live2tell75

More Thorpe Park Pics: Big Mike was our bodyquard keeping all the haters away from the B.O.T.B.C. Front R-L: Ted, Catrina, Me, Jim, Mike, Jim, Kristie, Tommy, Barron, and James. Time for some ERT on Nemesis Inferno. Even the electronic sign welcomed Theme Park Review. Nemesis Inferno was a very cool SLC. Whos leaves thier house looking like this and says to themselves, I'm hot! Vortex was a lot of fun. What's wrong with this picture? I'm sure Ted was kind of nervous riding Quantum. Thorpe Park had a large collection of flat rides. Most I have never been on before.

More Thorpe Park Pics: Awww more giant bunnies! At the farm, we saw what else but farm animals! So we took a break from all the excietment, and took the train to The Thorpe Farm. Catrina and Ted are going to try to stay dry! BOTBCers will try to stay dry on the Rumba Rapids.

More Thorpe Park Pics: The last boat ride credit. Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride. This was my first time on a giaint fly swat. It was cool, not very comfortable. Can you tell we're excited to go on Slammer? Kristie, Me, James, Ted Dave, Barron, Jim and Mike. And so did Jim and I. Ted and Catrina enjoy a spin on Chief Ranger's Carousel. Yo' da bouys' r represent! Clockwise from bottom left: Me, Barron, James, Jim, Ted, Jim, Mike, Tommy and Dave. Samurai was probally one of my favorites if not favorite flat ride on the whole trip! Tommy, Mike, James, & Barron are ready for Samurai.

Day 9 and final park for 12 of us: Thorpe Park So if Alton Towers and Blackpool were my favorate parks then Thorpe Park was the park I had the best time at! Maybe because it was the last day of the UK trip, but it really was our awesome B.O.T.B.C. (Back Of The Bus Crew)! Represent! The crazy antics of that day still make me laugh! You guys all rock! The ERT on Nemesis Inferno and Stealth was great! Except for Pierre, the bird that became one with Stealth! Thorpe Park was a blast and the best way to end the UK portion with a bang! James gave Tommy a interesting proposal. I think Jim got a different type of proposal! Kristie waits for a proposal. Awww..Catrina proposes to Ted. So, most people know that at this Colossus coaster support is where Robb proposed to Elissa a few years ago. So the B.O.T.B.C. thought we would take our own spin on it. Al-right-ee then, well done old chap! Almost, Almost, Colossus was one of the few loopers on the trip. Ted, Barron, Mike, James, Jim, Kristie and Dave are ready to conquer Colossus! 1st up, Colossus. A pretty good 10 looper! Elissa fanboys are ready for Thorpe Park! Last park, Thorpe. I think our proposals rocked!

^ Thanks Mike, B.O.T.B.C. rules! ^^ I totally agree Chuck, at first I thought we weren't going to have enough time at Pleasurewood Hills, but we stayed the perfect amount of time.

Coming soon: One of my favorate park days: Thorpe Park. But sadly the last park day for 12 of us. Stay tuned! --Eric J

More Pics: Back at our hotel near Heathrow Airport outside of London. Last group dinner before our last UK park day. The B.O.T.B.C. (The Back Of The Bus Crew) Rocks hard!! Tommy and James bought the coolest thing at Great Yarmouth, a megaphone! This kept all the peeps on the bus in check.

Day 8, 3rd Park: Joyland Good-bye Great Yarmouth & Joyland, you were both fun! Now that's togetherness! How James, Tommy, Barron & Kristie were all able to fit in one of those small tubs is a mystery! The Jims are spining out of control! Chuck and Andrew are off on the Virgina Reel. Greg thinks it is. This ride is to crazy! Bob - Is this really a credit? Karen and Peter are so ready for the snails credit! Chris thought the Neptune's Kingdom was amazing! Chuck and Dracula are super tight! Joyland was more geared for kids, like us! To get to Joyland, Chuck, Karen Peter, Andrew and I decided to take a horse drawn carriage. Best 5 pounds spent!

More Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach Pics: A trip isn't complete without checking out the funhouse! At The Haunted Hotel, with my dark ride peeps: Peter, Andrew, Chuck and Karen.

Day 8, 2nd Park: Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach TPRers ready to ride a piece of history. The view of the beach from the coaster was nice. On a scenic railway coaster, a ride operator rides with you to control the brakes after every turn and hill. This is the ride that you really hope the ride op is paying attention! Considering how old this coaster was, it was pretty smooth! A first for me, a ride on a historic scenic railway. Great Yarmouth was an old style seaside amusement park.

Day 8: 1st Park, Pleasurewood Hills I think we spent just the right amount of time at Pleasurewood Hills. This was a nice, small, more of a children's park. My main attraction at Pleasurewood was the old slide, like the ones in RCT. Lot's of fun. Overall a pretty park. --Eric J I love this slide! Pleasurewood Hills was fun! The old fashion slide from RCT! Tales From The Coast, a really bad 3D boat ride. Jodi, Karen, Ted, James and Barron got to get the kiddie credit! 10,000th UK Pirate Ship credit! It was a fun half-way enterprise type ride. While waiting for Enigma to open, a few of us went on Thunderstruck. Enigma was the biggest credit at Pleasurewood Hills. The UK Theme Park Review Group rocks!

Next up: Pleasurewood Hills, coming soon!

More Flamingo Land Pics: Sometimes people fell asleep waiting for the launch! Kristie and Jim are two mean bikers! TPRer's ready to put the pedal to the metal. Elissa likes being strapped onto this big machine! Big Mike's ready for the launch! Barry and Dan are ready for some speed. This was like Steeplechase on crack! Velocity was a cool launch power bike coaster. Next up was Velocity, one of the more unique coasters on the trip.

Day 7: 2nd Park: Flamingo Land Like arriving at Lightwater earlier in the day, I was still very tired and kind of grumpy. We rode the wild mouse first and it was braked every other second! Which certianlly didn't help. But I am pleased to say by the end of the day I felt much better and revived! Our ERT on Kumali the SLC, and Velocity, a power bike coaster helped change my attitude about the day. I enjoyed both of those coasters a lot! --Eric J Couldn't come to Flamingo Land and not see the Flamingos! Peacocks are always pretty. Including very cute Lemurs. They had some nice animal exhibits. Ted and I hit the Waltzer. Nothing like the one on South Pier at Blackpool, but still fun. 2nd Park of the day. More gorgeous countryside. One of the highlights of the day! And very smooth! It was actually a lot of fun! Kumali was the new SLC for this season.

Day7: 1st park: Lightwater Valley To be honest I wasn't feeling so great on this day. This was the first day where the trip was catching up with me. I was really tired. I don't know why, we had only done 8 parks so far! I know when I'm tired when I could care less if I skipped a coaster and/or rides. Lightwater Valley wasn't really anything spectacular. I was really looking forward to riding the Ultimate. I had seen the 2002 dvd and it looked really neat going through the countryside and woods. The ride was fine until after the second lift, then all hell broke lose! The Ultimate was a one time ride for me! I got the crap banged out of me! God bless everyone that went on it more than once! You must be made out of steel! The lunch was really gross. I did enjoy the Sewer Rat Ride. That had one of the coolest queues ever! I did perk up during the ERT at Flamingoland later in the day, but that's for the next trip report. --Eric J. Looks like Lightwater Valley wore Tommy and James out too! I wasn't feeling good to begin with, so I skipped The Toad In The Hole ride. I'm glad I did, because when exiting the ride, a sign warned riders to wash hands before eating and to not drink the water! Yuck! We had to hike through the woods to get to some of the rides. Catrina and I are ready for the Wild Cat. This ride is to intese for Barry! I wanted the op to keep the gas tanks in the cars! It would of made it more thrilling! Jim, Dave, Mike, & Ryan agree this a Elissa approved rodent ride! The sewer underground queue was crazy! The Sewer Rat was a lot of fun! Poor TPRers, they are about to get the crap banged out of them on The Ultimate! The Ultimate: Ride of pain! Maybe I should of had a smack in the mouth to have more energy! Woops I mean snack! Day 7: 1st Park, Lightwater Valley

So it's only a few more weeks till I see her in Miami! I can't wait! Has anyone got to see The Confessions Tour yet? I know she sings one of my all time favorate Madonna songs on this tour, Live To Tell! You would never guess it from my avatar. I have never seen her perform this song live. Last tour got to see her sing Like A Prayer and Into The Groove which were both amazing live! Is it July 22nd yet? --Eric J

^ I'll work on that Paul. I don't know why you guys bailed on the spectacular-campy-long-over-the-top skating show.

^ That's hilarious Lou, I never noticed Clint under there!

Coming soon: Lightwater Valley!

More Blackpool Pics: I will wiss you Blackpool! You were great! Shouldn't Dave and Jim be passed out by now? There were lots of late nights in the lounges of our hotels. Hanging out in Blackpool. Guess what these TPRers are doing? If you guessed checking out the UK Trip updates then you are correct! After dinner we were given complimentary tickets to see the show Hot Ice. It was very campy, semi Vegas-like and it was fabu! Our group striking their best figure skater poses. My cheeseburger was pretty good. Hopefully the horses on the walls won't kick anyone while their eating! The inside of Coasters was cool. The tables and chairs were themed to amusement park rides. After our day at Blackpool Pleasure Beach we had dinner provied for us at Coasters.

More Blackpool Pleasure Beach Pics: Ok, 99.9% of Blackpool was awesome except this random scary clown in a glass box. Have ever seen anything so scary! Jim was trying to hold on! It was fun trying to hold onto the other car's riders hands throughout the ride. Many generations have done this. Grand National was one my favorite coasters on the trip. The River Caves was an old fashioned tunnel of love ride. You might have heard, you get a little wet on Valhalla! Valhalla has got to be the best water ride anywhere! Barron, Ted and I enjoyed riding a piece of history. The historic Airplanes ride. The Alice In Wonderland dark ride seemed very similar to Disneyland's version. A view from the Noah's Arch. Barron, Catrina, Ted and I loved the Ghost Train! Is it a credit? It has a coaster element! Ok debate! One time was enough for me. Blackpool had another one of those wild mouse death machines! Barron, Ted, Catrina and I were so happy about our Pizza Hut Buffet outside the park. We had free refills!!!!!

More Blackpool Pleasure Beach Pics: TPRers ready to conquer the Magic Mountain dark ride. The Zipper Dipper was a fun kiddie coaster credit. Barron, Ted, Catrina and I enjoyed the Chinese Hedge Maze. We were the lucky few that got the Space Invaders 2 credit before it broke down. Catrina & Ted joined me for Space Invaders 2. Roller Coaster was very historic. ERT on Rollercoaster was great. Tommy and James snug like a bug in their bobsled. Avalanche was fun. It was time for ERT on Avalanche.

Day 6: Blackpool Pleasure Beach As I said before, Blackpool was awesome! Along with Alton, Blackpool was my favorite park on the entire trip. The 3 hours of ERT, the gazillion rides, old dark rides and fun walkthroughs made our trip great! I can't wait to go back someday. Here is Blackpool Pleasure Beach! Enjoy! --Eric J Pepsi Max was fun, but a little to rough for me. You could see a lot of the coast. The view from Pepsi Max was wonderful. The lift was steep! TPRers enjoying Pepsi Max, the largest coaster in Europe. ERT on Pepsi Max was next. Blackpool opened Bling for us early! I feel like I'm in RCT! There was a lot of competition on Steeplechase! I was able to get 2 of the 3 Steeplechase credits. As the picture says, I'm off! Next up one of my favorites: Steeplechase. And so are the rest of TPR. Robb and Jim are ready for the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper had a lot of tight turns! Ist of the ERT was on the historic Big Dipper. Almost time to go in! Even the president of the Blackpool Coaster Group joined us. TPRers are ready for blackpool!

More Blackpool Pics: Hotel window view at night. In a few hours I will get to ride all of the cool rides of Blackpool! Nightime at Blackpool was very nice. I love the views of Blackpool! Back at the pub next to the hotel, the triva contest was fun, even though I was the biggest loser. But I got a shirt for being the most pathetic!! Yeah! The famous 10 minute crazy spinning Waltzer ride. A very breezy ride! Kristie and Greg are ready for a spin! Chuck joined me on the Crazy Mouse on the South Pier. Donkey tokens! Donkeys! Love it! I love the coastline!

Blackpool: I can't even express how cool Blackpool was! They went way out of their way to welcome Theme Park Review. A welcome reception including a buffet, wine and juices was great. Free internet access, a trivia event, lots of extra ride times and the most friendly staff of the entire trip! Here are a few pics from our first night at Blackpool and at the South Pier. Enjoy! --Eric J Did I mention how much I love Blackpool? Theme Park Review loves Blackpool! Clockwise from front left: Jodi, Jim, Catrina, Ted, Chuck, Mike, Daron, Tim, Peter, Karen, Dave, James and Lou. The weather was gorgeous! Nice and breazy! I love Blackpool already! Even the CEO of Blackpool was there to welcome us! The reception included a yummy buffet, wine and juices. The reception Blackpool gave us was fantastic! The hotel resaurant was very cool and blue! For coaster freaks like us, this view from my hotel room is a dream come true! The best hotel stay on the entire trip: The Big Blue Hotel!