bert425

Part 4: Europa Park day 2 concluded: Traumatica so Traumatica is a separately ticketed event that is attached to the park, and in 2024 included parts of the park that allowed two coasters to operate (Pegasus and Matterhorn blitz) as well as the Kassandra's Kurse madhouse, that ran with a graphic horror overlay via VR goggles. There was also a brand new VR ride in a tent that had lots of effects, love music and performances, a large bar area with food stands, and the marquee attractions are the 6 Haunts that are long, and detailed and the good ones are REALLY REALLY good. oh. .and there's an added attraction where you can ask for a glow necklace, and that gives the scare actors permission for physical contact. Yeah. it blew USA haunts out of the water. no pictures allowed in the houses, but I can say that my favorite was probably the Circus themed one where it climaxed in a giant big top with 8 entrances/exits that looked exactly the same but only one of them led out. the rest of them either looped back into the center of the tent, or dead ended. Meanwhile the ringmaster clown stood on a pedestal in the center, twirling around and yelling at you in German. seriously, some folks were stuck in that house for a good 15-20 minutes trying to find their way out. others had some great ideas - like the zombie attack one, where you were sent thru in groups of 4-6 with laser guns, and you had to shoot them so they don't attack you in the giant murder dome. or an elevator that transports you thru the 13 levels of an office building that has descended to hell. they were all decent, and honestly the only one I didn't care much for was "the Hill". . which was a very long, outdoors in the woods, scare maze with spirits , ghosts, and spooks. it didn't' do much for me, but that could have been because it was all outside with a lot of uneven walking surfaces in the dark. still. . .excellent event. here are lots of pics from it to end our stay at Europa Park! the whole site has a spooky and creepy atmosphere. and the haunts are most all really impressive looking. Tarot House was another favorite of mine (one the left) as was the theming in Cinema Macabre (off shot on the right, tho the queue line is there) ' this is Wakala. . he's kinda the mascot of Traumatica, and I ended up buying quite a bit of merch with him on it. the main stage, that hosted sideshow acts, as well as band performances thruout the event. random ghouls all thruout the crowd, providing jumpscares, even if not in the houses. Wakala wandering Cinema Macabre obscured by smoke, as seen from the Tarot House queue Silver Star behind the trees. . to give you an idea where we are in relation to the park notice a glow necklace or two in the queue line. . means they are ok with being touched. one of the Traumatica Event managers. . she was very very cool, and I enjoyed chatting with her and telling her how much I was enjoying the event walking around with an active torch light.. that was shooting sparks everywhere. no way in USA. . but VERY cool here. Hans has made it to the Bar area even tho outdoors? very well done. more TPR folks joined Hans! Andrew goes "Rarrrrrrrgh" Jon making the long walk into up the queue (we had quick queue thank goodness, on the left is the stand by line) for the outdoor haunt int he woods. this one is so far up and out, you get a great view of Blue Fire from the Haunt. that polka dot tent beneath us is that big top with the multiple ins/outs, as you can see from the fabric-ed off paths to confuse everyone. TPR found Wakala! Grim's Funhouse was another really well done house. . with some great props inside. not part of the event (at least not in 2024), but a great view of Voltron. .and one would go this way for the VR ride, and to access the rides that were available in the park Jon enjoying spiraled potato at the Traumatica food court/bar area lots of photo ops around here too. it really is a fantastic event, and highly recommended the temps were really starting to drop.. . so the crowds were starting to thin. myself? I headed to the merch tent and ended up spending way too much money, but I did get a Traumatica jean jacket that I wore the whole rest of the trip, and still wear pretty often. so it was a great buy but then it was time to monorail back to the hotel and pack up. we were headed out tomorrow morning to continue the Oktoberfest trip. eventual final destination? Phantasialand.

Part 3: Europa Park day 2 Continued: with less of a crowd up here, as it wasn't opening time now, I was able to get closer to the Berlin Wall pieces and read the history of the display and snap a couple more pics of Silver Star doing it's thing although I didn't go out the main gate completely, I believe that's the Monorail station there on the left. I absolutely adore this statue. . . Viewed from the front: but if you look at it the other direction? I need to find a small model of this, as I'd love to have it. headed back towards the gardens/restaurant, as we had to meet in about 20 minutes, I stumbled across this behind a "storefront" on the main street. the Mack museum! with all kinds of history of the park, awards they've won, patents, and design concepts for the park. very, very interesting, and I was the only one in there! (as I had been in the mask museum too) as I was about to head out, I heard some commotion from outside. so stepped out and was treated to: the clock going off, and doing a presentation, that I hadn't even realized was an option here back inside for a couple more pics then on my way back over to the restaurant here's the full menu I ended up having the "Baden" set menu, and it was all excellent (tho the service was kind of a mess. (I think we confused them since we all ordered separately) cream of pumpkin soup (so good) pork shoulder and potatoes and apple bread pudding with black forest cherries. after our meal, I took a quick look around the rest of the restaurant, as it really was in theme as a Medieval home after finishing up eating, it was getting pretty late in the day, and we decided to head back to the hotel to change for Traumatica - which happened starting at 7pm since we hadn't yet taken the "big" monrail, we headed up to that station near Germany and hopped on to head back to Colosseo to change clothes for something warmer pretty cool station. map showing where the Monorail went from and to, that gives a good overview of just how large this park is. changed and back into the park, this was outfit for Traumatica the lady in Spain seemed to like it. we had some skip the lines for Wodan from earlier in the day, so we had all decided to meet up at that entrance, but first I decided to climb this lookout tower section that overlooked the splash battle ride really nice views from up here too. . . and even slightly higher than that other monorail we had ridden earlier in the day even tho it had gotten cooler? tonight, the splash battle WAS running, and had takers. great view of Blue Fire from here too and of course, Wodan. and even lots of theming up here - on a lookout that wasn't gonna get many folks bothering to go up to. I love this park. met up and rode Wodan (it was fantastic as always, and yes, my headgear stayed on as it has a chin strap) this is the skip the line entrance for virtual queue and then we headed over to the main Wodan entrance, as we wanted to check out that free haunt they had over here it was mainly just lots of smoke and a few scare actors. . but for a free house? it was ok. it wasn't quite time for Traumatica yet, so we decided to head over to the Arthur area to grab some single rider rides. passing thru Fairy Tale land stopping to use the restroom over here, I just about pissed myself laughing. there was a gnome urinal in these toilets over here. and yes, it actually "peed". . . hysterical. using single rider is the way to go on Arthur, we were on it in moments. and then started heading towards the direction of the Traumatica entrance. we knew it was over near Croatia (by Voltron), so we went over that way. and once it starts to get dark? it comes quickly. this was when we started walking. and this is when we got to Voltron. and the temps started to drop too. I caught part of this "Animatronic" show, it was about Nikola Tesla. to be concluded in part 4: Traumatica !!!

Part 2: Europa Park day 2 Continued: a peek inside the Roller Coaster restaurant (it opened later in the day and was booked solid. not a great loss, as I find the RCR food to be a bit "meh". . but it very cool to experience if you've never done one before). Then we continued on up to the loading platform for the other monorail. this one goes over an entirely different area of the park than any of the other "elevated" rides, and so gives different views. the carousel here (which I love). . and in the foreground are the racecars, that ride on a track similar to the old taxis in the other section. I say again, a slow moving, silly/stupid ride is what I love to do. Coasters and Carousels too, but I just love these type of things paddle boats, and a balloon ride. this is such a big park. a view from across the way of where we came from - that's the Roller Coaster restaurant under the blue top hat (which is the monorail station) the slow moving "Princess" boat ride. another of my favorites here. and those docks across the way in the back? that's where the larger splashboats come from that share this lagoon and you can spray the princess boats with handle powered spinning. (the splashboats were not operating today, probably because it was a little chilly, or perhaps being refurbed) That's not Amity down there, but there is a big hanging shark photo op and over here are the river rapids, that we'll pass over twice on this monorail yeah. . you'll get wet. you also pass right over Atlantica Supersplash the river rapids load station and Wodan. and if you're lucky with the timing, even get a train zooming by the park also has a swinging ship and lots of other rides tucked away in nooks and crannies. better view of the shark photo op that pirate is on the top of one of the park's TWO SeaStorm rides (one indoors in Spain, and this one outdoors) more characters just out and about. . TPR in a fairy tale village yurt because of course, I wanted to ride the princess boat ride next. first there is a photo op that both I (and Christopher) wanted the storyline on this had changed a little since my last visit. . oh, it still had a Princess marrying storyline, but they had shoehorned in troll type characters (I guess to make it fit in better with the fairytale village section on the other side of the lake). but the ride is basically the same, so I enjoyed. and there are still ducks in the lake that swim along side the princess boats we got divided among a couple of boats tho, as we were too heavy to all go in one. the monorail we had just ridden passes over us. lots of fountains and "squirting" things on this ride too and of COURSE it has an "indoor" section she has found her prince wheee! dogs are welcome in this park, and there were some really nice doggos here today. we were getting hungry, and looking at the park info, it appeared there was a park restaurant off to the left of the main entrance - I hadn't even realized there was anything over there. so we headed back towards the front gates, and passed by a popular show going on "Scary Movie Hits" with characters from horror films singing. apparently "Cruella DeVille" is a horror film icon? wow. . . it's just lovely over here!! a giant gardens area with fountains, walking paths. . and an old villa that housed the restaurant the menu looked really good, so we decided we'd check it out. I couldn't believe I had no idea this was even over here! we went in and asked and they had no seating available, but told us if we came back in an hour, we could make a reservation. so of those I was hanging with had wanted to shop, and we were right near the front gate shops, so we went ahead and made a reservation and then all split off, to meet back up in an hour. i had done all my shopping already, so I decided to explore the area over here. lots of cool art and installations over in these gardens a passerby offered to take this pic. I think it came out lovely. lots of pumpkins over here in these gardens too. these tree sculptures are QUITE judgemental! after wandering the area for 20 or so minutes, I decided to check out what else was near the main entrance. and I stumbled across this interesting Museum tucked away in a corner. there were some folks having a meeting inside, but when they saw me looking thru the window, they welcomed me in to look around and told me all about the masks and the traditions behind them. turns out this is actually listed as an "attraction" but it does appear that not many really realize it's there, as the folks in the meeting were VERY excited that I expressed interest. apparently it's not always open, and some of the masks on display are quite valuable. https://www.europapark.de/en/theme-park/attractions/carnival-barn The world of fools Carnival fans young and old can marvel at the precious and extensive collection of Carnival masks in the Carnival Barn. Over 150 Swabian-Alemanic masks have found a unique home in the rustic barn in the German themed area, heralding in the so called fifth time of the year. As well as the wide collection of Swabian-Alemanic masks, you will also find particularly unusual and rare samples from the south-west German Carnival clubs, like the yellow-blue Jokili of the ‘Krakeelia’ Waldkirch or the Balthasar Witch from Rust. Each area of the exhibition is organised by region, with pieces identifiable by a small sign containing names and origins. I ended up going into at least one gift shop, to check out the designs on the ceiling, but then headed back down the main street. to be continued in part 3. . .

Day 8: Europa Park day 2 what's crazy, is after a full day in the park yesterday? there was SO MUCH MORE that we hadn't even gotten to yet. in fact, I had made a point the prior day of telling the folks I had been hanging around with that "tomorrow I was gonna do a lot of the slow moving/stupid stuff that I love" and that they were welcome to come along with me to "enjoy" as well. So a lot of that will be in this update. a quick breakfast, and at the Resort Entrance gate before they even opened, as TPR had some ERT this morning before the park opened to the public. we passed Eurosat Can-Can coaster (for the moment), as our first ERT today was: Silver Star! the park's B&M Hyper thanks to Elissa for this pic then we headed right next door for some ERT on EuroSat: the Can Can Coaster TPR Morning ERT complete, we were let loose in the park, and since we were so close to Italy? I headed directly to Ghost Castle - as noted, one of my favorite dark rides in the park. Tho today, I had my phone out to snap some pics while riding. a great queue line. .. before you get into your "ghost cart" that rides you along thru the haunted castle. (I know this pic is a bit blurry, but the best I could get to grab the effect of the skeletons projected on top of the figures. . a fantastic surprise) "Ma-damn that's not Leota" and exit thru the gift shop. . which had this wonderful section dedicated to Traumatica. We'd experience Traumatica later that night, and I'd buy a BUNCH of merch. but no way could I fit this umbrella in my luggage, so had to just settle for a pic of it. next up was the first of many slow/silly rides that I love. this one is a suspended monorail that goes over a portion of the park, and is themed to Leonardo Da Vinci's "flying machine" sketches we flew over the boat ride we'd go to next. . the ride vehicles have pedals, but you do not HAVE to pedal, it's electric. an antique car ride we'd get to later one of THE most WTF rides in the park, that's also terrifying: the marionette / clown boat ride. and this was new since my last visit: the Jim Knopf train ride (that appeared to be based on a television show over here) the load station of that terrifying marionette / clown ride yes, it's called: marionetten bootsfahrt the observation tower (ridden yesterday) and a haunt meet and greet that was set up for later it is such a lovely park hi TPR, in the vehicle behind me. and then it was onto one of multiple "slow moving boat rides" that Europa has. all of them pretty long, all of them pretty bizarre, and all of them right up my alley. this one was themed to fairly land. NOTED! Fun TPR selfie on the fairly boat the other half of "our" TPR gang that were hanging out with me today. Christopher took a selfie on this too that he shared with me. . his is a bit crisper. . at least I think we look happier in this one. and then it was across to that new "train" ride the operator had absolutely no qualms about putting us one each in the train, as the line was so short. I guess this is the guy who's show it is. they were screening clips in the queue and it seemed to be an adventure type show with dragons and mystical village. the ride vehicle. . . but I think I probably snapped this pic for that sign that says a person is not allowed to ride in underwear. . .LOL you could pull that cord and blow the horn and make the stack smoke! pretty long ride, with indoor section (as many things here at Europa seem to have) Jonathan enjoying the ride Christopher Jon oooo. . .a train!!! know where I'm going shortly Nick Wilfried Hans and one of me to close it out. walking over to the WTF marionette ride, got a great view of the suspended Da Vinci ride that goes overhead in this area, along with some more pumpkin theming on marionetten bootsfahrt, the rafts are TINY. . . so we split up into groups of 2 or 3. Myself and Jonathan rode together it really is very creepy, and kinda charming but mostly? it's WTF??????? the Monorail passes thru the park as well (going between the Hotels, and the front gate, as well as a stop over by Greece). there are LOTS of ways to get great views of this park. more bewbs aha!. . here's one of the train stations, close to where we'd gotten off the prior ride. yes please. TPR tiny train takeover! this train really does loop around a very large portion of the park. not all of it, but a lot of it, and is well worth the time spent to ride. It has multiple stops thruout the park, but you don't have to exit unless you want to. a great way to see the park as well. wait. . the taxis are called "Oltimer Fahrt" ?? Oh, I'd ABSOLUTELY be coming back to ride this then. and offride view of marionetten bootsfahrt coming into the England section, you can see how this would NEVER go in USA. there are no track guards, and no crossing signals other than just a sign. They just expect people to not be stupid and be aware of a train coming as it crosses walking paths. a replica of the Globe theater. sadly in two days here, I never managed to catch the show in here. Paddington statue at the England station. ooooo. . ANOTHER elevated monorail? ok then, that's on my list too now. over by the Arthur section now, and a better view of that adorable kiddie mine cart ride I saw yesterday. you can see from the size of the child riding, that this one was a "don't even try to ride it" situation. but it was so cute! more people stopping because they are smart and know a train will hurt them. runes in the Arthur section, by the suspended track for the ride. there is a ton of theming for the train. .even when passing by areas that you can ONLY see from the train. hard to see here, but the swings are themed to a giant Mushroom again, theming just for the train riders passing by the rebuilt log flume / mine train area the "Spain" train station a great view from the train, showing how the flume interacts with the mine train and the walking paths there's also a great river rapids ride here in the park. lots of ways to get soaked here. while on the train, I spotted that the 2nd monorail station was above the Roller Coaster restaurant, near the station in Russia. So we exited the train there, and walked over to the monorail, stopping to get a couple of pics of Euro Mir as we passed it. To be continued in part 2

pics from yesterday's visit for "Feliz Fiesta" during Holiday in the Park. (and yes, they got TONS of lights from SFA - I asked and was confirmed that the Texas parks got things from several other parks as well that were no longer doing Holiday in the Park) the park is looking amazing, and the shows remain top notch! Majesty of Christmas, and the Dickens shows alone are worth price of admission, tho all the other shows are great as well. because of Texas Department of Transportation sending out a crapload of warnings about how I10 & Loop 1604 (ie: right were the park is) being closed all weekend for construction, we allowed just over 2 hours for the trip to the park from Austin today. so of course, we were so early that even tho the cones were up, they hadn't started any work yet, and traffic flowed - resulting in us being the first ones at the park, and stopped at the entrance gate. so we took advantage to get out of the car, and snap this pic which typically you only can get while driving by. but after about 15 minutes, the parking gates opened and we headed in (with all the other folks that had backed up behind us). of COURSE, this was right when the Six Flags app decided to update, and that made getting thru the toll booths a nightmare - how nice Six Flags stopped handing out physical (hard card) passes JUST before they updated the app and made it a huge mess to access your digital stuff. note: we did chat with mgmt about this during the day as lots of folks had issues, so it came up. they are aware of issues, and are working on solutions, so "please stand by" anyways, the park looks great. the Day ended up being PERFECT (low 70s after a week of temps in the 40s and 50s), and the construction kept many away from the area, resulting in a very crowd comfortable day. lots and lots of photo ops thru the park. as mentioned, I'm guessing some of them came from other parks no longer doing HitP and no trip to SFFT is complete without a stop in to say hi to "miss Connie" in Sangerfest halle. she's a celebrity, and my friends all know I tend to go there first to get a pic. after 1st rides of the day on Chubacabra, those of us attending Feliz Fiesta got to go backstage for a tour of the construction site that I posted yesterday. as part of that tour, we also got to go down into the Gully Washer reservoir (drained during the off season upkeep) for some fantastic shots of Iron Rattler's drops. and then it was time to eat something for lunch (as our dinner wasn't until almost 5). we headed into Blues BBQ, where here at Fiesta Texas, the Turkey Leg with stuffing is still included on the meal plan. and as it's Holiday in the Park? Santa was out all day, so we had to pop in and say hello. naughty bert! (and how fantastic that Santa played along) one of the shows in the main square. . I believe this was the Tinker-Belles and the wooden soldiers one of 3 large trees SFFT has on display. this one is at the end of the main avenue into the park (and the tinkerbelles stage is at the bottom) many, many characters were available today for Meet and Greets. not just the Looney Tunes in Holiday garb, but also multiple DC Heroes, and tons of Holiday themed characters. and the "handlers" are happy to take your phone to snap pics for you. this makes me laugh - this is what happens when they start snapping before you're ready for the picture. . . LOL durrrrrrrr. . . . . but we did get some great pics regardless another throne. .and I do love my thrones more characters. . a bit horrifying, I thought, but happy to take pics after this great meet and greet in DCU, I asked them how about an "action pose". .and that's the 2nd pic. they understood the assignment - particularly Flash walking back to the front for dinner in the picnic grove, caught the end of a Tinkerbelles & soldiers performance, and they were hanging around for pictures. and yet, ANOTHER throne. they must have gotten these from other parks. a night time shot of the tree at the end of the main corridor. here's the MAIN tree in the park, in Rockville, during the Tree Lighting ceremony (that includes fireworks, Looney Tunes characters, dancers, and Santa on the stage in front of it) .. oh, and "snow" Jim and I in front of the main tree, before heading into the Rockville High Theater to see the Dicken's show - one of the parks two signature HitP shows didnt' take any pics of the 1st part of the show, but it's a full on production with sets, dancing, and very good singing. the camera came out during Ghost of Christmas Future, as I love the design of it. ltr: Scrooge, Ghost of Christmas Present, Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Marley, and Ghost of Christmas future. Scrooge seeing the error of his ways before he gets tossed into his own grave by Marley (oh. . "spoilers". . . LOL) after the show (and a few rides) we made our way up to the "big" theater in the park, for the amazing "Majesty of Christmas" - which, yes, includes live animals on stage in a wonderful production. after this show, the park was about to shut down, but attendees of Feliz Fiesta get some ERT on the CrackAxle coasters (Iron Rattler, Roadrunner Express, and Dr. Diabolical's Cliffhanger). . so we took the "Holiday Express" which is what they transform the train into, for a full loop around the park complete with Holiday songs and tons and tons of lights. including new this year, lights representing the 12 days of Christmas. . . that you pass on the train, AS the song is playing synched to what you are passing. so simple, but so effective and impressive. another photo op in front of Hurricane Harbor area and the 3rd and final tree, in Crackaxle, which I was told came from another park that is no longer doing HitP. it's a great event, and well worth going to.

Jeffrey posted something yesterday with a full moon but the parks 35th anniversary is 2027 but the location is the edge of crackaxle where they removed several water slides and Jeffrey did tell me not to worry about the elevation or the road (which is not being removed) so lift hill so I really think we’re looking at a water coaster here

The space cleared for the new attraction coming to SFFT in 2027 (?) is HUGE wonder if we’re looking at a MACK type water coaster coming to the park (as it absolutely seems like it is not part of the waterpark ) myself Robert (park manager) and Jeffrey Siebert at the construction tour

Europa Park, Day one, concluded. Atlantica Supersplash (with the mini monorail behind it) wet TPR folks, giving the thumbs down. . .LOL while we hadn't done the whole park - there were still quite a bit of attractions we hadn't made it to - Austria was back over by Spain (and resort entrance/exit), so we made a point of stopping by there to take a look. Alpine Express and the Log Flume - which had been in one big adventure mountain area, had been lost in a massive fire in 2023, and they had rebuilt it, and opened it back up in 2024. we we really wanted to get a look at it. the coaster is now called Alpenexpress Enzian, and seems to have a VR option (don't recall seeing that when there, so maybe it's new? or an upcharge?). anyways, the line was a bit too long to make it before park close (and it was too cool to ride the flume, so I'd ride that tomorrow). So instead we checked out the rebuilt area via the new adventure trails, that replaced the caves that had burnt down. it's a powered coaster, but it's a good one. theming! and when walking the "trail" it interacts with both the coaster, and the log flume. which has squirt guns rigged along the trail, so you can squirt the folks riding the flume. there's a bunch of interactive stuff along the way too. . .like this "fireplace" that changes color based on touch. a great example of the coaster track and flume, and trail, interaction I asked about this, and was told that they kept the lead car from the prior ride (that had burned down) and put it on display as a memorial. very cool of them to do this, I think. I really liked the redone versions.. great job by the park rebuilding! and when we left the trail, we noticed that tho the park was only open for another 10 minutes, the line for the Alpenexpress Enzian had dropped to 5 minutes. so we ended up hopping on to end our first day in the park on this coaster! even tho Nick is blinking, we look so happy goodnight Europa Park! will see you again tomorrow for a full day 2. including Traumatica!

Europa Park Day one continued: it was time to head over to Greece, and Atlantis Adventure, the park's shooting dark ride. Cassandra's Curse - a fantastic Madhouse (that is included in Traumatica, but with a much more gory overlay): Poseidon - the park's watercoaster. . that not only soaks, but I always find very rough on the coaster sections: that's Matterhorn Blitz doing it's thing across the lake in the background. whee! We're on a Log Flume! (sorta/kinda) a closer zoom on Matterhorn Blitz as we walked around the lake to get to the last coaster in this section Pegasus. . a jr coaster. which is also included in the Traumatica event (it takes place just outside the main gates, and in the 2024 event, opened up into the Greek section of the park for some rides) it had one of my favorite pumpkins I saw at the park. I never got a chance to ask who made it, but I assume a child visitor. Love it ! walk around spooky cast members were out in force on this day. loved her "ghost dog" the park is SO well decorated. some of the folks I was hanging out with really wanted ALL the coasters. . . so we headed to Ireland. so they could ride Ba-a-a-Express - the park's kiddie coaster. i didn't ride, and just took pictures no shame, at all. . . LOL and since we were over on this side of the park now. . . I was ready to ride Arthur, the Mack powered inverted coaster that is just amazingly WTF. to get there, we took the back way across the "obstacle course" Paddington Bear! I think we were behind the England section over here. and some appropriately spooky Halloween stuff. the entrance gate into Fairy-Tale land. I don't understand it at all. . even after riding it more than a dozen times. But I so enjoy the Arthur coaster. luckily, they have a GREAT skip the line system here, as well as a single rider line on this coaster. . so never really had to wait in the lengthy lines for this one. awww. . a bear. a bear or a throne. . . a sure way to guarantee I'll stop for a pic we decided to go ride EuroSat - Can-Can coaster again, so headed back that way, passing this adorable kiddie car ride. but before we got to EuroSat, it was remembered that there's another amazing dark ride right next to it - that again, is always walk on, because folks just don't realize there is a ride there. not sure what the "real" name is, but I call this the Dinosaur Birthday Party ride. . .and I rode this at least 5 times too this visit. notice the dino poop in the cat box! details and they pump the smell of honey into this scene. . along with the sound of beez awwww. .they are making a cake! it's a Dinosaur Birthday Party! and then next door onto EuroSat Can-Can coaster again. . tho this time I took some actual pics in the queue line. it was starting to get late in the afternoon, and I believe they had announced the park was closing at 7 instead of at 6 . . so we headed back towards the resort gate hitting stuff along the way. no "parade" per se, but lots of characters out and about. I discovered this visit, that Europa has a Church on site. and apparently? one can get married there! a MUST stop was another "hidden" dark ride that so many don't even realize is there! it's down some stairs next to a shop. it was built as a fun "advertisement" for the waterpark, but proved so popular, they have kept it. "Snorri Touren" (Snorri is the octopus mascot of the waterpark) I ended up buying this hat in the gift shop. and this is also a picture framed on our wall. . as this is when I KNEW I had found the right person again. I had sent this home, and instead of saying, "what the F do you have on your head?". . the response was: "you go, Hilda!" so yeah. . right then I completely fell in love. it was cold-ish today, but we had been told about this particular opportunity at the park, and no way in heck was I (or others) passing this up. so time for some custom ice cream! so good! some folks wanted to ride the Atlantica Supersplash (over in the Portuguese area) that was on the way back to the hotel. I wasn't wanting to get wet, and have ridden this Mack Supersplash at SWSA, so I passed and just took pics. day 1 to be concluded. . .

Day 7 - 1st full day at Europa Park this is a wonderful park, and I seem have over 700 pics from the two days we spent there (!) But I'll severely edit down in hopes of quicker updates today we started out the day with some ERT on Euro Mir (which sadly the park has announced they will be removing to make way for a new coaster in this spot). I love this coaster, as it's a spinner with a super unique layout . . and the "disco lifthill" that plays funky techno the whole way up (tho for our visit, they had already switched the music over to Halloween music, so it was odd to ride it without hearing the blasting tchno). I love that you never know for sure if you're going down the first drop forwards or backwards. . it's just luck of the draw on your ride. I just love the way it winds among the glass towers (one of which hides the spiral lift hill) before the drop. and the space themed station is great too. after rides on Euro-Mir, the group backtracked to get some ERT on Blue Fire before the park opened to the public. love how Wodan looks in the morning fog. since I'm on this train, thanks for this pic go to Elissa. and since Elissa is IN this one? thanks to either Andy or Robb after a few rides on Blue Fire, the park opened for general guests, and we were cut lose for the day. tho a good number of TPR trip folks stuck together as a group of 8-10 to hit things up together. Voltron was first up, to grab in the morning before lines got too long. since it's a launch, it was running just as great first thing in the morning as it had at end of day yesterday. I believe we next headed towards the front gate, to grab a ride on Silver Star (the park's B&M Hyper), passing a bunch of rides on the way including Matterhorn Blitz (the Wild Mouse with the elevator lift hill). . but we'd come back for that. and Euro Sat (the Can-Can coaster) very cool they had the original trains from Euro Sat (before it converted to Can-Can coaster) on display outside the ride. monorail notes Oktoberfest as it passes overhead. noted! if I'm recalling correctly (it's been over a year!), Silver Star was having some issues this morning and hadn't quite opened yet. So we went next door to ride Can-Can Coaster it's such a good ride. Myself, Nick and Andrew walking the empty queue (everyone was at Voltron. . LOL) since we were near the front gate, we decided to go ahead and knock out this park's version of Soarin, that flies over Europe. . it's really well themed, but if you've been on Soarin? you've been on it. tons of cool stuff and photo ops in this front area of the park tho by the main gate. Such as this: and the Italy Section. . which houses one of my favorite rides in the park. but we'd come back to this area, as we wanted to head up to the front gate as I'd never come in that entrance and wanted some pics the park's mascot was out doing meet and greets and some street entertainment welcoming guests to the park. Silver Star was now starting to cycle. . so we'd head to that shortly . . . but first stepping out front for a picture! also on display near the main entrance to the park? an original part of the Berlin Wall. very neat to see, and counts as "culture" in my book! going up the steps in the Voletarium (the Soarin ride) - yeah, pic is a little out of order, sorry. stilt walkers greeting park guests these guys seemed to be local celebrities, as there was quite the queue to take pics with this scene, where you could pic a song, and the projected guys in the car would sing along to it. a quick ride on Silver Star (great as always) and we headed back over to Italy. . . for Europa's version of the Haunted Mansion. Europa has a LOT of dark rides. many of them extremely silly/bizarre, and slow moving. . and they are "hidden" just everywhere. Silly / bizarre / stupid is right up my alley, so of COURSE i love this park. . . but this Horror dark ride is among my favorites here. it's NOT the "haunted mansion". . but is very inspired by it in places. Particularly the queue, where you go into a trick room that has a hanged man in it. the Italy section also has bewbs. (tho it's Europe, so there are multiple places in this park with bewbs). another slow / silly dark ride I love: Piccolo Mondo - think of the very basic things you would boil down to "Italian". . and put them all into one ride. is it racist? slightly. but is it amazing and makes me laugh? yup! and the ride vehicle is a Gondola.. paddled by a Parrot. what's not to love? Pizza and Breadsticks. . . Italian! Leonardo Da Vinci / Mona Lisa . . . Italian! Gelato . . Italian! Canals and gondolas . . . Italian! it really is so much fun. after these dark rides, it was time for the observation tower to get some great views of the park and the surrounding area. there are lots of walk around characters too.. .not sure if all the "Country" sections have their royalty represented, but I met this Queen over by Norway. a "haunted tunnel" set up for Halloween activities within the park (Traumatica - the big Fright party is a separately ticketed event and does not include most of the park) Europa is one of those parks that's so lovely, it's easy to forget you're actually in a theme park. I'd held it off long enough. . so I noodged the group I was with to ride my *favorite* dark ride at Europa, it's over in Russia, and it's lovingly called by fans "Bench: the ride" the operator is giving me that look because we were literally the only ones in the queue for it, and it was walk on every time I rode it. but I love it so, and i hope they never get rid of this stupid ride. whee! frozen / dead king of the north? Never quite figured it out, but I love it. Russia is kinda close to Holland. . so next stop HAD to be Piraten in Batavia - the park's Pirates of the Caribbean style ride. It had completely burned down in 2018. and was rebuilt from the ground up to reopen in 2020. and it's still amazing. this is all in the queue line! bewbs. and a wonderful photo op outside too. Arrrrghh! a pirate themed Stilt walker was over here. and tho i tend not to ride Teacups rides? they had wrapped their Koffiekopjes ride completely and made it "spooky". . so we had to check it out. TPR Ready to ride. looked like they had just hung some spooky pics on the walls. but once the ride started? lasers, fog, some lights - it was really a lot of fun. and an easy thing to do for Halloween by any park. starting to get hungry, so we decided to head to find some food. . . but found a food fight instead, with the angry corn display in one of the nice grassy areas. with Schweizer Bobbahn just above us? of course we ended up going to the Swiss area. it was time for Raclette! one of the very best reasons to visit this park. yummmmmmmmm pumpkin bug has got back! and since right here? of course gonna ride Schweizer Bobbahn before leaving. It's a Mack Bobsled, and is a lot of fun, tho my favorite part are the wood carvings in the station. and sorta next door to it? the Matterhorn Blitz wild mouse, that also has a wonderful queue with some really basic but great animatronics in the queue. whee!!! to be continued. . .

Day one, concluded. part 3: we finished up with the last house, and realized that we had done pretty much everything in the park (at least everything we wanted). . but then remembered we hadn't done that other Transformers ride. . and there were things we wanted to reride. so headed back towards the Transformers area, but noticed a sizable crowd forming in front of the stage at the main entrance as we were about to pass by. checking the time - it was close to the top of the hour - we realized that the main event/scare zones were about to kick off, and this was the main stage for that. for Universal Beijing (and I don't know if this is true of the USA parks, as never been), there seem to be 3 "mascots" for the Halloween scares: Hami Kuma (a rotting teddy bear), Emo Tu (a damaged bunny rabbit), and Foxy Lady (a sultry cat - or maybe a fox?). . and each of them have their own "scare zones" but they come out and perform with their scare actors before they head into the zones. so we decided to hang out and watch the show. things are lighting up! and the crowd behind us is getting a bit larger. . . these are the "pep squad" for Hami Kuma - the bear and here he comes to "dance" next out is Emo Tu - the scary rabbit. he seems to be a bit punk, not Emo tho. these two have a rivalry. . .it seems. and a Dance Off until Foxy Lady comes out, to the biggest cheers, and puts them in their place it's quite the spectacle. SO. MUCH. NEON. each "scare zone" area, has neon of that character. . so this is Foxy Lady's section. show seen, we continued towards Transformers, as the scare zones filled up. and I remembered to take a pic of that beautiful theater that houses the How To Train Your Dragon show. I'm pretty sure this is the Teddy Bear's scare zone. the actors were thrilled to pose with me, and they were easy to spot as each one has a handler who had a light on their vests. so I just looked for the lights, then went over for pics. Stacy staring down a scare actor. . Decepticoaster looks amazing at night! and this was kind of a "do-si-do" type ride . . similar to Baymax. it looked like it had good theming, but still had a bit of a line, so skipped. this is what we had come back to ride - Transformers: Battle for the All Spark. a 3D ride, that was very similar ride system to Spider-Man. it had a queue line that was pretty dang long, tho not quite as long as the Kung Fu panda one was. We waited in this longish line, because it was really the only thing we hadn't ridden yet that we wanted to in the park. Think it was about a 45 minute wait. and honestly? couldn't remember a thing about it. . . LOL. . I had to Youtube the ride, to remind me what it was, that's how i remember it was similar to Spider-Man. oh well. . lots of screens, and I rode it. after that ride, we stopped by Decepticoaster again. . . so good at night. . and then thru the Emo Rabbit's scare zone. it was time to go back for re-rides, on my favorite ride in the park - Jurassic Adventure, which was showing a 5 minute wait (unlike the flyers that were still showing 45 minute wait). my pic of the ride vehicles didn't come out well, so snagged this one online. . .but here's what they look like. this time I did like the locals, and had my phone out ! and already moving fast enough - before we even GET to dinosaurs, that the pic of Stacy and I came out blurry). this one also starts with some screens but with some animatronics mixed in. and then it goes full on physical, with really impressive animatronics. this isn't even close to how many are in the ride, but these are the best pics I got: LOVED this ride. worth a trip to USB just for this ride! feet hurting, and close to the end of night anyways (it was probably less than 30 minutes to close) we headed towards the front - which happens to be where Foxy Lady's "Scare Zone" is. Again, I looked for the handlers with the neon lights to find the actors: and caught a bit of a 2nd performance by the trio. . with some slightly better pics. shopping before heading out, of course they have their own merch too the scary tree at the front, looks really great on the way out! looking back into the park. . as mentioned, the covered entrance really gets the party feeling going at the end of the night. and then it was time for the short walk back to the hotel room to shower and crash. what an exhausting 1st day, but it was so, so good. . . and still had over 3 weeks left to go!

Part 2 it was early afternoon and past time for lunch, so we headed over to Harry Potter land, because one of those I was with wanted to get some ButterBeer, and we figured it was worth it to see if we could get into the restaurant there. nope, the line to get INTO the restaurant was posting a 45 minute wait, and it was so crowded, it triggered an anxiety attack. . so I stepped way over to the side, and just waited for the Butterbeer to be purchased - took the requisite pic of them drinking it in Hogsmeade and with the foam mustache, and then we headed elsewhere to get food. and easily found short lines, and indoor seating over by Minions land. there were pretty neat "scary" themed cups for sodas, and some themed deserts too. oh, and because we were near minions land? anyone who ordered a burger combo (my 3 fellow TPR folks, and a ton of others in the restaurant), got a burger, fries, a drink. . and a Banana. no, really. LOL although I went for a standard braised pork and tofu bowl. the themed deserts. I just had to try the "naughty ghost" what it looked like on the outside and inside. I believe it was Passion Fruit, but was very mild in flavor. didn't get to try this, as I wasn't hungry again tonight. . but these looked SO good! as we were finishing up, Robb & Elissa sent a message to the group that the 4 houses were about to open up for the night, and now was the time to grab them while the lines were still gonna be really short. luckily we had been eating right next door to this gate - not even realizing there was a house back there, so we lucked out and were able to quickly get in the line. fun fact - was told that Universal Beijing was built with the houses in place. which was why there were specific areas and gates that led to the haunts. so these are permanent buildings year round that they close off by closing the gates. and when they want to change a house, they just change what's inside them. LOTS of queue space, not filled because 1) it was early, and 2) it was a Monday. love that you can see the Harry Potter area in the background of this queue. the line moved pretty quickly too. . don't think we waited more than 15 minutes for any of the houses. this man is holding a sign declaring no photography and no recording without permission. unlike on the rides, it seemed that no one was taking pictures or filming without permission, so my phone was kept securely in my pocket for the houses, hence no pics from inside of any of them (sorry) luckily, Robb *had* permission to film, and he shared with the group, what I thought was the greatest jumpscare I'd ever seen in a house. we were all talking about the "bathroom scene" in this one house, and he had filmed it and was able to share. so I'm able to share with y'all too. SO well done, and no, I have no real idea (just some guesses) how they managed this. . but over and over all night. . so damn impressive. CTCL7709.MP4 after the haunt, we still had a few things we hadn't done yet, and I had told William that I'd meet him over at the theater for the evening performance of "the Untrainable Dragon" - as I wanted to see the shows too. we had time, so went back into Harry Potter land (and I immediately felt uncomfortable in the crowd), but surprisingly, the Forbidden Journey ride really did only have a 5 minute wait - as the app has said. so we walked right on to it. still a fun ride, with impressive technology. pics from the queue: I know the sorting hat. . yay, something I was familiar with and coming out of the ride, the Tri-Wizard contest show was going on. . .and just like in Japan? was filled with very handsome white boys for the male academy . . so of course stopped and watched for a moment, before the crowd forced me to peace out and move out of this area. one of the Nicks had mentioned something called, I think, "Lights, Camera, Action" - which I knew nothing about, but said it was something that was in the US parks too, so we went over there and did that. it's a walkthru/show, with a lot of effects, and hosted via screen by Stephen Speilberg. the fire effects and water effects were impressive, but I totally get why there was no line, and for our "showing" there were maybe 30 people. then it was on to the big, impressive, Chinese theater facade off to the left of the main street for the How to Train Your Dragon characters in "the Untrainable Dragon" William met us out front and recommended we sit at the very top of the balcony in the center, to get the best view. Since I trust him, I did so, and he was right. fantastic show, with some really impressive special effects. particularly the flying Toothless, which we got a fantastic view of from our seats. pics of the show below: the staging really is a technological marvel. finishing that show, we still had 3 houses left before the Waterworld show - something I had also never seen and wanted to see. so we headed towards the next house, and came across the ending of a street performance in this huge moving stage/orchestra. this house was themed around a movie studio, and tho not "scary" at all, I appreciated the props and sets in this one. I was hoping for as good a jump scare as the bathtub ghoul had given, but it seems we had started by chance with the best scare of them all actors in the queue pretending to film the victims as they lined up. not 100% positive, but I *think* some of the footage was shown as we were walking thru the house on screens? he kept "filming" me, so I took a pic of him. and then we headed over to Waterworld, where we caught the last show of the evening. i was surprised and not surprised it wasn't all that crowded - people that were here, were here for the Haunts. and also this is way back at the back of the park. in other words, it takes an effort to come see this show. Luckily it is apparently the same show that has been running in Orlando/California parks, so William was able to explain to me what the hell was happening. Yup, another film I've never seen. if I look at this as just a stunt show? it was quite enjoyable. . in particular how much movement they got on the boats and jet skis in such a small lagoon. fire!!! uh oh.. that leaking "fuel" can't be good. the plane, the plane!!!! knew that leaking fuel would be an issue! it was nice and warm on a chilly evening tho. the Jurassic area looks great lit up at night. . but we were just passing by on our way to the other two houses remaining Jack's Circus. . oooo. . this has promise totally NOT Harley Quinn and Joker. . . . gotta love China. LOL was a fun house tho not particularly innovative. about a standard Six Flags house. not terrible tho. we realized we had missed a ride over here too, as Minion Mayhem was kinda hidden in this corner. So got in line and took a spin on that. this is the only pic I took from that tho. . . thought it was interesting in the queue. really impressive looking park at night. and even tho NOT HHN? this is very familiar. the last house was based on Universal Monsters. and tho VERY light on scares? I loved this one 2nd best. . the design work and props in here blew me away. it was like walking into the old movies. and the cockroach room in the mummy section creeped me the F out. a look at our hotel from the house line. the main entrance to the house. so well done. as mentioned, the entrances to the houses are pretty well "hidden" because they are there year round. . . so I loved that Universal has folks out in the walkways helping to direct parkgoers to the entrances. to be concluded in part 3

Day 1: Universal Studios (full day). Part 1: so today was the official kick off of the trip! a full day at Universal, and it was a Monday which meant the Halloween event was going on! (I believe it runs Fri-Mondays until Halloween). it's NOT called Halloween Horror Nights, seemed to be called "Scares @ Universal" , but a very similar thing, with houses and scare zones - tho what is "scary" in Beijing seemed to be very different than what is "scary" in the US, at least as far as the Scare Zones go. I'll get to that later in this update first up tho, was breakfast - which was included every morning during our stay at the Universal Studios Grand Hotel. here's as close as I seem to have gotten to a "room picture", myself and Stacy that I sent home to let Jim know we were ready to go for the kickoff of the trip. the walkway to the breakfast area goes over the park entrance, so got a preview of where we would be in the next hour. and what a surprise! it's a "character breakfast" I was absolutely thrilled of course. . . even tho I have not seen more than a couple of the "Despicable Me" films, or any of the "Minions" movies. they wander around during breakfast from table to table, and also pose at the front for photos. different characters most mornings. and in costume for Halloween it was a very good, and large, breakfast buffet. and tho I didn't take a lot of pictures of the food, I did focus on the sweets table so got lots of those pics! Toothless creampuffs no idea, but adorable spooky donuts! I tried this thinking it was just a case of "mis-translation to English". . . but nope, it wasn't pieces of chicken. it was Chicken Cartilage. (one of the few things I moved aside once trying a single, chewy/cruncy bite). and all areas of the food tables were decked out with these adorable Minions in Halloween costume sculptures: breakfast eaten, we headed down to the main entrance, and went thru Security as a group (hotel guests get early entry to some parts of the park, and TPR went thru security and the entry as a group to ensure no issues with tickets. tho we were all gonna meet up in an hour when Transformers land opened to the public to all ride Decepticoaster together as a group thru the general line. the entrance area really is not that spooky in the daytime, before they pump in all the fog. reminded me very much of several parks in Europe where the front entrance has a "cover" that turns into an entertainment area at night. spooky hanging tree a look back at our hotel from inside the park. that "bridge" on the 2nd level is where I snapped the pic on the way to breakfast earlier. out of the main entrance street, you are hit with a stunning view of the main lagoon, and the mountain that houses one of the park's signature rides: Jurassic Flyers. (that area wasn't open just yet either, but would be in about an hour) headed towards the "early entry" side of the park: Minions land, and Harry Potter Minions land is an indoor area. . not really large, but housing the kiddie coaster, and a couple of flat rides. tho if you count the coaster in the facade, this park has five credits lots and lots of fun theming over here, even if I didn't "get" most of it. Group shot before we split up for about an hour (some to get the kiddie in minions land, or the junior in HP land). Courtesy of Robb not allowed to go this way yet (the Moose out front - and those employees there - told us). but the torches were already lit to start the day. park staff directing folks to the right for Harry Potter, rather than to the left for Jurassic Park area. tho I've still never been to a USA Universal park - so have nothing to compare it to. and am not a huge Harry Potter fan (and have issues with the Author). . these lands that I have been in at other Universal parks continue to impress me. they are so well done. (tho I will say the "moaning Myrtle" in the bathroom here, sounds very "adult" when she's moaning in Chinese, LOL) this was the ONLY time all day this area looked like this. it soon swelled up with so many people (MANY of them dressed in robes with wands) that it was hard to move, and became quite claustrophobic to me. They LOVE Harry Potter here. taking advantage of the early entry crowds to get a pic with the train. the main ride in this area, tho we skipped this for the moment to get in the shortist-it-would-be-all-day line for "Flight of the Hippogriff" - I believe a true Mack junior coaster. it was more fun than the one I remembered riding at Universal Japan. . so wonder if it's the same model? by the time we finished that coaster, Jurassic Park and Transformers were about to open, so we headed towards Decipticoaster, cutting thru Jurassic Park. past Jurassic Park, if you hang a right here, is Transformers world. this intersection would be used as a "scare zone" later tonight. my first good view of Decipticoaster's launch. several folks had told me it was a "clone" of Hulk at the Orlando Park, but in talking to some Universal Beijing folks, they explained it's actually NOT a clone, tho it is very close. this is due to some minor differences in the track, but heck if I can remember exactly what the differences were that he told me. across the plaza is another large Transformers ride, but that one wasn't opening with this area, and they told us to come back after 2 and they'd have it open for guests. Decipticoaster doing it's thing. group shot before we got in line to ride (courtesy of Robb) whee! (pics thanks to Elissa) what did I think? I really liked it! it had a ton of floater air (which I really enjoy) and when I commented to someone that it wasn't as forceful as I had expected and was very re-rideable for me, that's when he told me about the differences with Hulk at Islands of Adventure. one thing I DO recall, is the storyline - as I asked about that, since the onboard audio is all in Chinese. he explained to to me, and now I love the coaster even more: the train is actually a Decipticon. an evil surfer (dude) who has turned himself into the train to try and torture/kill the riders, and the control unit is trying to safely get us back to the station. too damn adorable. then we all split off again for the rest of the day, and the group I was with headed back over to Jurassic Park to get the other big coaster. but first, we passed "West Dock Dogs". . which amuses me. this is the Queue Line for Jurassic Flyers - a Mack inverted powered coaster, that has seating similar to the Arthur ride at Europa Park. EVERYTHING must go in a locker - tho provided free of charge. so no pics of the station or queue past the lockers. I did enjoy this ride, but was disappointed by the lack of any dinosaurs on it! the paddocks you "fly" over, are all empty. it seemed as if they blew the whole setting budget on the queue line. (oh, the ride across from it *totally* makes up for the lack of dinos on this ride, but I really do wish at least there were some statues of dinos in the paddocks you go over). still a fun time, but the line stayed pretty long all day due to capacity on it, so I only rode this the one time. here's the ride across from it. and I wanted Dinos ? yup, this gave them to me. Elissa told me this was her favorite ride here, and that I'd love it, and yup, she was 100% correct. I ended up riding this a few times. Myself, Nick, Stacy, and Nick are ready for a Jurassic Adventure! the queue line formation reminded me a lot of "Dinosaur" at Animal Kingdom (and we saw a bunch of other TPR folks in this line too) Universal really does do a great job with the theming in the queues. . . and the use of the digital screens. no pictures from the actual ride, because there were "no photos or recording" signs everywhere. but EVERYONE was recording or taking pictures. on most every ride we had been on thus far. So I inquired about it, and the advice we got was "do as the locals do". . . .well, the locals were all taking pics and videoing. . . so when I rode this later, I took some pics that I'll share in part 2 (or 3). it was hard to get non blurry pics tho, as the vehicles are moving pretty well as you're being chased by dinos. . . LOL exiting tho, I was able to snap a couple of pics of Jurassic Flyers in action: then my small group headed over to Minion's land to get the last coaster credit in the park: Loop-Dee-Doop-Dee - a kiddie/jr coaster, that does, in fact, not "loop", nor "dee-doop" . . but some folks count credits, and MUST ride every coaster available. as it wasn't just an oval kiddie? I got in line with them to ride too. from the station, a peek at one of the other rides in this area. Dumbo as "bugs" I guess? the train design is fun too. do as the locals do - see, folks filming on the ride. so we got a pic and it's a pretty good one, I think. we had the whole day, and with the coasters all ridden (tho some would get re-ridden), we took a detour back to Jurassic Park for Raptor Encounter. is this Blue? no idea, but it was well done. we even talked the Nick's into posting for a pic. tho I ended up purchasing the one of myself and Stacy. (it's already hanging on the wall at home). exploring along the backside of the park - as we hadnt' been over here yet, and the map showed a pretty large structure back here. turned out it was Kung Fu Panda area (another franchise I have not seen any films from). . to get there you have to pass thru the Waterworld Show section. we made note of the times it was playing, as I've never seen it, so wanted to catch a showing. and then suddenly, it gets lush, and there are Panda's everywhere: it's the "Kung Fu Panda: Land of Awesomeness" and yeah, I'll agree with them. . it's pretty damn STUNNING inside here. (and cool. . the sun had come out by now and it was warming up) the lantern balloon ride looks incredible. as did the carousel - but we'll get to that shortly. this was the main reason to come back here: a boat dark ride. "Journey of the Dragon Warrior" note it says wait time is 10 minutes. so that is ALL walking the queue. I think this one wins the prize for being the longest queue line I'd ever been in. it just went on and on, room after room, and it was a double sided queue . . so giant rooms of just row after row of empty queues. . . Seriously, the walk was almost 9 minutes to get to the loading station. it was so long, and with so many steps, that even tho I LOVED this ride? I declined to go back and ride it again later because I didn't want to do that much walking again. I can just imagine if every here on a day so busy that the queue would be full. . this would be a 4 hour wait. finally getting to the load station: as noted tho, the ride IS worth it. such a great dark ride, even if I didn't know any of the characters represented. really impressive animatronic movements too. and some screens. it's a fairly long, and impressive, ride. wasn't gonna leave this area without carousel freak me, riding the carousel tho! even talked some non-carousel crazy folks to ride it with me such impressive carvings! and even the toilets in here were themed to the film. . . to be continued in part 2

it really depended what park it was. but most of the restrictions were under 90kg (~200 lbs), but some were 100kg (220 lbs) or even 80kg (180 lbs or less). not every ride with a restriction had a scale out, but many of them did. as to age, 49 seemed to be the cut off, but many of us are older than that, and if asked, just said "I'm 49" and it wasn't a problem.

Day 0 continued: arriving at Universal Studios Grand Hotel is quite an experience. . it's a huge hotel that straddles the entrance to the park, and the Citywalk. very "vintage" Hollywood designed too. and they were decorated for Halloween! for some reason (VERY unlike me) I don't seem to have taken any pics of the room at Universal? but each room was themed, and ours was "Back to the Future". . so we had pics of Doc and Doc, Marty, the DeLorean in our room. and a nice view the lobby is pretty art deco. loved this lamp. you could take these stairs down to go thru security for park entry. we were going to meet up with 'the Nicks" to go into Citywalk, but Stacy and I headed to the bar first. where we discovered an entire drink menu themed to 'spooky' it was called the "Moonlight Berry Whisper" and had a Berry Ice Dragon in it. . of COURSE I had to order it. it was really good, tho not much alcohol in it. Fischer had "Shrek's Vitality Potion" and Shane had a "Spiced Soul" I believe after drinks, we headed out to Citywalk, passing right in front of the park gates. while Universal Beijing doesn't have "Halloween Horror Nights" officially, they DO have "Scares @ Universal" with some very familiar park landmarks that are from HHN, and some Houses, that are included with admission. as well as a big show and 3 "scare zones" that feature their Halloween Mascots - represented below in the neon sign. but we'd be doing that tomorrow. Tonight was just a visit to the Citywalk to check it out, and grab a bite. Can't be a Universal without the famous globe out front! not as big as some of the other CityWalks I've been to (tho I've never been to the US Universals). . .but this one had very reasonable prices on everything, and some very decent food options. and a Popstore - that of course, was sold out of Labubu PLENTY of everything else tho. . but I very quickly got over the blind box craze. . I wanna know what I'm buying . . . did pick up a few as gifts tho. very large food court, that was open after the park closed. . . i think we came in here to eat close to 10:30 pm? everything was so inexpensive, I ended up ordering way too much so I could try things. my stomach regretted it later that night, but at least I didn't eat all of it. and only had one of these (gifted one to others at the table, and tossed one). . I got excited by seeing Door Nail Dumpling as an option for a side, and ordered them. but of course, they were no where near as good as the handmade by grandmas ones we had had earlier today. They were ok tho. . . just not amazing. on the way back to the hotel, we popped into Toothsome's to check out prices they were reasonable, and we ended up grabbing some stuff for our room. and then the robot guy (no idea what his name is) was out and about at end of night. . so for some reason, I did a "gangsta pose" with him while wearing my Chinese Grandma red jacket. . . LOL still a good pic tho. a pic of some of the fountains as we crossed the lake back to the hotel. and then it was time to crawl into bed, and sleep. tomorrow was a big day - breakfast included in the hotel, and then a full day at Universal Beijing to kick off the official TPR China trip.