Nrthwnd

This may the obvious start of wooden coaster companies, designing and building more unique, smaller wood coasters, that have to adapt to location, height, and the general area. The big ones have been built, and built, and re-built, these several years we're in right now. ZDT's hit coaster (I'm reading) proves it can be done, with enough design work and engineering to pull it all off. My five cents.

House of The Rising Sun The Animals

3/10 Halloween!

^ That looks like a very cool way to theme an El Loco!

Moist

Reminder to self: Do not set laundry facilities on fire....ever. Major Sadness. Our cat Stella got bitten near her tail base, some time after we came back and started letting her go out on her own, again. She's at the SPCA now, and we're picking her up in a couple of hours. But now she's got a stint in her, and a "cone of shame" on, heh. And of course, multiple instructions on when, why and what to give her, feed her, do for her, etc. And same time yesterday --- our WATER HEATER started with major dripping the same time as Stella's 'event'. So, we now have to replace it - and we're doing so, tomorrow. After Stella comes home today. So we will have to keep Stella upstairs, with her cone on, while they remove the old, and replace with the new heater. And we have to move Major Stuff in the basement, to allow them a wide path for moving the two heaters.... It's going to be a tense week or so, especially with Stella. Thankfully, we're not doing anything major, except food shopping, movie going, lottery ticket buying and such.

Great TR Aaron! I just went to my park's Haunt Night, and honestly, I would trade it easily for what you just visited, lol. And I agree with Chuck, the Carousel ride sounds great! Here, they left the pathways open among the kids' rides, but they were all mostly themed up with scary and gory stuff, which is better than not doing anything to them at all. But you couldn't ride any of them Still, a temp.enclosed merry-go-round with indoor effects and scares would have been cool, here. Thanks for sharing your visit!

My off-season started after last night, after I went to Playland's (PNE) Fright Night, in Vancouver. Nothing to do after this, except stay at home, get through the winter, and live vicariously through all of you who still have year-round parks to go to, LOL. As I left Fright Night, I took this parting shot of The Beast and Wave Swinger. 10:15pm

I went to Fright Night last night. And while one or two of the Haunt Houses were not much more than copies of each other, there were a few I did enjoy more, and even got some rides in, thanks to having the Rapid Pass Ticket for the night. The ticket is more than double the cost of regular admission, but by the time I was entering the haunts, the time saved was worth buying it. I was saving up to over an hour's time in a couple of the more popular haunts (Doll Factory and Fear). And getting a night ride on Coaster was great, since I rarely ever ride it at night, during the PNE, etc. And somehow, I got through a ride on The Beast a fourth time, without hurling afterwards. There were two live shows to see. One involving hammering nails in noses, hands, heads etc. And the other was with FIRE! Of the two, I chose FIRE. Here's the photos I took. Sorry for the blurriness in a lot of them, but night photos I am still learning to take, especially with moving lights and fire in the shots. Entrance to Fright Nights First up - DARKNESS. Facade for DARKNESS. HOLLYWOOD HORRORS. Cheesy, but fun. AtmosFEAR looks great at night. FEAR, one of the favourites of the crowd there. I enjoyed it too. Tasteful dioramas on either side of the SANITARIUM BAR. Where I had a nice evening cocktail. ASYLUM. It was okay, nothing special. FIRE is always good - especially when it heats you up. The set for the "Radiant Heat Fire Performance". The show starts. Somebody's having a nightmare...with FIRE! Fire that swings around. That's a hula-hoop of Fire, there on the left. Multi fires! The permanent (for now) onsite HAUNTED MANSION still pulled in the crowds. I leave Fright Nights with the ride lights still blazing, the fog still pouring over Playland.

After the meal, the rest of my visit was spent wandering around the park, catching a few flat rides that weren't too busy. Got one more ride each on Goliath and Express, even though lines were a bit longer than first riding them, but that was okay. And then, headed back to Amsterdam, back to the hotel room, and then later on, some more wandering through the city, and eventually, dinner! I met up with (2 of the 3) mascots of Walibi Holland. I later found out, that the female mascot is actually very new, since there was no "female character" available to the young girls that visit the park up to a few years ago. I forget her name, as well as the furry guys, but --- here She is! (o; The splash battle ride was going, but I had more fun in their tower (upper left of photo), blasting everybody with a water cannon. It was great fun. (o; And yes, these are condoms being sold at the park. Somebody ready to go flying. And my visit to Walibi Holland ended with a simple, tranquil photo shot. Back to Amsterdam's busy canal traffic. And the black one in front was a floating casino, I believe. Big boats, small boats, all boats. OMG! Locker on the loose, in Amsterdam! "All the pretty signs in a row..." The indoor sign said "I love Kebab", but me and David loved another indoor sign, at.... Burger Bar!!! David ordering, again. Our table numbers. Mmmm, camembert. Burger Bar's indoor sign. This part said "BURGER"... ..and this said "BAR." They look just perfect, don't they? And this is Burger #2 for me. And our sharing fries and a drink, still worked for us. Back to the Queen's Head for a evening drink. We find our first cat in Amsterdam. This unfortunately, was NOT a happy kitty. Took a swipe at David, when he tried to pet it. Growled a little. We stopped trying. Chuck, I believe this cat would definitely give Angus McNasty a run for his money, lol. Depp turned up on a men's cologne poster. Sauvage was actually a fave cologne I wore, back in my younger, partying days, lol. View from our room, later on. The Red Light District is up and running. The Walibi Holland On-Ride photo! And one of the few things that actually has "Holland" on it. On Goliath. Great coaster, still.

Raging Spirits Tokyo DisneySea (Urayasu, Chiba, Japan) Much smoother than the one in Disneyland Paris. TPR 2013 Japan Tour.

Bill

^^ How about a box full of salt?

11/10 Marzipan.

^^ Did you get a chance to ride The Beast, Jake? I'm still debating whether to or not, tomorrow night. I do hope I get to see The Beast light up like this again. And... maybe ride it a fourth time, without getting nauseous...again, ha ha. (Taken during the PNE this past August)

9.7/10 String cheese.

After I got the two main credits I needed, and checked out the new coaster's location, it was time to ride some other rides, etc. Naturally, I headed over to Goliath and got two rides on it one after the other, and the second one was in the back row, which made for some amazing 'pull' over the hills and through the helixes. It was great! I did ride Robin Hood just once, and found it was as rough as I remember it, several years ago. And I totally passed on the SLC there, having remembered it bashing me about, side to side. That still seemed to be the case, as when I was on a pathway near it, I was hearing sudden cries of pain from riders roaring by. So, no great loss to me. In time, I decided it was time to check out what eats the park had. Very limited selection I found out. There was a buffet of some kind being offered over near Speed of Sound, but I didn't want to deal with that much food available. So I settled for one of their burgers, one that apparently was in keeping with their current slogan, Live Fast! or so the translation goes. The burger was fine, but the fries tasted much better. (A little bit more to come...) I went on a few flats, including this unusual one. And it was really fun, tipping and spinning back and forth. This wave swinger was INSANE, running Very Fast, faster than I remember any swings going. (o: Goliath still has it, and ran great. Heading back to the station. Another reason to come to this park. One of my favourite haunted swing rides was here. Robin Hood. Eh, it was okay, but not worth repeating. The rapids ride was busy. In the Mexico section of the park there was this. After watching it, I decided it wasn't really that thrilling. And THIS was definitely given a pass. It also had down time, throughout the day, for whatever reason(s). A nifty idea for measuring kids' height for riding, etc. The car ride was there, slow going as before. Time for food! Be there turkey legs here? Beef stew perhaps? Maybe fish and chips? Nope. Same menu that was all over the park. I tried this one. Not bad. Not great, either. And again, the fries WIN!

We're getting some nice sunny weather again, here. Rain is expected this coming weekend. But for now, it's nice and...fall-ish.

^ Well, don't push yourself and end up (very) late for work, etc. There's always another Fright Night in the years ahead. Downloaded the map of the event. Even without it, it's pretty easy to navigate around every where, and hit all the haunts and rides, no problem. It'd be nice if they had an actual handout map, for a cheap souvenir. But that's cool. Saving paper, etc.

G: Goudurix Parc Astérix (Plailly, Picardie, France) Everybody happy that they only had to ride this, once. TPR 2008 Europe Tour.

9/10 Whistling.

If this this doesn't win The Award for Best Coaster Theming after it opens.... I will be surprised.

I immediately thought of Orkanen too. The small suspended coaster at Movie Park Germany was also a good family coaster, to me. Orkanen, Farup Sommerland. TPR 2014 Scandi Tour. Atomic Flyer, Movie Park Germany. TPR 2008 Europe Tour.

7/10 Arm wrestling.

^ Yes, it is, thanks! And obviously, sharing costs with at least one other person helps, too.