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I think I used the single chair lift five or six times, to get back and forth across part of the park, to save some walking. It was great to use, again and again! Best memory of seeing somebody else on it: Jeff sitting lotus-style (cross legged at least?) on the chair, gliding serenely over it all. Very nice to see, that.

Stupid Seattle, they had dibs on the coaster but couldn't put the project together. Really. (But understands why not....sort of.) Now I know WHY my Japan'07 Tour Roomie was "up near you, in Seattle" a while ago... Ahhhhh.

^ That's great! Your Mom and Cold Stone Ice Cream, I mean! Man, my mom threw me out of my home (when I came out to her at age 16) and it took my dad to calm everything down between us. The three of us actually, as I later found out, he wasn't too thrilled by my coming out, either. The good old days - back in the 60's! But Hearty Congrats on your momentous ocassion with your mom.

Great TR Chuck! Thankfully, you cover entire parks-ful of stuff that's all been blurred (or watered down, depending on the attraction) in my mind since the tour... ended (sniff) Lots of stairs in that (meh) horror Hotel or what-ever the f it was. The toilet was OMGWTF I must say, lol. But for my Yen, the best pic in these sets... Jeff and Barry indeed, LOLOLOL!

^^ Pretty much all of the wooden coasters we saw and rode in Japan were very impressive in size and layout spread, but... Man, they needed to... oh, I dunno - re-track (or whatever, for a smooooother ride) a bit here and there on all/most of them? Would certainly help, IMhO.

^^ Sometimes, Barry.... (But yeeeaaah, we were all thinking that, hmm yes?)

^ From the boober. The boobee. And of course, the boob itself.

Not till..... May, 2008 .....maybe? Our final schedule and parks list for Japan didn't really come to us, until (literally) the tour package arrived at our doorsteps, AND in the final week before the tour started. You'll get a general overview of several parks definitely part of the tour, as this goes along. But nothing finalized, IMhO until at least into the new year. Patience.

^ Yes, we were getting ERT on SD2K while the GP were being 'held' at the entrance to the ride. Only three runs, I remember, were allowed for this, but... It got very funny, as the first time we left the station after the park had opened to the GP, those at the front of the line began waving to us, and we waved back as we went up the lifthill. On our second turn, that line had gotten longer, and the new peeps started waving to us, while the front of the line realized they weren't getting in just yet, lol. And we happily waved back, again. The THIRD TIME we left the station, the queue was longer, nobody in the front two thirds of it even attempted to wave to us, and once again, it was the newbies at the back of the line who waved. And we waved back. Very funny to see this develop as we left the station each time, also knowing we were making some GP very unhappy each time, too.

^^ Thanks Mark. More to come, tomorrow! and ^ yeah Brian, Robb did seem to be enjoying himself on that slope car, even though he was also trying to get a reasonable POV of it, lolol. And don't feel sorry that my #200 was the so-so Gold Rush at Kijimi. It could have been Jupiter, y'know?

Because in some parks - not to mention other public places like swimming pools, waterparks, etc. - tattoos are NOT ALLOWED to be seen. It has to do with Japanese gangs and related negative vibes with them. That said, they posted it in a lot of places, including at our main hotel's swimming pool in Tokyo, and that the management had the right to escort the offender off of the premises and (effectively) ban them from ever using the facilities again! And some the people here thought TPR banning could be very rough, heh heh. I have two tattoos, one on each arm, below the shoulder. Already discussing this and knowing ahead of time what was ahead for me, I wore (and took) no tanktops AT ALL on the tour, and I always made sure my t-shirts covered up most of my tats, so as not to offend anyone, locally. The only time my tats ever really came into question, was at the Tokyo hotel pool - I had already worn an oversize plain white t-shirt for this, but they didn't like me wearing a t-shirt of my own. So they lent me one of their available rubbery-type "pool shirts" to wear, instead. And a swim cap! For no extra charge (the pool use was 500 Yen for hotel guests, but it was a great deal, with a jacuzzi and sauna there, too). Sometimes, the reasoning may be somewhat "un-reasonable" to us, but it's their country, so what do you do, hmm? The same thing kept happening to many of us from time to time, when it involved emptying our pockets before getting on particular coasters, like Thunder Dolphin at La Qua. The ride ops couldn't accept the fact that a velcro-closed pocket would hold a wallet, etc. So I had to remove it as well as the other stuff I'd already stored in their (free, thankfully) lockers in the loading station. You never know, huh?

I don't think anybody went in the water park the day we were there. We were too busy running around Nagashima, getting our credits, trying out all the unique and WTF rides, eating, drinking, trying not to sweat too much, lol. It was a busy day for us in that one spot, and although the water park looked very interesting from a distance... Well, I didn't hear of anybody who went to it, from the tour.

^ Just teasin' ya, buddy.

That's great that Kristen's getting other interaction to do, besides us and coasters/themeparks, lolol. And 90 minutes asleep, huh? Hope you treasured that time, heh heh.

^ Oh gawds I never got to try that, in all the visits I did to EPCOT. But now THANKYOU for the link! ^^ And hey - HI Soren!!! ^^ (Edit: Printed. )

^ Hah. I think.

"Run and Tell That" from the Soundtrack CD of HAIRSPRAY

^ They were huge, and it would've been really cool to see them both operating, swinging back and forth beside each other. But it was off-season, the crowds weren't huge, so they were only running one ship, and for my group that went on it - meh. We think it was because of it's size and weight that it just couldn't swing as high as we thought it could... or should, lol. In relation to how high "normal-sized" Pirate Ships... swing? But it was still a trip to imagine that 80-100 people could be fit into just one of these things!

^ Thanks Chuck. and ^^ Oh, I could never give The Master ( ^ ) a run for the money, y'know? But thankyou for the generous compliment, Stephen.

Continuing on now... Set D - Ole! and then Okay? followed by No Way! And the parks in this set are: Parque Espana Nagashima Spaland Nagoya Zoo (add-on) ~ ~ ~ Parque Espana definitely put me in the "you are there" kind of mood. The humidity and stark daylight helped too, but ambling down the little "street scene" beside the lagoon just made me feel... there, y'know? The coasters were good although Pyrenees (B&M invert) had a so-so ending to it; Gran Montserrat mine train kicked you around here and there; and BullFight Roller Coaster was another one of those WTF kind of things - indoors, props a-plenty (in this case, lotsa capes flying around) and generally a "not-another-ride" kind of feeling, once you got off it, lol. There was a good number of other rides/attractions to enjoy here, including: Flying Island, which gave a nice overview of the park and countryside; DonQuixote's Magical Flight, a Peter Pan-type thing but very well done IMhO; Adventure Lagoon, again a Pirates/Caribbean kind of ride, but pretty good to me with a nifty final fall back into the open lagoon; another Ice House called "Ice Castle" with allowed re-entries... and we did, as many times as we went by it, lol. By the way, have you finally gotten that sticker off of your hand yet, Mark? And three attractions I feel deserve special mention here: Splash Montserrat - the flume was okay, but what set this ride apart for me was there was a LIVE PERSON sitting there to the side of a flume curve, to take your on-ride photo! The photo was also reasonably priced and in postcard form! Cool! Shining Luminous Castle "Sparkling Carnival Ride" You rode in a wine cask that turned like Doom Buggies do at HM, and tunnels of lights, walls of lights, lights with lights INSIDE of lights! Freakishly awesome, and made me wonder what the monthly electricity bill was here, LOL! and Musical Circus already described in other TRs here. My 2 cents is - I "thought" it was... go and sit in theater, watch animals sing and chat in Japanese, 3-d movie screen appears, watch movie.. and that was it. It was when the seats started descending that I suddenly thought - this is not Kansas, Dorothy! And then it moved wierdly, lightfields, other scenes, the movie was actually so-so but the rest of it all was really unique and definitely worth a re-visit. ~ ~ ~ Nagashima Spaland had what (mostly) everybody was salivating over before we even entered the park - Steel Dragon 2000, off the boards for a few years due to a fly-away axel (?) but back in business and we got ERT on it! But, before they were totally ready for us to ride it, they had us pile into their GI-NORMOUS Giant Wheel (named -wtf- "Aurora"?) for a spin. Hesitant at first, we gladly piled into the cabs, once we found out each one had an air conditioner attached on top! And this was one of those wheels that had giant digital clocks on either side of it's center, which probably looked cool at night. The coasters were many and varied: Dragon was fine and had it's intense moments, including a rather warm-ish (sauna?) first tunnel on the return bunny hops; a so-so mine train; a vertical looper that was nice; another ultra twister that made most of us like Mitsui Greenland's a bit better;a kids coaster that was nice to ride; only the left side of a wild mouse set operating, but that was okay; the shuttle loop which I enjoyed as much as Montezooma's Revenge at KBF... and White Canyon which like Jupiter at Kijima, is long and one of those huge woodies, but jarring and rough where you really don't want it to be, lol. Another of those once-was-enough, thanks. The other rides/attractions were good, too. There was a pair of GIANT side-by-side pirate ships that looked cool, but really.. the small "normal-sized" one we saw running, and thought swung higher for it's size and weight. The giant ship we rode just didn't ooomph it enough, higher. But it was cool to ride, having not ridden one before. And I got yet again DRENCHED, this time on Spaland's Shoot The Chutes - and got this neato red poncho with the park's logo on it, later to become very needed during the Disney Resort visits, lol. ~ ~ ~ Nagoya Zoo had a little ride area that me and few others with Robb in tow, went to after the Spaland visit. One of the Add-On parks that several of us fit into the schedule, if we could. Three coasters there which was great. Although one in particular will become "The Controversial One" I'm sure... the trough coaster doesn't ride on rails, yet it "coasts" hmm, yes? Whatever, we rode it and the other two and a neat WTF Paratrooper-like ride as well. And a Mad House (swing) for myself. I like those things, heh heh. (To be continued...) There's Pyrenees - vertical loop and all at Parque Espana. Mark, Adam and myself in the Ice Castle at Parque Espana. A bit 'warmer' than other ice houses, but nice all the same. My Flying Island Group! Hi (back to front) Shane, Mike, Tom, Peter, Miles, Adam, Barry... and Mark! (o: Me on the Flying Island, ready to rise up. The Escalator Ride... and us Three Caballeros! A bit dark here, but the lights lit up, the music played - and we rode it! And just as I was ready to leave the park - RED-HOT Flamenco Dancers strolling by! Instant Me & Them shot, lol! The view from the Nagashima Spaland "Aurora" Giant Wheel. I see... two Giant Pirate Ships... and a 'baby ship' in behind there, lol. THIS is what we're all here for, right? Yes? No? It's all about Steel Dragon 2000! ...and we posed outside with these people! And wasn't there cigarette girls in red PVC outfits w/matching boots at this place? Hmmm... (Add-on #8) ....we had these... (Add-on Pic #7, thanks SteveC) Passing this restaurant, heading back to our hotel, I remembered... wasn't this the place... Nagoya Zoo - The Trough Coaster - and Guess Who, riding and recording it all..... sigh. I really didn't know what I was eating here for a mid-day meal! But I had BEER! And that was enough. (o: The "baby Pirate Ship" here. And Note the HUGE support frame for the side-by-side ships, hmm? Also, a "loud" trumpeting Viking statue, heh heh.

I could use this quote verbatim about Tokyo Disney Sea over in Japan. Between the landscaping, the thematic placement, the shows (small and spectacular) AND the attractions too, TDS is just one of those parks, adults can and should appreciate a lot more than the younger thrill-ride obsessive crowd, lol. But EPCOT started it all, in that respect, and I am just so glad it hung around and maintained it's "world's fair sensibility" that I remember and enjoy.

^ Am not sure on this from what I can see in your photo, but... Did you use the ticket after EPCOT opened? I still have the entire ticket - I never used it. So it still has the part that's torn off when you entered the park(s). Out of the envelopes. It's folded at the tear-away portion. But still attached, lol.

^ Do you have yours still in it's silvered cardboard envelope? I found mine, and it's still in it's mailed envelope, too! Been meaning to frame it - and what is your ticket #? Mine is # 008299 I received in on November 18, 1981.

Track 7. Dreamy Lounge (Remix) (05:35) Disneyland Resort Paris' CD of It's Halloween-Lo-Ween Great background CD for the Days of Boos and Ahhhhsss. Grin.

^ Upgrade? Upgrade??? Don't make me.... well, maybe. Still - when you check all the oopses and echs I shot in the 2006 UK Tour and I posted every single out-of-focus, way too much lighting, etc. shot... Not too shabby so far I'd say, lolol.