OldJJman

I can only speak for Kawasemi, but it was amazingly insane, twisting airtime on EVERY hill!! It's also quite easy to say that Kawasemi has more airtime than the entire state of Ohio. (Sorry, but true.) JJ

I'm assuming that this would be your first long road trip. Just make sure you plan accordingly. Especially travel times (add 20% for safe measure) and costs. A few things to make note of: Dollywood is a long way out of the way for your trip! Magic Springs and the X-coaster is just setting you up for a big let down. You do have SFKK about an hour from HW, and can continue that loop to KI, if you really want. (Then continue to IB, etc...) If you're gonna hit SFGAm and VF!/NU, you need to hit the Dells, just for Avalanche and Hades alone. Good luck.

I may ramble on a bit, and this may just make you sick again, but how many more times do we have to say that a park down by the seaside is going to fail. I mean, after being there all day, even Robb told them in the evening: Your time is gonna come! That’s the way of this business! But some hot dog there, and his friends, seriously believed that a rock and roll park down by the ocean will succeed. Maximum RPM will probably be the rover and be propped up on four sticks before too long. Afterall, the wearing and tearing of that ride will be seen in the light of day. Led Zeppelin: The ride, is moving over the hills and far away, probably going to California. Yes, it’s a heartbreaker, and I’m gonna crawl into a hole because I didn’t get the credits. Why can’t someone just admit that “it’s nobody’s fault but mine”, and as a team, we have had a major communication breakdown. Instead these idiots think “run for your life”, as some want to string them up on the gallows pole. I’m just dazed and confused by the whole thing. So I’m gonna go get my black dog, and have some tea for one. Thank you. JJ (Btw - 27)

It was very much like the one in CA. Very smooth, and quite fun. I think we got 7 or 8 rides during ERT, and then Bob and I went back in the evening and got about 6 more rides in the last 40 minutes. No. Not while we were there. It was kinda sad, as it is such a beautiful park!!

More... ..and blow it to smithereens!! (Afterall, with 1.1 billion people, they just rebuild it every night!) So ends day 11, and this portion of the PTR. Coming soon (yeah, right) Lotte World! Thanks for looking! For the finale, they torch the castle... Aaaaaaah! Ooooooo. Getting started. Night time, and time for the fireworks. Evening at the park. I wouldn't be surprised to see this tree in Guy's yard in Tennessee before too long. Layout of the HKDL resort. Back at the hotel - Just as we usually don't have a 13th floor due to superstition, the Chinese have the same superstition about the number 4. Very nice! The following pics are from the train ride around the park. I was fortunate enough to ride with TPR Royalty. Though KT had had enough pictures taken for one day. Train. Complete with smokestack! Yay! Train ride!

More... On the way to the train station, I ran into this Muppet contraption. Odd, to say the least. Train ride and night pics coming up. Entrance to Tomorrowland. The crowds have certainly taken over! A little street entertainment. I know where the lamp is. I know where the lamp is. This is where the wooden, inverted standup is going next year. Water. Fire. Good. It even told the story. The treehouse was pretty cool. Lots of things to explore, ala Tom Sawyer's Island. So long suckers! Treehouse time. Douse fire with water. Good system. Start water on fire. There was actually a LOT of fire. I just didn't capture it. Fail. Start fire. Now for exploding water! Same "getting it in the end" joke too. It was so hot, Robb decided to jump in! They have the same Mother-in-law joke in China. Go figure. Oooooooo. Wildlife. Though they appear to be a bit lazier. Gorilla filled base camp. YAY! Piranhas! Elephant bathing pool. Off we go... Tarzan's Treehouse was on the island in the center of the Jungle Cruise. Tarzan's Treehouse. (From the Jungle Cruise)

More... Due to the crowds, we had to wait an additional 45 seconds for an English speaking tour guide on the Jungle Cruise. Those pics soon. One of the new attraction for 2008 was the spitting penii. Adventureland. Last land in the park. Due to the heat, we sought refuge in the Chinese version of Mickey's Philharmagic. More shortly. Hi Lou! Really pretty, but nothing to do. King Arthur Carousel looked very nice. While the two Leo's and I took in the sights, Bob managed to find the camera. Bouncy, Bouncy, Bouncy! (We're DEFINITELY NOT in Tokyo!) At least all of the animatronics worked. Why not? Robb's favorite. Actually, this would be Larry's favorite ride. An indoor queue. What a concept. Perhaps the original Disneyland should try something like that. It was awesome to have the air-conditioned queue on this HOT day to keep the crowds calm! Even the nooks and crannies of this place were immaculate! So we opted for Larry's favorite ride.. We also passed on "The Golden Mickeys" at the Storybook Theater, as the English version was much later in the day. On the way to Fantasyland, we passed on the Stitch Encounter. The English version wasn't till later in the day.

More... The children's water play area in Tomorrowland. More soon. Bob getting his POV. The foliage throughout the ride was quite spectacular. "RAMMING SPEED!" Cruising. Paused. Journey into the future? Honda? I don't get it. Next up was the Autopia. Damn! Look at the crowds pouring in! Bob was still looking for his "joystick"! "Young Jeff" just couldn't get it up! With the multitudes of people now coming in, we were given placards showing us our assigned seating. Next up we decided to try the Orbitron. I almost burned my hand on "Wall-E" waiting for Bob to take this picture. (Note to self: Don't touch blazing hot metal!) Then the cast members took us over to Buzz Lightyear, for some added ERT!! WooHoo! Mike is still shell-shocked from the jump off of the Macau Tower yesterday! Of course you get a trainload of happy TPR peeps! Inside did look much different than the others. (Of course, SM at DLP doesn't count, cause it sucks!) Even a safety training video. Nice entrance to Space Mountain.

I guess it's time to work on this some more. Day 11 - Hong Kong Disneyland OK. This place was absolutely beautiful, and ridiculously small. Not much to do, but everything, including the cast members was top notch. It's a wonderful (albeit small) park, with a great chance at growing into a great park. Time for pictures. In we go! OK. I didn't tell the whole truth. Somehow, Robb worked his magic and got us ERT on SM. THANK YOU ROBB!! More pics shortly. People were just flocking to the SM FastPass machines! You have to admit, it does look pretty damn cool! First stop, Space Mountain! The Astro Orbiter thingy on top looked pretty cool! Venturing into Tomorrowland. Themeing of said misters. It was nice to see misters on a blazing hot day like today! (It was 90+ that day.) With the throngs of people here today, it was amazing that you could still find your camera sitting in the middle of the street! OK. I think they took "Disneyland" as a model WAYYYY too seriously, because that's a itty bitty castle! Made even smaller by the hills in the background. It was also a bit odd that all of the signage was in English. Main Street, like the rest of the park, was immaculately clean! Anyone ever seen the "Midtown Jewelry" movie? We were only there 10 minutes and Rich was taking his final pictures before heading out. Way too many people for my taste! Like all Disney parks, this one was packed!! This looks vaguely familiar. Mickey and some dork. Mobs of people heading for the entrance. Not! Just the TPR peeps.

YES THEY WERE!!!! JJ (Luv ya Nic!)

Damn! I'm glad I didn't do THAT cable car!! That's insane!! The one at Ocean Park was almost too much for me as it was!! Great stuff Rich!!

I have a hard time believing that, since I saw the blueprints in Jack Falfas' office in August of 2001 (the day they were tearing out the last remnants of Wind Jammer) and it looks the same as the blueprints did then. JJ

OK. Did the steel poll. Here are my top 10: 1. Expedition GeForce 2. S:RoS (SFNE) 3. Eagle Fortress 4. Kawasemi 5. Kumba 6. Dragon Kahn 7. Nemesis 8. Montu 9. Pyrenees 10. Atlantis Adventure And bottom 10: 779. Spinning Batman 780. Hypersonic 781. Manhattan Express 782. Titan (Space World) 783. G Force (Drayton Manor) 784. Ninja (SFoG) 785. Screamin' Squirrel (Mysterious Island) 786. Dragon (Ocean Park) 787. Eeijanaika 788. Goudurix JJ

Just did mine. Took 20 minutes. Aside from the top 20 and bottom 6, I grouped mine in groups of 10. (Don't think I'll do that with the steel poll! ) Anyway, here's my top 20 and bottom 6; 1. T Express 2. Ozark Wildcat 3. The Voyage 4. Hades 5. Tonnerre de Zeus 6. Boulderdash 7. Tremors 8. Troy 9. Rampage 10. Coaster (Playland, BC) 11.Raven 12. Avalanche 13. Balder 14. Kentucky Rumbler 15. Hell Cat 16. Timber Terror 17. Renegade 18. Grand National 19. My Favorite Steel (EGF) 20. Thunderbird 141. Predator 142. Mean Streak 143. The Grizzly (CGA) 144. Son of Beast 145. The Bandit 146. Anaconda Granted, I haven't ridden "Voyage" or "Hell Cat" in the last 2 years, but I'm going by what my rides were the last time I rode them, not popular opinion. JJ

10/20 Still NOT a nerd!! JJ

I'm glad that I got to see, and enjoy it again, last week! Every time I've gone to IOA, I always make it a point to do PF. Though I do prefer the original storyline, it's still a fun, fascinating attraction to me. It's bad enough with the whole HP thing, and the removal of the dragons from the DD queue really leaves a sour taste with me anyway. I really hope the rumors aren't true, as I feel it would be the final dagger into The Lost Continent, the best themed area of the park. McMythos anyone? JJ

Of all of the rides they could possibly rip-off... IASW???? Damn!! Shawn, was the song just as annoying as the "real" thing?? Thanks for the Maglev pics! As always, loving your coverage!! JJ

Yes it was!!

^^ & ^ DIE!

Continued... I'll end this day with a stupid picture of the wheel that tossed a hubcap while taking the Disney bus. Thanks for looking! Next update will be Hong Kong Disneyland. One of the train stations where we had to change trains. Time to head back to Hong Kong. Fortunately, these Chinese ladies were more impressed with the intelligent ones who chose not to jump! About 2 minutes later, Mike was caught trying to impersonate an officer. Where's the restroom?!?! It's a damn COP!! What the hell is that? It's a bird... It's a plane... I don't care. It's still a helluva long ways up! Though Alex was swinging out over the edge. As was Leo... Dave was seriously testing the restraint systems. Too late to turn back now! (He survived!) Meanwhile, Chris and Callum discuss who will end up with Natasha in case Callum goes SPLAT on the bungee. They were all getting pretty comfortable up there. After about 15 minutes, Mike was getting bored with the whole thing.

Continued... It's nice to see that Rich's finger has healed nicely since the Spain trip last year. More soon. The guys were checking out Don's progress as he climbed to the tip of the tower. Bye Steve! Steve (still sober) getting ready to jump. The boys are out on the walkway. These brave souls will take the hour long walk around the top. (They did photo ops and some stunts etc.. during that time.) Steve, in a rare moment of sobriety, decided to jump off the edge. A couple of them would bungee off of it! The walkway out there was to be walked by several TPR members. A few more views. Standing on it was bad enough! ...though it wasn't nearly as bad as the people sitting and jumping on it! Laying on the glass floor kinda freaked me out.... The level we were at was 233 meters (764 ft.) which was still a long way down. It gave some pretty spectacular views! The one and only destination for about half the group (including myself) was the Macau Tower. (Not the Lego version!)

Day 10 - Macau Today was a kind of cultural day, as quite a few of us took the option to go to Macau, the biggest, fastest growing, gambling mecca in the world. They also have a large tower, with some interesting attractions up on top. We then got to either go sightsee more in Hong Kong, or go to Disneyland. Enjoy! Some of the major casinos we saw along the way. More shortly. Apparently, this was some sort of entertainment complex that recently lost their coaster credit. (Maybe they should try HRP here!) ... Hello Macau! Goodbye Hong Kong... Some of the TPR contingency. Our luxury ferry. One last look at the terminal. Another perspective of the office and apartment buildings. The ferry that would take us to Macau. Bob was happy, as Starbucks had invaded the terminal. The gold building there was the terminal for the ferry we were going to take to Macau. Even the buses in Hong Kong weren't Chuck proof! ... not too far from another apartment complex. It appeared that another office building was going up.... Coming soon to a Walmart near you - One of the thousands of containers stacked at the busiest harbor in the world! Heading back into Hong Kong. Nothing like a great breakfast to start the day! The sun rises on another beautiful (albeit HOT!) day in Hong Kong.

Yeah. I do have the full res pics (7.2mp). I can post and/or bundle them together at the end if anyone would like them. As for the "stitches" (panoramic shots) I'll start a different thread whenever I get this one finished. It will have all of the stitches I've attempted. But, I don't think that the night stitches came out all that well. JJ

Ain't that the damn truth!! JJ

Good stuff Chuck! LOVE the stretch Gremlin!!! JJ