mattnz

Great update Chuck, I've been intrigued to see a Dinosaurs Alive TR. Looks like a pretty good attraction. Maybe they should re-name Grizzly 'Dinoconda' like that 4D coaster in China!

Nice to read about your food stops amid the theme parks. I saw Thurman's Cafe on the Travel Channel's Amazing Eats show - the food looks incredible! I wish we had burgers like that in New Zealand.

I am going to have to look up that movie - it looks interesting! It seems like a strange idea having a Cinecittà theme park to me. When I think of this studio, I think of long-gone 1960s epics and Fellini. Not big commercial Universal-style movies of today. I'd visit being a film buff, but the GP? They'd need something pretty impressive to draw them away from all that Roman culture! Not so sure about this one...

Dorney was basically an ERT session the entire time we were there - which was a nice change of pace after some very full-on days. They have some great rides too. Awesome updates!

Nice photos Werner - nice to see Andrew and I front row on Diamondback and whoring it out on the kiddie coaster! Look forward to Cedar Point. (You did re-charge your camera right?!)

Awesome trip report. I hope to get to many of these parks in the near future. Great to see Colossus/Laser operating again, and with new trains to boot.

Oh how I ADORED Lake Compounce. Just the right mix of rides, atmosphere, amazing location, and of course one of the best coasters in the world. Night ERT was incredible. The buffet was great too - and I got to try New England clam chowder!

Awesome photos Nicole, I have been following with great interest and look forward to the rest of the NE updates.

Thanks for sharing this. Lake Compounce was easily one of my favourite parks on last year's North East trip. So much character. Great to see all the backstage stuff that goes on!

Nice trip report Divv. Japan is on our trip radar. One day soon! We still have Cadbury Dream down here too. (I prefer Nestlé Milky Bars for some reason.)

I also am liking the grey. The whole structure looks like a bridge to me. I need to get on one of these Arrow shuttles before they disappear.

Great to hear. It was reading trip reports for hours on end that led me to do a trip in the first place (which was a long time coming). ^ Thanks for the offer Christopher!

^^^ Cheers Neil! ^^ Chris - hope to see you on a trip again soon too. Sounds like we need to visit Disneyland with a seasoned expert - we may hit you up next time! I think we took things far too easy. It will be game on at our next visit! ^ Oh, Werner! Thank you very much - we are definitely coming back for more fun in 2013.

These are great, thanks for sharing. Awesome to hear about the fast passes finally becoming a reality at Cedar Point (I would happily fork out $50 for this!). And cool to hear about the new show. It actually sounds pretty good.

Thanks Christopher. Hopefully we'll see you on another trip soon!

^ Cheers! Our final update is Disneyland, the original American theme park, and what a beautiful, immaculately themed park it is. I have to say Andrew and I did get a better all-round 'Disney' experience at Disneyland. California Adventure is just a whole different kettle of fish (scroll up to see the photo TR). I'm sure with Cars Land, et al, it will be a fuller experience, but it's never going to beat its sister park next door, at least in the public's mind, because of its long, long history. I'm not sure if it's like this all year round, but man oh man did we visit Disneyland on a busy couple of days. We only got one ride on Space Mountain, one ride on Big Thunder, and so on, as the fast passes sold out like hot cakes. We didn't make it on Star Tours, but I don't know, did we miss anything? Anyway, we got a great sample of the place, which was our goal in the first place. A surprise for us was Indiana Jones Adventure. This was awesome! I wonder how it compares to its counterpart in Tokyo - I'm guessing that's even better for some reason! Alas we missed out on Matterhorn Bobsleds, which was down for its major refurb. Oh well, it gives us a reason to come back. It looks like such a unique and fun ride. Thanks once again to Robb and Elissa for an amazing trip. We felt a bit sad boarding our plane back to New Zealand, as we live so far away from the rest of the world... It's quite a mission and expense to get on TPR trips, but count us in for some future fun. We're saving our pennies as we speak. Here we are at Disneyland, a park I've wanted to visit since I was maybe 5 years old! What an iconic park entrance. We're ready for some Disney magic. The whole place is just beautiful. If Mark Wahlberg stood next to this guy you wouldn't be able to tell the difference...they're both wooden. I've actually seen this film. I guess Walt had to start somewhere! Mary Poppins was out and about, fitting in nicely with the turn of the century flavour of Main Street. I have to agree with the general consensus out there...that's a pretty small castle! Stunningly beautiful park. Damn you Matterhorn Bobsleds! That's two credits missed! Time to ride something... This had a crazy long queue and quickly selling out fast passes...oh well, did we really miss much? Damn you Matterhorn!!! This we skipped also. We were on a mission... We wanted to ride Space Mountain! Sorry Michael, maybe some other day. I loved the retro vibe of Space Mountain and the whole Tomorrowland area. Space Mountain was really, really fun! Quite different to my ride on Florida's version a couple of years ago. You really felt like you were hurtling through space. Enjoyed the on-ride music accompaniment too. While we were in the vicinity we also checked out the robotics demo with Asimo. Asimo is cool because he's Japanese. (But really we were very impressed by what he could do!) We wandered over to Fantasyland, which I thought was hands-down the prettiest area of the park. Not very exotic flavours of popcorn here alas. This looked fun. Another iconic image of Disneyland. Alice in Wonderland, one of my least favourite Disney movies. Can't speak for the ride though... We had to do this. Gorgeous building. Loading area. I loved how old the ride ops were on this attraction (reminded me of Adventureland in Iowa). Inside things were a little trippy. Charming... Possibly a little racist... Hey! New Zealand - represent!!! Disneyland has a beautiful carousel (naturally). Dumbo is to me the 'perfect' Disney movie. I have always been a little bit obsessed with Mr. Toad and was sad to see his Wild Ride removed from Florida's Magic Kingdom. So it was very cool to experience this original 1955 attraction! This is a great classic - I especially liked going through Hell at the end...geez! Hope this is around for years to come. We did the Sleeping Beauty Castle walk through. This was a nice little tour. We did encounter a crying kid who couldn't handle the scary stuff! Onwards to Adventureland. I'm not quite sure what to make of the Enchanted Tiki Room... I do love all things retro so anything 'Tiki' gets the thumbs up from me. Have the Swiss Family Robinson moved out from here yet? I do see a Union Jack over there... This was incredibly well done. The whole area was very 'lush'. This was being refurbed when I visited Florida so I was looking forward to a good cruise. We thought this was cool. Don't know about the whole pickles though? The Jungle Cruise cast members were very 'hands on'. I guess as a safety thing... The ride was great fun. Amazing how you can visit Asia, Africa and South America all in one ride! Yes there was hippo cruelty... Some nice humour from the narrators... Piranhas are not quite as good as sharks, but still pretty awesome. You don't need to ride Jungle Cruise rip-offs to encounter some subtle racism! I was also looking forward to Indiana Jones Adventure. Going into the temple. The queue was long and elaborate. And the ride - wow, we loved it! Disney and Lucas did an incredible job with this, especially considering this opened in the mid-90s. The motion vehicle was especially awesome. Yonder is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which we rode and enjoyed, but completely forgot to photograph. Mark Twain Riverboat. Postcard! So it around this time of the day that we started to feel a little overwhelmed by the crowds at Disney... We also started to get a bit peeved at all the mobility scooters. I don't think all these people actually had physical disabilities... How to teach your children to be lazy 101. Get up and WALK! Hey there's an idea... Go get some exercise!!! Actually the row boats looked like fun. I think they get you over to Tom Sawyer Island. New Orleans Square was home to a couple of other favourite rides of ours. Pirates of the Caribbean was pretty cool, the last ride Walt worked on (I believe) before he died. Johnny Depp lives here now too and his animatronic figures were incredible. Some nice places to eat around here. This little graveyard led to our very favourite ride of the day. The Haunted Mansion! I loved the morbid humour of the stretching room. Here's the ghoulish hall of portraits. Ahh!!! I don't have any decent on-ride photos from the Dune Buggies, but needless to say this is a fantastic attraction, doubly aided by its amazingly high crowd capacity. Splash Mountain was another great attraction, though we were a bit distracted in our efforts to keep our feet from getting wet... I really think Disney should just release Song of the South and be done with it. It's a relic of its age and honestly it's not THAT racist! We ate at the Hungry Bear Restaurant and managed to escape the crowds for a bit. It's a very scenic and peaceful place to eat. Sailing Ship Columbia coming round the bend. She's a beautiful ship. Back on Main Street I really wanted to visit the Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlour. Here's the menu. This was delicious ice cream too. This was another nice corner to escape the crowds. Disney sexiness. After dark and a couple of attractions definitely commanded a repeat performance. Our two days at Disneyland Resort was a nice way to end a very long, epic trip with TPR. And now I sign off on what has become a very long trip report. Goodnight, and thanks for reading!

Awesome day - awesome photos. You got some good ones of the Phoenix 'blur train'!

Well it's been a long time, but after seeing all the fun at WCB I decided it was high time to finish our trip report with our L.A. stopover en route to New Zealand. We'd never been to Disneyland Resort before and Andrew has never even visited a Disney park (I've been to Florida) so we thought it would be a nice, relaxing way to finish up our epic back-to-back TPR trips. 'Relaxing' is NOT a word I'd use to describe Disneyland Resort! We spent two days at the resort and it was so insanely busy the whole time I'd say we only really 'sampled' what the parks had to offer. That was OK, and Andrew was blown away by many of the attractions, but it was definitely tiresome following strollers, mobility scooters and giant asses around all day! The parks are beautiful, but seem a lot smaller than the Florida parks and the guests have a whole different attitude. I'd agree it's because they're locals, whereas in Florida everyone's basically on vacation. Although we went back and forth between parks I'll separate our reports to make it easier. Let's start with Disney California Adventure... Our hotel was located several blocks away from the parks, but was very nice indeed. And we don't mind a good walk... We decided to start our visit at the oddly named 'Disney' California Adventure. Seriously, why drop the 's', this really doesn't roll off the tongue too well without it! Isn't it a little odd having a California-themed park in...California? We liked the false street scene. Snow White is still one of my favourite Disney movies. Oo, must get back here later... First ride for us was Tower of Terror. The themeing goes right down to the fast passes. Very impressive. The themeing inside was even more impressive! We've just started watching the original Twlight Zone TV series back home. Cool show. I never got to Disney's Hollywood Studios so can't compare this with 'good tower'. But we loved this ride! "a bug's land" was very immersive. Great themeing here too... The Paradise Pier area of the park was our favourite and really did have a traditional flavour to it. Though the lake looks a bit weird without the fountains on. We were looking forward to California Screamin'. Time for a bit of Intamin goodness - and thankfully the ride was re-opened quickly after the stalling incident in July... The launch was fun. Enjoyable to watch too! We were surprised that on this ride, like all others in the park, you could basically take anything on ride with you (on California Screamin' you stash your stuff in a little pouch). Convenient when bags aren't flying out and stalling coasters! Overall, it's a really fun, long, solid ride. But we were a little underwhelmed. I don't know exactly what we were expecting...more airtime maybe? California Adventure was a lot easier to navigate than Disneyland next door (more complaints on that business in the next update!). We would've liked to try Toy Story Midway Mania but the fast passes were long, long gone! Mr. Potato Head was cool to watch though. I was intrigued by Golden Zephyr because it seemed like random fun. Fun facts: It's based on a traditional 'Circle Swing' like the one at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Well, now we can say we've been on it! The colourful Jumpin' Jellyfish. Moving into a very different area of the park - Grizzly Peak. Grizzly River Run looked amazing! A little too wet for us, however. The whole area was very scenic. The big drop on the ride. Fun facts: The drop has a unique element in that the rafts are spun as they begin their descent. Condor Flats only seems to have one ride, Soarin' Over California, which we enjoyed. The cinematography is superb and the added effects of wind and scents are a nice touch. Heading back through Grizzly Peak...this is the aforementioned peak. It was starting to get a little dark... And we really wanted to try Mickey's Fun Wheel! We rode with some adults thankfully - and this was awesome. Of course you have to try the swinging cars, and boy do they swing! (More so than on Coney Island's Wonder Wheel.) The ride is long too. Here's the view from the top as darkness fell (and the park really came to life). There's another credit here in the form of Goofy's Sky School, an off the shelf Wild Mouse. Nicely themed but over-braked (on our ride). World of Color got underway... People actually queue for good spots to see this? It was fun to walk past. Definitely 'colorful'. Fun facts: This actually cost 75,000,000 USD! "Grrr! I don't have a good spot for World of Color!" It was time to zip back through the park for something I was actually excited about... ElecTRONica!!! This was so much fun! (Love the movies too.) We never expected to enjoy a dance party at a Disney park, and felt like vodka shots to go with it. This is MUCH better than World of Color! Flynn's Arcade is here too. Old school games galore, but I'm not really a gamer... And here's the Tron game itself. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for a much larger Disneyland update.

I am fascinated to see how the Koch's will transform the park and have very high hopes. Great news for the locals and I'd love to pay a visit after re-opening!

That was very cool, thanks for sharing! Looks like a time capsule. I'd love to try the Crooked House (I wonder if that's where Roller Coaster Tycoon got the idea for their version from?).

Yes! Let's hope so! That pic of the top of the lift hill is amazing. Where are the supports?! Incredible engineering.

Very nice photos and trip report Ryan. Takabisha looks extraordinary!

^ Not quite! $35 is pricey but of course Rotorua is a tourist trap. Come to think of it, with its reasonably mild climate and massive tourist traffic I can't see why New Zealand can't have a second theme park. I'm guessing Rainbow Springs aren't going to start building roller coasters but maybe we can have a Rainbow's End #2 somewhere nearby? One can hope!

It's great to see an attraction of this calibre in New Zealand's tourist hot spot Rotorua. Rainbow Springs Kiwi Wildlife Park is more of a wildlife sanctuary/kiwi encounter experience but this ride seems to fit the theme well. And as a bona fide 'log flume' enthusiast I'll have to pop up there soon to check it out. Springs splash out for opening day Another article available here: Chance to relive our ecological evolution Yes there are dinosaurs!

I'd give Worlds of Fun a big lead over Dorney Park. The whole atmosphere at Worlds of Fun is actually really nice, it has a lot more 'soul' than Dorney (trees over pavement) - and they have some outstanding rides. Mamba is my favourite Morgan hyper, Prowler is probably my favourite GCI and Timber Wolf is (in my opinion) quite an underrated experience! They have a ton of flat rides too - don't forget to try the Rotor (Finnish Fling) and Cyclone Sam's, an awesome indoor Wipeout. Silver Dollar City is second to none and in a different league entirely.