Nrthwnd

All Along the Watch Tower Jimi Hendrix

^ I know! We saw "Skyfall" last week, and I kept going "there it is, there's where we stayed", lolol. And the Pearl Tower was seen in the movie, too. Also seen in a recent episode of "The Amazing Race."

a random thing, seen. main topics getting current discussion in parks and coasters forum... waterparks. brrrrrrrr. (from where I am) later that day... still hot topics!

I really liked this monorail they had/have at Alton Towers, that runs between the hotels and the park. But I REALLY LIKED this monorail, because this monorail is the one used for transport through our 1986 EXPO Worlds Fair in Vancouver, Canada! Alton Towers bought the system after the fair ended... and it still runs good! This here used to be back there where I'm from. It still looks great on the elevated rail. (Taken first TPR tour 2006, in my more hairier days, lol.)

Darn. It now looks like we have to push our trip to Amsterdam, Paris/Disney up a year, and not getting there until the fall...2015. But at least Ratatouille: Kitchen Kalamity (working title) will be a year old and running just great, lol! And - that also means I can now definitely do the (possible/probable) TPR Scandi Tour in 2014!

One of my favourite train ride attractions in the world is the Western Railroad at Tokyo Disneyland. It's a complete attraction of it's own, since TDL can't make it a circle-the-park train with more than one station - or it gets heavily taxed as "public transport." So, you get off where you get on, right above the Jungle Boat Cruise dock! And most of the train is elevated as it travels around the Adventureland rivers and close by to Splash Mountain, rounding around Big Thunder Mountain, and THEN dives into a show bldg. with the Primeval World beasts in it! A very cool and relaxing train ride, and not your usual transport train, either. Western Railroad at Tokyo Disneyland. A great train ride at TDL.

Back to the Pearl Tower of Shanghai! We noticed some little pinpoint flashes coming from the top orb of the tower, then realized it was others taking pix of their friends etc. on the "viewing platform". And this is one of those things, where it's just thick plexiglass between you and ... the ground, lol. And then there was the coaster inside of the bottom Tower orb. It was one of those where you start off going right into the downhill, and eventually a lift hill brings you back up to the station. It was neat, although a short short coaster ride. But it was fun. After the Tower, we headed to a station that had one of the MagLev trains running, between there and the airport. We got literally a car to ourselves, and were then treated to 300 km+/hr. trip on the train (an 8 min. ride - we timed it!), also with passing another MagLev (3 min before the airport) that nearly threw some of us out of our seats LOL! Awesome! Then a group dinner at one of those ornate "floating restaurants" one sees in tourism flyers etc. Very pretty. And to cap the evening off, a one-hour harbour boat cruise, which started out us being mobbed by people selling mostly crappy things one wouldn't pay two bucks for, at the loading dock. But with most of the city buildings lit up and some with complex lighting on them.... the whole thing was really a spectacle to see, from the water. Okay, back to the tower. Going up.... Sorry 'bout the bad lighting. Am still new with the camera as to using natural light, using flash, etc. But this is a view out of the top orb of the tower. Nick and myself. Easy to see, lol! Neil here, doing what I am about to ....uh....do. And here I is. Not looking down for ANY money, LOL! It - was - high. After the "upper floor," we headed down to find and ride that credit. And...we did! I think he's showing how much room he las left in there? Enjoy the ride, guys. Also in the main entrance floor, a Coca-Cola shop, with bottle displays, this one being of the 2008 Olympic series in Coke bottles. Mid-day sun. On our way to the MagLev train station. Of the two, i like this one the best. But - it's still smog and 'stuff' hmm? Our "personal car" on the MagLev. Not really, but it felt that way. Chilling out, before rocketing towards the airport, lol. The ride back and forth was great. Our next group dinner location. Very nice! I got this shot after we had dinner and were leaving to go to the boat cruise dock. The Harbour Boat Cruise. And there's our Pearl Tower all nice and brightly lit up. More buildings seen along the waterfront. At first we thoguht this was the floating restaurant we'd just been too! Then somebody pointed out it's "tail" was different than the one we were at, lol. Lots of buildings with great moving images and films sweeping over and around them. It was all great. So much.... electricity used, heh heh. And there was beer on the boat! Happy TPR People. For a brief moment, this looked like something out of Fantasmic! Arrrrrrrrrr. And one more shot, before we're off the boat, and back to the hotel for the night.

Not The End Cory Monteith (Finn) GLEE season 3 - the graduation album

I miss getting hauls of candy. Good times. Awesome report. Halloween Disney After Dark rawks.

Well... All the credits on the upcoming TPR MEXICO Tour, woo hoo! And - a few new parks as well as a few new coasters to ride in the upcoming TPR JAPAN Tour, yes! Very excited about both. Can't remember more than that, lol. Nothing local though, sad to say.

^ (But true.)

Bohemian Rhapsody Queen

^^ And between mine, Chuck's, Megan's, David's, Hanno's and others' various takes (TRs) on the tour, you have a load of (sometimes) very unique pix and commentary of it all, coasters included.

That's up to you, I guess. I don't remember if any kind of "donkey poll" has been done (or not) on the site. Mods? Thanks in advance.

TPR got me out of my hermit funk, and got me back into interacting with other human beings. Oh yeah, and riding coasters, internationally, too. Big Bearhugs to the Alveys for that. Oakwood Park - Wales - TPR Tour 2006 I'm sooo shy there, eh? A Park - TPR China Tour - 2012 - Looking happy before ultimate pain on a knock-off coaster of... (Thanks for the pic, Bjorn.)

And now... On to Shanghai! We started with an early plane ride from Wuhan to Shanghai, and once there, we wasted no time in touring around the city. We toured through an in-city rock garden area, which apparently a lot the locals as well as tourists, toured in. And there were plenty of "gift shops" to browse in, being constantly followed by the staff, offering deal upon deal, depending what you were looking at. It is here I found my (the staffer called it) "Man's Fan." Eh, it looked alright, and I needed one as the weather started to Get - More - Humid. Then, there was a group lunch, and touring up into the Oriental Pearl Tower for a great view of the city. AND a CREDIT in the lower..uh...orb of the tower! Woo Hoo! Then some more touring around, a Group Dinner and finally for most of us, a One Hour Harbour Cruise (with beer!) showing off all the lit buildings (and some with films and/or programmed lighting across them) to end the day. Whew! I must also note the sellers (hah) at the cruise dock who literally attacked us with whatever cheap gizmo they had to sell. I think some of the group bought stuff, and even haggled down some prices that were originally 'quoted'...or actually yelled at us, heh heh. Good fun! This is morning in Wuhan. On our way to the airport. Our 'breakfast' enroute to Shanghai. Nothing was understood - except that (cdn.co.) McCain's smilie face looking back at me! Huh. They're in China, too! Driving to our hotel from the airport. First view of Shanghai City. And we're here in time, for some kind of Tourism Festival the city has just started celebrating. Cool! I love lookin at architecture and Shanghai had all sorts of neat buildings to see. Like this beautiful temple. Then, this one, that sort-of reminded me of the facade of a new HKDL attraction, about to open...next year? This is it! Our lovely 'crowned' hotel we're staying at for a few nights. Getting checked in, but only for a few minutes. Then we're off!... (l-to-r) Nick, Jon, David. Josh in back there. It looks like Total Confusion, but we're all there (amongst more in-your-face sellers) ready to tour a city rock garden! Walking to The Garden. It is "somewhere on the left, inside" our guide told us. Okaaay. Eventually... We're in it! So of course, The Photo must be taken. With my (now common) Starbucks' Ice Frapp. And see all the people in back? It - was - crowded! And THIS is when I started to notice KODAK all over China! Um, didn't the company declare bankruptsy (sp?) some time ago? Apparently China didn't hear it. Cameras and film were everywhere we went. And in HKDL too, including the tradtional Photo Spots! Huh. Finally! Some garden with rockwork, lol! It was interesting to actually find some "quiet spots" amongst all the people touring through most of it. And I see you, our lovely hotel! We actually weren't too far away from it. These were broom-makers we passed, while going through the garden. Looked fascinating to me. Here's my caption... Stacey: Don't - you - touch. Russell: Mmmmm.. fish'n chips. Ben: Mine, Mine, Mine! Neil: . And now - The Tower of Pearl. (with a credit inside, hee hee) We had lunch first, before going up inside of it. And then I got distracted with more amazing architecture! Far left building with hole at top is nicknamed "The Bottle Opener", lol. With a great viewing platform I heard, too! Back with more pix, sooner than late....

I count them, but only ride them when there is a group of more than..... 20 lol. (Bless TPR Tours!)

Goudurix at Parc Asterix, France. During the 2008 TPR Europe tour. So much bad reported about this coaster, and even though the bends and curves in the middle there, were almost spine snapping... I actually enjoyed it! And surprised that I was. And never rode it again, LOL.

Oh I hope, I wish, I hope, I hope.... Looking forward to....2014?

^ I didn't get close enough to the bags to read anything, Larry. Then again, probably totally in Chinese too, lol! And I think it was the only park I saw these in. They could contain some type of feeding solution for the trees. Liquid fertilizer, etc. As for not seeing certain trees, I remember it was sometimes getting to be a little bit of"tunnel vision" for a lot of us, when we had to find a park and hopefully coaster(s). I know I probably missed a lot of stuff in these parks, here and there. Not to mention small park names, coaster names, guides' names...

^ Awwwwwww.

^You're fine, and I hope you are sort-of kidding about that? I know a lot of other gay men who absolutely hate musicals, but LOVE team sports, like football or baseball, soccer, curling (?), etc. Go figure, hmm? That said, they're finally releasing Leap of Faith mid-December at Amazon. Considering it got only one TONY nom for this past year's Best Musical.... ah well, I would probably buy it anyway, lol. It does have Raul Esparza in the lead. That's good reason enough, for myself, to buy it. Hope this is good, in spite of all the TONY 'Non-Noms' it got, lol.

^ Congrats on your next one! And - Just seeing the words Bing [bot] here, made me smile.

...anything with a motor attached to it? Have fun during your employment.

I would like to find some kind of new board game on the net that I would enjoy as much as I do with my Hearts game online.