One annoyance was that there was only a turnstile and no park employee when the Flash Pass line merged with the regular line. I don't mind getting what I paid for, but when you actually have to merge with people giving you dirty looks, that sucks. There should be someone there to stop traffic and let you in. This was my favorite element, spinning to get through the opening in the tower. These rides are fun, and I'm sure they're great for the park as they are family-doable and re-rideable. I can understand people really liking these coasters, but they're just not my thing. I did like X-Flight better than Raptor at Gardaland, but I have to say that, if I had to pick a coaster model that was going to become popular and get built at many different parks, this wouldn't be it. As "wing riders" go, I strongly prefer Furius Baco or the 4th Dimension coasters. Of course, they're less family-friendly. And to be sure, I've got nothing against B&M. I'd rather that every park build a B&M Dive Machine. Did Busch Gardens work out some exclusive agreement that prevented duplication at other parks? Thanks so much for checking out Part I! Coming up, Part II! Michigan's Adventure!