Nrthwnd

^ Looks great! No mention of the wicked you-know-who, I see. Wonder how that's (still?) being worked into the new story line of the ride?

Oysters are falling from the sky! Is this random enough?

^ What a great way to "treat" a neighbour!

^ Yes, there was a rope at the back end of the boat, to pull it back up into the tunnel. You can make the rope out a bit, in that first photo I posted, cresting the water. Was going to mention it earlier, but forgot to.

^ I did that, actually unintentionally, in one of Playland's Haunt Houses a couple of years back. There were three guys ahead of me, I kept catching up to them, and then started acting like I was stalking them. Just stopping and staring at them, no other moves. It freeked them out totally. So much so, I figured they ran thru the House faster than they expected to. LOL! And at the exit, after we'd all come out of it, they realized that I wasn't part of the scare staff at all, and we all had a good laugh about it. A fun experience, that started out awkwardly.....for them, hee hee.

^ You're definitely right about that. No matter how big the crowds there are in Japan, the queues always seem to move faster than one would expect.

I posted this nearly a month ago. Still bears repeating, after seeing the recent video here, IMhO.

^ I pulled the finger. Eep. And....uh......so melodic, too.

It's a Holiday Taco!

Interesting lately, that the iconic number "The Christmas Song", co-written by Mel Torme, has now gone through a "slight lyric alteration." The line "And folks dressed up like eskimos," is now replaced with "And folks dressed up in ties and bows".... or omitted entirely, as is the case with the well known Nat King Cole recording of it. It's just music where the line goes. Which sounds really off. The replacement line is okay, and at least fits in the timing and rhyming of the song. Still, interesting to see if there's other songs out there, getting "slightly adjusted" lyric-wise. P.S. Actually, an earlier Holiday lyric re-write went to "Have Yourself A merry Little Christmas." Near the end of the song, the line "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough," became "Until then, we'll have to muddle through, some how." Jingle Jingle.

Fun, fun, fabulous fun! They just put together a drag queen lipsync sendup of Meryl Streep's Big Number in THE PROM, "It's Not About Me." https://www.broadway.com/buzz/200252/its-all-about-meryl-watch-drag-stars-pay-tribute-to-meryl-streep-with-song-from-the-prom/ Manila Luzon as Dee Dee Allen from "The Prom". (Photo: Netflix/YouTube)

This is soooooo kewl! The Storm Crow Tavern here in Vancouver (and Toronto), is selling a "D&D Burger Alignment" Poster! I'll include the link to it here, so you can see "the cards" up close. But the write-up about it says.... https://shop.stormcrow.com/collections/frontpage/products/d-d-burger-alignment-11x17-art-poster Couldn't resist this, so I just bought one for myself. Ho ho ho! Below is the Dungeon Burger order sheet you'd use, with the 20-sided die. This form is a few years' old, so prices will have changed.

When we did the TPR 2006 UK Tour, it took us to Lightwater Valley park, with a rather unique and totally questionable "shoot-the-chute" ride called TOAD HOLE. You entered the queue in a very VERY low ceiling tunnel, and up to "the boat" which was already on a tilt toward the outdoor slide. Into a very murky green lake. VERY murky. After a bit of a "pre-show" (audial), we were shot down this freeky tunnel and then right into the lake! The first shot here is the one I took, during the tour. The second shot, I am actually in the boat! At the end of that dark green railing, I am the grey haired guy in the white t-shirt. And thanks to Westcoaster.net for the photo. Actually, in relation to it being an "awkward ride," this one would be more in the "questionable ride" category. P.S. And with The Ultimate coaster, and the (then) underground indoor Wild Rat mad mouse coaster.... they had 3 kinds of 'awkward' rides. Come to think of it, the food was kind of 'awkward,' too. Nothing memorable. Here it comes! Into the awkward lake of green. And the queue entry is to the right of it, there. Did I say low ceiling? Us being pulled back to the dock. It rocked quite a bit too, I remember. We could not wait to "disembark."

Thrill-O-Rama!

"Christmas Time Is Here" (from A Charlie Brown Christmas) The Holiday Guys

It's Wallace & Grommit at Blackpool for the Holly-Daze!

Deck The Halls Mannheim Steamroller

Ideal ~ Going somewhere, anywhere in the coming year. Realistic ~ Not going anywhere next year except (I hope) Playland(PNE), saving up, and heading to Europe in the fall of 2022.

This park actually reminds me of a few (?) parks we visited in the TPR 2012 China Tour. They looked similar to what you found in this one... i.e not much open. And not looking like the rides were kept in good condition, etc. Very bizarre and challenging trip that was, when such parks were visited.

Sadly, Ann Reinking has "left the stage." She was 71. RIP Annie. https://www.broadway.com/buzz/200230/tony-winning-broadway-legend-ann-reinking-dies-at-age-71/

^ Um... now it's your turn to ask a yes/no question....? (Four Hours later....) Eh - Do you like jelly beans?

I was just going to post "Why?" But you two seem to have it all covered.

That very first photo of Wonder Woman.... And you had Bert with you, too. Excellent! Thanks for sharing it all. Wonder Woman and Fiesta Texas is one of those parks I'd really like to visit... some day, some how.

Of all the holiday songs I hear on the radio, the ones that absolutely turn me off, are the ones that have lyrics like "It's Christmas baby, please come home." Or "I miss you so much, please come back to me." I mean WTF happened in the first place to these people? Why were these holiday songs written like that? They broke up. He probably beat her. But now she wants him back? And he's all in tears because "she won't come back to me." Yeah, well why bro? Why did she leave you in the first place, anyway? These are truly dumb songs that don't deserve airplay, no matter how "iconic" etc. they are. My rant and that's it. Ho ho ho.

Well........crap. Yesterday, just after 5:30 pm, we arrived at the entry area to go through, and on to the displays. And we're met by several guys who all look like they're policemen. One of them comes up to our window. David starts showing the ticket, and more or less he tells us "it's cancelled." David asks why, and we get a not very happy answer.... something to do with our Provincial Health Official making the call to not open Winter Nights up. And he didn't want to tell us anything more. And wanted us to move on, "that way towards Hastings St." What a bummer. He didn't exactly give us any info. on where or how to get a refund. And there's nothing on the PNE site (last time I checked), that indicates what happened yesterday. So Monday, I guess it's a email directly to the PNE asking what happened, and do we get our money back? Ho ho f-ing ho. Happy EDIT to Add: Just called TicketLeader (who sells tix to PNE's events) and they are refunding my credit card for the ticket. And yes, they were very unhappy about having to cancel yesterday. But only one day. So it'll still be happening, starting today and through to Dec.30th. Jolly jolly. p.s. Yesterday was the only day we could do this. Unfortunately. Hopefully, maybe, they'll do it all again, next year!