Nrthwnd

Great Thread Title! And I look forward to checking up, several of your past TRs. I know others have done this too, but yours is (I'd say) The Most Recent One, to get into. And it also makes me think about maybe doing the same, for all my travel threads. Bunching them together in one where-to-find thread. A Personal TR Library of a kind, hmmm? Works for me!

Sorry for backing up here, but I love the shot of the two (shall we call them?) "old style simulator rides," side by side each other in Dutch Wonderland. Both Voyager and Astroliner are nice, old-tech rides that I think, when still kept in shape, are always fun to go on. And thanks for another great shot of the Dutch Wonder House. I still want to go there and ride that one. One of the best looking, retro mad houses/haunted swings out there, in the World IMhO! Thanks for all of the above in your on going TR!

The AMTRAK Ride Down: Day 1 I have taken the train many times, over the years. Most were good trips. Others had their "issues," most of which ended up being late arrivals. But then, I have been on many plane trips where stuff happened, usually while at the airport, and some times even ending up spending overnight at a hotel because of a cancellation. No matter. I took the train down to California three years ago, to Knott's SFMM and Disney. Worst thing that happened was being stalled in Sacramento on the way home, due to a freight train being "in the way." But, I survived. This time, with David, I repeated that trip for us, which had our own private space (i.e. a 'roomette') to retreat to during the ride. And meals were included in the price, so that meant 5 times to enjoy AMTRAK cuisine, which isn't too bad, actually. Two lunches, two dinners and one breakfast in between. The trip down went very well, although I could tell all the onboard staff were eager to return to their home base, Los Angeles. They kept telling anybody how great it was to be heading back home, blah blah blah. Also, the guy who made the meal announcements kept talking and talking and repeating himself so much, it was getting rather obnoxious to listen to. Coming home, the dining room guy was much more discreet, to the point. and more helpful than I felt our first one was. Minor complaints, though. For sleeping, David had agree to take the upper bunk in our room, which turned into (we called it) an "open coffin." No window to look out of, and the air flow thing was directly above him, and had to be turned down our one overnight, or he would catch cold, or something like that. Coming back, he did contract something in the form of a dry sore throat and coughing. But that was the end of the trip, so we tackled it when we got home, and he's better now. And, of all things, we arrived early at Union Station in Los Angeles! Only a half hour, but we still arrived early. (o: P.S. Forgot to add. Our train trip didn't start in Vancouver. It started in Seattle, so we had to bus it (5:30am departure) down I-5 which included crossing the border. Border crossing went fine, although we had to wait several minutes till an officer decided to show up and get us through. And the bus ride the rest of the way went fine, with no hiccups. Here's our first day photos, all through California, while on the train... My rudimentary, but still useful, "Travel Envelope." First shot, from the bus, in Washington State. On the rails now, heading towards Portland. Dining Car staff are prepared and ready to serve us for lunch, then dinner. Ooooo glow-in-the-dark Emergency Info.stickers in our roomette. A green bridge over......? An Island. Houseboats that look like they're about ready to sink. And another green bridge over....? Heading towards Portland. Yes Elissa, this train was again in Portland Station, although the numbers have changed. Sept.2016. Portland Station. It seems like every station in U.S. cities, is called Union Station. Leaving Portland. Fields of Greens. One of many orchards, along the way. David checking out his photo options. Dinner - David had the "Surf & Turf", a nice steak with a big crab cake. His was good. I had the flank steak with TONS of green beans! My meal was good, too. Last shot of the night. Another long day of travel, tomorrow.

^ But. It's still September... Isn't it?

^ Those Rikers Were Meanies! Anyway....idiots. Glad you got it figured out, and got some apps and drinks thrown your way. Loved the Service Dog BEANIE BABY! Looking forward to the Bunny Hutch party pix that you got, Bert!

Mmmmmm Tokyo Disneyland Goodness! Great start to your trip, Robb! The waffles look gorgeous, the Dream Lights Parade looks wonderful...and when you've ridden The Best Pooh of All.... and robot servers! I do miss Tokyo and Disneyland/sea, all of it! Looking forward to lots more cool Disney stuff, Robb!

^ Cool. Thanks for all this info. Robb. I obviously missed what you originally posted about it all. Thanks for the recap. Speaking of (carbonated) bubbles... One of The Best Souvenirs David ever got! (o: And I want more of them! There was one also made with Ariel on it, but I definitely preferred Mickey's Sorcerer's App. version! Oooooo sparkle. Needs to be kept upright, or a leak "could occur." We didn't...and it did. (o; Lights mash it up. This is the "Down Switch." The Middle = Off. And the "Up Switch" = BUbBbbBLESssssssssss! Fun toy.

^ + ^^ Yeah, that was pretty bizzare with the original ban on the things. Then, they lifted it. Just being careful, I guess. But - that may be the only version of Coke she was able to get, in Oga's. We found that there were only two places you could get the "Special Bottles" (for COKE, Diet Coke, and Sprite). And they were literally what I'd call "pop up carts" in Black Spire Post. They weren't listed on the guide map of the place, either. So you just find them by chance, like we did. Which actually, I loved about the place! The signage was at a minimum, and there were lots of things to come across, or discover there. And if you had any passing knowledge of what was there, it was pretty easy to find everything. The eateries were both (sort of) next to each other, so they were easy to find. As were the shops, and the snack spots, like for those milks and the popcorn. We both really enjoyed the 'adventuring' around, even though the heat was heck every day. In the two eateries (Ronto Roasters, & Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo) they only served COKE and the other beverages via fountain servings, in cups. The regular shaped bottles were found all over both parks in carts, as well. But not in Black Spire Post. Just the "special" ones, were sold there. That I remember. Could be wrong, as we probably didn't discover everything there, I betcha. P.S. Each one cost about $5.50 per bottle. I got mine, and drank the contents up, before we headed into Oga's Cantina.

Preach. Loved it totally, immediately! Back in 2010. Our on-ride pic of iSpeed, back then. Me, Jon & definitely Robb enjoying the ride.

Stand By Me ~ Ben E. King

^Totally agree on this time machine idea, lol! As old as I am now, I still remember that first trip to New York in March, 1976. I remember that there was still smoking on an airplane, of which I still did. And we had to circle a couple of times around New York City, because we "needed to burn fuel off" I somewhat remember, heh. The good old United Airlines days! "Chicago", as well as "A Chorus Line", "Pacific Overtures" and even "The Norman Conquests" were original first-time Broadway offerings for me, that first visit. And I remember seeing Richard Burton in "Equus." And Vanessa Redgrave in Ibsen's "The Lady From The Sea". What a first time visit, that was!

Drievliet and Duinrell were both fun parks I remember, in their own way. I liked Duinrell a bit better because all of the park was in the shade with lots of trees. But Drievlet had it's charm too, and especially with Formule-X as it's main coaster to ride. Much fun. Thanks for the report and photos of these two neat Dutch parks, Larry.

^ YUCK. That actually reminded me, of a protein spill on Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters in DCA, of all places! Happened over a week ago, while we were visiting. The whole attraction stopped, until 'the mess' was cleaned up. It was amusing to watch, although I would have rather witnessed what actually happened, euuuuuuuw.

Happy National BATMAN Day today!

^ Darnit. Missed the date completely! Well, we were still getting over our trip to S.California, so that's my excuse, I'm old, and I'm sticking to it, lol. P.S. The burger looks great, by the way. But it is National Batman Day today! Happy BD! And just because...

^^ Money, money, money...... possibly?

^ And I shall do my best, to either offend no one... or offend EVERYONE with this TR. And for your nice comment thanks, here's an actual photo from The Trip. An advance look-see. W/no explanation needed? ......Just yet? Sept.12/19. (DbM)

^"For the record" (ha) my fave is still the original "Chicago" Broadway cast album, with Gwen Verdon (Roxie), Chita Rivera (Velma) and Jerry Orbach (Billy Flynn). And it's mainly because I did get to see it all on stage in New York, way back in...1976? Visually, it took my breath away, and book wise, it was hysterical...really! And course, Verdon and Rivera in the flesh, 15 rows away... A book which used a scene from "Chicago" on it's cover. It's the Cell Block Tango! And that's Chita up front, and centre. (o:

"This trip began, well over a year ago..." So here it is, our trip to S.California, on the train, to Knott's Berry Farm and the Disneyland Resort. This trip was originally planned, with the possible attending another West Coast Bash in early September. This would also include a trip up to Magic Mountain. But, their newest coaster wasn't going to be up and running by this time, so a WCB wasn't planned, which was understandable. But that certainly didn't stop us from continuing our planning, and in the end, it was a great trip. But first, three things to comment on, before I get going day-by-day with the TR: AMTRAK: The Ride: I had taken the train down to LA before, for my first WCB in 2016. It's a 36 hour journey, but I decided to pamper myself and got the "roomette" which was a sleeper room (closet?), that also included five meals on the way there. No alcohol included, though. So naturally, I/we did this again, and the trip down was pretty standard, with very few...uh...'hiccups' along the way? Fact is, we actually arrived in Los Angeles 1/2 hour before our scheduled arrival time! Nice surprise. That was the trip down. Coming back up to home? Um, that's another story which I will save for the end of the TR. It's a goody. The Heat: We knew that the weather was going to be hot down there. But nothing prepared us for 90-95'F, every day, with a lot of humidity, and some times with little or no shade in the parks. Thankfully, most indoor areas, including attractions were fully air conditioned so that helped. But our first day at Knott's was one of the 95'+ days, and I nearly passed out halfway through the day there, so David told me. That's when we got into our Midday Rest mode, for Knott's at least. Back to the Knott's Hotel (where we stayed for the whole visit) for a couple of hours, then back to the park somewhat refreshed. With the Disney Resort it was harder to deal with, as we were a 20-25 min. shuttle ride (each way) to Disney from the Knott's Hotel. And there were scheduled times for their schedule, going there and back, we couldn't fit into what we wanted to do. So the "entire day(s) at Disney" were drastically shortened, and we ended up having to miss both Disneyland shows (Fantasmic! and the Main Street Electrical Parade), in order to get back sooner to our hotel. But - we did still get to see "World of Color" one evening, and that was great. And after all that, we get home....and I find I have lost 8-9 pounds! David, not so much. But still, all that sweating, all that drinking liquids (no carbonated drinks at all, except that one "special" Coke in SW:GE), and plenty of walking around, turned into my unintended Diet Plan for the trip, lol! Woo hoo! No Cell Phones: We don't own them , and although we considered getting "pay as you go" ones, we never did get them. And there were really only two instances where we really did need help, in 1) changing a shuttle pickup time at Disney, and 2) cancelling an already reserved dinner-show package for Fantasmic!. Both times, the wonderful cast members at Guest Services in the Disneyland City Hall helped us easily, efficiently and of course, with the most friendly attitudes you could imagine. I definitely sent them a thank you email, when we returned home. So this is the stuff to get out of the way, for now. TR starts next week. Stay tooned till then. I still keep info. and stuff in regular old envelopes. Still works after all these years, for me. And yes Elissa, we took this mode of transport down to California. And back. (This was the photo I took, at Portland Station, on my 2016 trip.) Where the #460 bus to Disney could be picked up for early morning entry. But we ultimately never used it. All the photos are now filed into their respective trip dates. And the souvenirs, too! (o: The supposed route we thought our taxi driver would take from Union Station. But he didn't do this route. But it still paid off for us, and saved us nearly 2 hours of waiting for a connecting train to Knott's.

Forgot to mention, we did see (my 2nd time) the truncated LIVE version of Disney's FROZEN, onstage at the Hyperion Theater in DCA. Three years ago, it was Fast Passes and ending up in the upper upper balcony that time. This time, we only had to just show up and be there a rough 1/2 hour before they let us in. Filled up fast, and we ended up in "center orchestra seats"...... "on the aisle" Great show to see and hear again, Everybody was great, especially the two actors playing Anna and Elsa. Big powerful voices for such a version of this show. And the whole thing played as fresh as it did for me, three years ago. Bravo! But - boy they turned down the heat for the "snow effect". We used seeing this show, as a way to cool down a bit from the heat outside. But, really! This was turning the other way for us, and we were getting slightly "chilled". Fortunately, it didn't last that long. Whew! Sept.10/19. The 5-pm show.

here's a random t-t-t-train of thought, woo wooooo! One week ago today, was our second-to-last day at the Disney Resort. And that day was The Day we got our reservation done at Oga's Cantina in Black Spire Post / Battuu / wherever that place was supposed to be! Fun bar, some indescribable drinks, and some fun interaction with other park goers. But two weeks ago today, was the second day of our train travel, to Los Angeles, arriving late that night, getting a wild taste of LA freeways, taxi drivers, and other BIG cars, on our way to our hotel. So way back then, Our New Adventure Was About To Start! And just back then, it was about to end.

The whole trip report is going to start coming out next week. But I did want to post here, the One Burger we actually had on this S.California trip, by train, to Knott's and Disney. We ate it at the Smokejumper's Grill inside the Grizzly Peak "land" of DCA. I had eaten there three years ago, and remember it not only being good food, BUT you could also imbibe a bit if you chose to do so. And.......I wish I did so. But....I did not do so. It was a nice cheeseburger with bacon on it. The taste was a 'smoky' one, like a BBQ taste should be. It was good. Not great. But an okay, nice, good burger. And a vanilla milkshake, too. And onion ring things. I mean, why not? (o; Sept.10/19.

^ Ok, then! Noted, thanks.

OG = ....Old Guard? Thought I would ask. ^ And I got nine rides on TROY! that one visit (2008) I did, with TPR. I still miss Toverland. Thanks for the new photos of the park you took, A.J.

This is what the Disneyland Resort did at their entry gates, when we were there over a week ago. Although all we had, were four day park-hopper passes, they were on paper as we don't have cell phones . We each gave ours to the nice lady at our gate, she smiled and said "smile", we did, and our cards were instantly given to us. Very easy thing to do. Our Knott's hotel keys, which were rather...uh....back dated(?), beside our Disney Resort park-hopper passes. David got the Falcon. And of course, I got Midway Mania. (o;