MichaelD

I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your replies, and thank you for the Japan Trip Guide. You have helped us IMMEASURABLY in preparing for this trip. We are here in Tokyo now, on the 4th day of our trip and having the most incredibly wonderful time. 3 parks visited so far, train system comprehended, basic Japanese phrase vocabulary building. I'm going to attempt an almost real time Trip Report (+ add some quirky photos once I get the link between my laptop and phone working again) focussing on the process we've been through both before and during this trip, as this trip has been a fantastic learning experience for us and maybe we can help some others enjoy this wonderful city, too.

Thank you for your assistance so far - we've got our hotels nailed down and I'm now working through the theme parks we're going to visit. I've got my head around the train system, and am now fine tuning the park stuff...hence my query; Yokohama Cosmoworld - as far as I can figure out, this is a purely pay-per-ride park with no unlimited pass available - is this correct, or am I missing something?

Wow! 3 minutes for a reply - that's amazing. Thank you again for this info - it has very much made things "click" into place for us, particularly for the non-Disney portion of our holiday.

Guys, I have one further question if I may - I'm having a little difficulty comprehending what is actually meant by accomodation descriptions. Most Tokyo hotel rooms seem to have either one single bed, one double bed, or two single beds. What's a family of 2 adults and 1 child to do? Do they have rollaways or sofa beds for the child(ren) or is it a case of having to get two rooms?

Thank you all for your replies - they have assisted greatly in our planning.

Hi all, We've more-or-less at the last minute picked up some amazingly cheap fares to Tokyo (April 1st - 16th or so - no, not an April Fool's Joke), and thus find ourselves somewhat frantically planning a Japan coaster trip. Having gone through as much Japan trip goodness on TPR as I can without exploding (and having read the incredibly valuable Japan trip planning guide here - thanks for this guys, it's saved me literally dozens of hours of research), I have a couple of queries which I haven't been able to find guidance about yet. First I should state up-front that this isn't meant to be a full-on 8am to 10pm coaster-fest for 2 weeks, more a selective taste of parks in Tokyo + some immersion in Japanese culture. 2 days coastering + 1 day sightseeing seems reasonable enough to aim for to keep all the family happy. Tokyo Disneyland/Disneysea will be an important part of our trip - probably a week of it - but I'm wondering about crowd behaviours and different days of the week. - are Saturdays/Sundays bad days to be doing Disney things (or for that matter any other Tokyo park things)? - does anyone know if you can extend the 4 day Park Hopper tickets when in the park? - I get the impression that perservering and going on rainy days is worth the effort - is this a fair comment? - Shinjuku seems to be an excellent place to stay both for access to non-Disney parks and Tokyo in general - does this seem reasonable? - Staying on-resort at Disney seems well worth the effort in terms of ease of transportation to Disney - a fair call? Thanks to all for your input.

Here's a thought I'll throw out there. What I'd REALLY like to see; A map of the world with all theme parks on it. The ability to zoom in to get a close up of the parks in an area to allow for intelligent trip planning. (eg "I'm going to San Antonio, Texas - what parks are in that area?") Within each individual park, a list of rides + POV videos for all the rides. And...the ability to keep track of the rides you've been on/review the rides. Basically, a combination of RCDB, TPR and CoasterFanatics with a couple of extra features. Mmmmm. Sweeet.

(We own all the TPR DVDs and the 2 RAW DVDs) I watch both the expedition and the footage DVDs equally, but for entirely different purposes. The expedition DVDs give a great feel for a particular park, whereas the footage gives a great feel for what specifically to expect from the coasters in any given park. We'll basically use the expedition DVDs to decide whether or not to visit a park and then zoom in on specifics with the coaster footage. As far as RAW goes, I find that I miss the music (but still really like the RAW DVDs).

I'd just like to say a big thank you for this trip report - I've been thinking about ducking over to NZ for this park since unlike everything else it isn't 12 or more hours by plane away from us, and it definitely looks worthwhile, especially with Australia/NZ airfares being as cheap as they are. (And it's motivating me to get my photos from Merimbula's Magic Mountain and Aussie World organized and posted).

^re Legoland. Last time we went, I allocated one full day on a quiet weekday. My daughter likes to ride and reride (and reride and reride...), something which we didn't have the opportunity to do last time we went due to the sheer number of different rides at Legoland and the limited hours - this was one of her favourite parks - she ranked it up there with Cedar Point from her point of view - and it was clear that we would get value out of a multi-day visit (+ my wife likes the Carlsbad area). ^re DLR. Pretty much all we'll do for the 7 days is sleep for the first two days to get over the jetlag, then ride and reride Space Mountain, California Screamin' and Big Thunder (+ swim). Bit dull for me after the 20th ride, but it's what my daughter likes to do so I get my enjoyment from observing her.

Hi Gutterflower, I can tackle this one from a similar perspective to you as we did exactly this last year (albeit coming from Australia). We chose not to drive on US roads due to us not being confident of handling driving on the "wrong" side of the road in some very busy conditions. Public transport in LA as a tourist is, to say the least, problematic. Basically - you + luggage <> LA public transport. Here's how we tackled a very similar situation; LAX to Disneyland area - Magic Express bus which takes you direct to your hotel for about $35. Base yourself in Anaheim for Disneyland/California Adventure. From Anaheim, you can take busses with (?) Mears - I forget the exact name of the bus company - to Knott's and Universal Studios. These pick up and drop off at or close to your hotel and give you about 8 hours in each park. Fares are reasonable. Anaheim to Valencia is 2 hours and best tackled with a cab - expect around $150 or so. Valencia back to the airport - use an airport shuttle for about $70. All of these are best pre-booked/pre-paid.

Hi all, I'm hoping for some feedback on some trip plans we're forming for our next trip to the US. We're going on the Deep South and Texas TPR tours, but want to arrive a couple of weeks early to both acclimatize (coming from the middle of winter and the opposite side of the world) and to revisit a few places we loved from our last trip. I'm a bit worried about the time of year being peak season, being as it would appear to be Summer break for all school levels and the 4th July will fall within our visit. Here's what I'm thinking would work best ("least worst"); Thursday 25th June to Thursday 2nd July - Disneyland CA Friday 3rd July - Sunday 5th July - Legoland Monday 6th July - Friday 10th July - Cedar Point Saturday 11th July - join TPR trip. The logic I'm following is that I figure anything to do with the 4th July will probably be a write-off as far as Disneyland or Cedar Point go, so we might as well chance several days at Legoland during this time as it's possibly a little more off the tourist radar. Any comments on this will be appreciated.

We think it's a shame. We managed a visit to Cypress Gardens a few months ago as we were travelling between Orlando and Tampa and my daughter (7 1/2) loved it. With lots of kiddie rides and most stuff walk-on, she was well pleased. The park was depressingly empty, though, especially considering it was a Saturday. We got to stay in our seats multiple times for both woodies. Interestingly, my daughter was adamant that she preferred Cypress Gardens to Busch Gardens Africa as she found much less to do at BGA. (Not an opinion held by me.)

Do you have an end time for the Texas trip (i.e. time expected back at the airport)? (For working out flight possibilities back home). I know this will be in the more detailed itineraries, but we need to pick a day to take our trip back to Australia pretty soon.

^Thanks for that - I'd guessed that would be the case as that is optimal for maximum theme park efficiency/enjoyment. Cheers Michael

^Thanks guys - I'd guessed it was the Sevierville park because of the credit and because of its proximity to Dollyworld. Two more questions if I may; 1. Do the longer trips between parks (100-200 miles) tend to be in the evening or early morning or a combination of both? 2. Do you aim in general to get to parks at or before opening time (since that's the best time to get a quick sequence of rides)? Cheers

I have two questions about parks on the Deep South/Texas trips; 1. Nascar Speed Park - which one will we be visiting? 2. Schlitterbahn - will this be the one in New Braunfels? Cheers MichaelD

Any rough ideas as to whether or not there will be an add-on after the Texas trip and what timing will be involved? Our trip to/from Oz really needs to be booked soon as it's peak travel season and there are not many reasonably priced fares, and we'll be coming home straight after the end of the Texas trip.

Guys, What is the plausibility of this scenario (remembering my wife is a ride-hater and not interested in theme parks but she is missed when she's not with us overnight); My daughter and I do the tours. My wife tags along, not on the tour. i.e. she doesn't go to the theme parks, but does end up mostly in the same hotel beds as us. Obviously it'd be up to her to amuse, transport and feed herself.

Hi All, (Please bear with me a moment as I introduce ourselves). Me: 40. Coaster nut. 7 1/2 year old daughter - 51" - Coaster nut. Her favourite rollercoaster: Millennium Force - 'nuf said. Wife: HATES coasters. Barely tolerates theme parks. We're from Australia, and we have just completed a stupendous 5 week US coast-to-coast coaster tour. Best trip we've ever done by far. Planning it took months. It seems sensible to us now to come along on a TPR trip (most likely Deep South + Texas) since all the planning is done and we can concentrate on the FUN...but how will a non-riding spouse fit in? Has anyone done this before? If yes, what were your and the non-rider's experiences? My theoretical idea is to have my wife use the same hotel room as us and use the bus between accommodations but for her to work her sightseeing around our park time/travel schedule.