Nrthwnd

^ Glad nobody was injured, there.

Something I didn't notice before, until now. On the scale model of the castle and area in front of it, you can barely make out the "Partners" statue, there. Walt and Mickey. In Shanghai. Cool! Here's the original model. And there down near the bottom, in the middle there... ...Is (probably) the "Partners" statue! Very nice location, at least in the model. (o:

^Oooooo, there's an idea for Japan! I always wanted to get to that AE attraction, but never found the time and/or money. "Disney Goes Dark". I liked that. And Tokyo Disney would make it amaaaazingy scary, I'm sure.

Happy Solstice, Everybody!

"Is She indoors?" "I dunno."

What's the difference between a woodie and a steelie? Well, if you buy me a drink, I'll let you find out.

Fixed. (love cinnamon bread)

~ Phantasia Land will Amaze-ia....Man? Eh, I tried. PL is a great place with lots of thrills along side plenty of 'cheese' for every taste in theme park attractions. We only had one day for everything, and then we headed to our last 'official tour hotel' and park. And since I was here before in the 2008 TPR Tour, a few things have changed since that last visit. And oh yes, The World Cup. Germany was playing another team (Netherlands?) on the day we were leaving the new (then) Phantasia Land's African-themed Hotel, amid a lot of other locals outside waiting for results etc. I believe Germany won. Loud honking of cars ensued. And we left on our bus, away from Phantasia Land. But first. Here's a list of faves and WTFs I re-visited at the park... (Also, the pirate-faerie Peter Pan-like indoor-outdoor-whatever ride was down, and the building was already in place for what was to become Maus Au Chocolat. But we were way too early for that opening. The building had just gone up, and peeking through cracks you could see nothing had really been started, just yet. And the monorail was down too . But that was okay. Next visit...) Hollywood Tour - a Classic Cheese Epic dark ride, in water. And King Kong, too! Colorado Adventure - A (RIP) Michael Jackson Approved Mine Train coaster! And it's actually a pretty zippy mine train, too. best seats were in the back, IMhO. Silbermine - which starts out as Western mining and ends up with the Mexican Independence Revolution! And all viewed from your slow - moving - slowly - and ever - so - slowly - car. (Omnimover for slowpokes.) Mystery Castle - enclosing a full drop tower. Brilliant! And make it sudo-Frankenstein too with flashing light and trips cycle patterns. A great ride. Winja's Force & Fear - an indoor pair of coasters, each with differing track layout, and sometimes coming parallel to each other. And they spin too! With a bit of 'surprise' in each, near the end of the ride . Sionewash & Wildwash Creek - the 2 flume rides! I only got to ride one, but it was really great weaving in and out of nice, fake rock work. (o; Now they're both gone , but being replaces by a brand new water......"something." Looking forward to 'it' in ta future tour. River Quest - I loved a water raft ride being totally isolated like an island above ground! Starting with a WTF elevator lift, and it's all wet and downhill from there! A whirlpool, a great drop, rapids ... all great. Will ride again, next visit. Black Mamba - it does what Nemesis does, laying low into most of the ground, but like a snake, it undulates and inverts all around the amazing themeing and amazed gawkers, as well. A great coaster, and equally staggering themeing through-out. and I LOVE THE LIFTHILL! Feng Ju Palace - one of the more unique themed mad house - to China and legend. It''s honestly one my most favourites of all of these I have been on, around the world. Very classy. Race For Atlantis - more cheese, and not as funny. Old 4D movie with very shaky ride cars. and ending with Temple of The Night Hawk - and indoor coaster that, with this visit, had several of the lighting effects not working, and sadly it felt like most of the ride was in the dark. Oh well. Maybe a future revisit will be changes visit. Winja's Track in Wuzeville. With a Winja on it! Woo hoo! Mmmmm make mine a Black Mamba.....no sugar. Me and a model of the hotel, we were then staying in! Really close to the park, as much as the Chinese themed hotel was, on the 2008 visit. Love love LOVE on-site hotels! Me and Jon with _______ between us. Probably from Wuzeville. Or maybe Africa? I'm confused. "Fraaaaaaan" and Friends coming back the station after a Wash/Stone Creek fluming. (I forget which one) I liked how eventually, the water fountain just enclosed the middle display at the front here. Slowly. And effortlessly. Nostalgia Time. That's probably the only way you/we will ever see the word FILM again - on art deco signs. And it was a nice photo setup, too. One of my fave photos from this tour. Waiting to get out, get the luggage on the bus, get the bus out of town...that's tiring just saying that! And another snoozer here. Soon to be probably sleeping on the bus as well, lol.

The Wire - Haim

^^^ I Love it when things are still gift-wrapped for the Holidays. (EDIT to add: Somebody should photo shop a couple of bows on them, lol.)

"Keep movin', don't stop." - Sam Roberts Band

^ ^ ^

^ Ooooh, I feel dizzy looking at this one.

BUMP And could someone translate that last Liseberg post, please?

Excellent, Martin!

^ Post a video, please! (if you can)

Recently published, showing who has more franchises and restaurants... Without even recognizing some of the eateries listed here...seems like Coke's got a lot of it.

^ Huh. But I just read in the paper and heard on the radio, this isn't going to last through Christmas Day. )o: A "Green Christmas" is predicted, meaning RAIN and more RAIN, some time between now and then. Oh well, beautiful while it's lasted. And - we got a really neat snow angel (the first on our property in nearly 35 years!) from a little boy and his mother, playing out front on the sidewalk. It was awesome, and I thanked them for the snow angel. Sometimes - things just happen, and suddenly it all feels right, yes? There! See it? He really put work and effort into that angel!

Snow, snow, snow, snow...

^ Better have him PM you, first.

They already got one in Tokyo Disneyland, and it's Donald in Japanese!

^^ It looks like that piece of front track was made with gingerbread icing.

We got snow this morning! Which around here in Vancouver, is a Big Deal. Doesn't come every winter, and sometimes it's washed away by rain in the afternoon. Still, it's nice to wake up to it, considering it won't (usually) be around here for much longer. No garbage pickup today though, darnit. Looking out our front porch. Our little car, totally blanketed by it. Out the back door, from our kitchen.

And on we go.... Now, before we were to visit Europa, and after we were there, there were two others parks, originally in the planning, that had to be scrapped in the final schedule. Connyland, the first park, was debuting it's newest coaster that year, and it was a really mind-bender of a track layout. I know there's photos of Cobra on the site. But the coaster was having initial start up probs, so it was decided not to waste time and gasoline, then find out it's not operating. Still. The second, Holiday Park was the home of the much-admired, ridden and almost ICON-ified (me too!) Expedition GeForce. And although I had ridden it before, in an earlier TPR tour, the chance to ride it again, was exciting. Sadly, and we all knew it when the tour started, EG would be a no-go due to an unexpected maintenance re-scheduling that would have it down for our entire visit. So HP was cancelled as well. But Robb and Elissa of course had been working on getting us "something" to replace these two cancelled parks, and they came up with a literal doozie - the travelling Olympic Looping Coasrter! After a morning and early afternoon back at Europa (ERT on Euro Sat and Euro Mir!), we checked out and were then on our way to get to this "mystery location" not everybody was in on, including myself. And eventually, we arrived at this small German village that was apparently doing a sort-of Oktoberfest celebration....in July! A "first keg opening with the mayor" and all. A big food and beer tent were to be where our next meal would be had. But more importantly... Olympic Looping Coaster was here! A small midway was set up, and as well as Olympic, a huge ferris wheel was there, with 'cabins' that probably seated 8 quite comfy. And gave a great view of the celebration site, the village and beyond. And a dark ride, a flume, a "Psychodelic" walk-through (mirrors, black lights...was trippy, ha ha), and many many flats, and many many food stalls. It was another very warm day that day, and I know if I over ate, I would pay for it. So I stuck with what we got in the food tent. And beer. We got ERT on Olympic, which for many was a real thrill. I wish I could have ridden it at least a couple more times, but the heat was getting to me, and I needed shade, soon. But I wouldn't trade that one ride for anything, Thank You Robb and Elissa! I got Beer!!! Inside the food and drink tent. Our happy little table. Yay, dark ride! It was pretty good too, with a live guy outside scaring us on the ride, and those watching, with a spider on a long, long, pole, hee hee. The Wheel. I had never been on one of these types/styles of ferris wheels. And I shared a cabin with a nice family from France... ...who took a pic of my furry mug, inside the cabin we were in. Thanks unknown family! Looking down on the site. Big white roof there was our meal tent. There it is, in all it's glory. We got off, and then these three ugly guys get on! Open your eyes, Fraaaaaaan! One more shot of The Big O, before we headed on to our next hotel and park.

What's not to like? You can't go wrong with two "J"s and an "L", there. 7/10 (I still don't get it though, lol.)