bert425

I think the Little Mermaid section was called "Triton's Undersea Kingdom" did you get to see the show in there? the King Triton animatronic was impressive as hell!

oh no. . thinking required! but I'll give it a shot: 1. How many parks did you visit in 2019? I visited 15 different parks in 2019! Six Flags Fiesta Texas (multiple times) Six Flags Over Texas Six Flags Over Georgia Six Flags St Louis City Museum (do you count this as a park? I do ) La Qua CosmoWorld Tobu Zoo Toshimaen Yomiuriland Joypolis Universal Studios Japan Nagashima Spaland Tokyo DisneyLand Tokyo Disneysea 2. Best new-for-2019 (or new-to-you-in-2019) ride? there was a lot of competition. . but I'm gonna go with: Best new for 2019: Hakugei at Nagashima Spaland (and it would have been best new to me as well, but I just loved. . . ) Best new to me 2019: Eejanaika (with Flying Dinosaur very,very close 2nd) 3. Name the first 3 coasters that come to mind. Iron Rattler, Fury 325, Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster 4. What was the best flat ride you rode in 2019? Acrophobia! at SFOG (it was down on my prior visits, and went back specifically to get a ride, or 3, on it) VERY close 2nd is the Yakisoba Noodle raft ride at Yomiuriland 5. What is your favorite RMC under 130 feet? (cheat sheet) Twisted Cyclone (just edging out Wonder Woman) 6. What was the last Premier coaster that you rode? Poltergeist (SFFT) 7. Name a park you've been to that you're already planning to revisit. SFFT, or if my home park doesn't count, then Carowinds 8. What is your home park and how many times did you visit in 2019? SFFT - at least a dozen, likely closer to 15 9. What park are you most looking forward to visiting in 2020? hmm. . if our trip plans come to fruition, then my answer is likely Coney Island (for the Cyclone) 10. Kennywood or Dollywood? Pick one Kennywood, since I LOVED it - but I've never been to Dollywood, and I'll bet I'd love it too. 11. What ride/coaster disappointed you the most in 2019? Diving Coaster Vanish at CosmoWorld. . after seeing it for years online, I wasn't expecting it to be so rough, and just not fun. it was 1 and done. 12. You're at Great Adventure. You play that racist-ish gong game and win a one hour ERT session for you and your friends on ONE coaster of your choice. But damn! El Toro, Kingda Ka and Nitro are all down! So you ride... never been to Great Adventure. .but if the big coasters are all down? I'd probably go to Bizarro (or the Carousel) 13. What is the last coaster that changed your top 10? Hakugei 14. Most recent park food you ate. Broccoli Cheese in Bread Bowl at Holiday in the Park SFFT 15. What park do you wish was your home park? BGW 16. What 2020 attraction do you have the biggest boner for? Iron Gwazi 17. What park will you visit next? Six Flags Fiesta Texas next weekend 18. Favorite breakfast before a day at a park? we have dining plan, so if going to SFFT, we don't eat until there and get "snack" right away in the park. if we're traveling, it's either hotel breakfast, or Denny's . .but usually we skip or just eat light breakfast 19. Cedar Fair park you visited most recently? most recently, was probably Cedar Point in 2018 20. Was it awesome? Yes. Made even more awesome because i was there with TPR group. 21. Skyrush or Candymonium? I hate Skyrush. . scared the crap out of me the 1st time I ever rode it, and contributed to a bad quad injury the 2nd time I rode it. never again. so Candymonium all day. 22. What 2 overseas parks do you want to visit the most? I just knocked my #'s 1,2,3 out during my Japan visit (TDS/TDL, Nagashima Spaland, Fuji-Q), so moving up to the top of my list: Walibi Holland Europa Park 23. The best B&M coaster you rode in 2019 was? Flying Dinosaur !!! (USJ) 24. What is the saddest/dirtiest credit whore thing you've ever done? I rode the Sesame Street Carousel at USJ in the kiddie section - late at night (after most of the kiddos had left the park), when it was a walk on, so I couldn't justify NOT getting on it. 25. Last time you bought fast pass? Six Flags St Louis. The crowd didnt' really call for it, but since my spouse cant really ride any of the bigger coasters/rides, I didn't want him to have to wait for me any longer than necessary. 26. What was the longest you waited for a ride/coaster in 2019? hmmm. . . it was probably the 45 minute wait towards the end of the night for the CosmoWheel at Cosmoworld. the lines at TDL/TDS were very long, but we used Fast Pass for most things. 27. What season passes/membership do you currently have? Six Flags Gold Level Season Pass 28. If you could go to a park with anyone on this forum for a day who would it be and to what park? I've spent time with several board members at parks, so if I restrict to board members I've never met? Either Boldikus or CoasterBill. . and I'd want to spend the day at Great Adventure with them. 29. Battle of the Busch 2020: Iron Gwazi or Pantheon - which would you rather ride? Iron Gwazi 30. Most times you've ridden one coaster (rough estimate or exact if you're a super nerd) I'd say for sure it's Wonder Woman, as during the Coasting for KIDS ERT, we didn't even have to get off it and rode it pretty much non-stop the whole hour. 31. Congrats! You just won passes to spend A WEEK at the park of your choice! Dorney Park or Valley Fair? Pick one and why. a week? I'd be bored at Dorney after 2 hours, so I'll pick Valley Fair. 32. Talk about a park food that knocked your socks off the Perogies at Knoebel's are legendary for a reason. 33. Pick one: Kumba or Montu Montu, but only if riding in the back left seat. 34. What are your three least favorite woodies? 3) Judge Roy Scream (SFOT) 2) Great American Scream Machine (SFOG) 1) the Boss (SFStL). . HATED it 35. Best sweet snack at a park (degree of difficulty: not Dollywoods cinnamon bread) I'm not a huge sweets fan, but the Crepes at CosmoWorld were fantastic. 36. Kings Island is on the phone and they want you to decide what is going in the old Vortex spot. What do you add? an updated Rotor flat ride 37. What roller coaster currently sits at the top of your bucketlist? (degree of difficulty: NOT a new-for-2020 ride) Again, my Japan trip knocked out a few bucketlist coasters: Flying Dinosaur, Raging Spirits (not worth it but I got to ride it finally), Diving Coaster Vanish, Bandit, & Thunder Dolphin to name a few). So moving up the list: In the States, so possible to get to at some point fairly easily: Kingda Ka Outside the States, so more difficult: Expedition GeForce 38. Name 3 parks you want to visit in the next 3 years. Dollywood, Great Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood - are 3 USA parks I've never been to and want to go to. 39. Name 3 other forum members you hope fill this out. Condor, Coasterbill, LarryGator 40. Show us how cool you are by posting a picture of yourself on a coaster or in front of coaster. Bonus points if you're holding a sign with a number on it like the nerd you are. no sign, but I'm nerdy enough to post several pics:

these are some great shots. .thanks for sharing

it's stunning, isn't it. I wish we hadn't been time constrained with other things we really wanted to do today, or could have spent a lot more time there in the area. it was worth it to check out the Rainbow Festa tho (at least to me it was). that update coming in the next day or so.

ok. . so. . . depending what happens with planned trips, on our radar possibly is a trip that would include Carowinds. I've done the basic, basic research, and plan would most likely include 2 1/2 full days at the park, with a 2 night stay at tho Springheel Suites on site. likely, would be purchasing the Silver Carowinds Season pass - only good until Labor Day, but we'd only do this one visit, and this would be cheaper than buying individual day tickets, and allow us to pop into the park a bit for a 1/2 day if we decide. being a pass holder, would also give a discount on the Hotel. so that's the main focus. . . . BUT. . what I'm wondering is what else is in that area to do? are there any decent parks fairly close to Carowinds, that we could fold into this trip (and by fairly close, I mean less than a 3 hour drive). what touristy, or Cultural sites are nearby? I know there are a few things, and we love History/cultural and touristy stuff. i will do the research, but a good start is always to ask on TPR messageboards for advice before starting. it's all gonna depend on what the year ends up looking like what kind of Trip my Spouse and I do together. . as noted, this is an option (as is Manhattan for a few days to do Broadway shows/Coney Island), or California to do Universal & maybe Disney. . . .or, if no other offer uses up my vacation, a nice Cruise). but I've only been to Carowinds once, and I enjoyed it immensely. This was before Copperhead Strike too, so am really interested in checking that out. what say you, fellow TPR folks? what's in the area that could make this our trip for 2020?

Great pics, Erik, and a lot of them look very familar heh. . it will still be several weeks before I get to my TDL/TDS pics in my report. . . but I love that you got a bunch of pics that I didn't take, and I'm sure it will be vice versa (I took a ton of parade pics at both parks over the 4 days). I dunno how I missed that Big Hero 6 float tho. . must have been in line for Space Mountain or something and don't apologize for Country Bears! I saw the show twice (and loved how they were mostly in Japanese, but some songs were in English). . .and I think I did Tikki Room 3 times - and I'm not even a big Stitch fan. I just love that show. good start, and excited to see more pics. Brings back SUCH great memories, hard to believe it was only 3 months ago!

Orange County Register reported it today, so apparently it's real. but it looks like screenrant got some of the story wrong for "clickbait". . he didn't actually successfully remove the sword, but rather broke it accidentally. https://www.ocregister.com/2020/01/18/burly-disneyland-visitor-pulls-excalibur-from-sword-in-the-stone/

Himeji castle continued: some more info they had on display about the restoration processes and a large scale model on display of the full grounds of the Castle, and what it looked like back when in active use. a few more snaps from windows on the opposite sides of the White Keep, as we headed down from our climb. the area surrounding is so lovely (and there was a small - tourist trap, I'm sure- amusement carnival closeby too. . but no time for that!). I believe only 4 of us made the climb all the way to the top, so we had to meet up with the rest of the group before heading back to the station for our Shinkansen. exiting the keep, you come out on the Bizen-maru Bailey. the fenced off hole on the right is one of the many wells on the Castle grounds really nice views of Dai-tenshu from just underneath it on the Bailey. Final pic I took that's good enough to share from Himeji Castle grounds. we met up with the others, and while a few folks made an effort to quickly check out the Gardens (we only had about 40 minutes until our train, and we still had to walk back to the station), Jon and I did some quick souvenir shopping at a small shop just outside the gates. it was off season / October, so I wasn't sure if anything would be in bloom, and didn't really have time to enjoy it. . . thinking back, I guess we COULD have just booked a later train. but there were things folks wanted to do - I certainly wanted to check out Rainbow Festa and I know some wanted to do some shopping in Dotonbori. . . so we had planned to leave at a certain time to make sure we'd be able to. Hence the return train time. so instead of checking out the gardens, I bought some Magnets, and a Himeji Castle shirt (think Jon bought a fan). . the lady at the register gave me some lovely origami throwing stars she had made, that she tossed into my bag and said "for good luck!". . and then we booked it to meet up with the others at the main Castle entrance, and we started the brisk walk back to the Train Station. we walked quickly, but that didn't stop me from taking a couple of pics down alleyways as we passed them in Himeji. I saw tiles like these in several cities, and I love how they are "centric" to the cities Himeji Castle is the White Heron. . so the tiles on the street? White Herons. we had walked fast, and timed it well, so we had a few moments before our train pulled in. since most of us hadn't really eaten since breakfast, some of us took a quick trip into a station store to grab a snack for the Shinkansen back to Shin-Osaka here's what I picked up to snack on: Salmon Onigiri, pickled Plum Onigiri, and a "cake roll" that was mildly green tea flavored. it wasn't hugely filling, but they were all good, and kept me happy until we'd have a chance to eat something later. Jon got a bento box (as you can see in this pic, since he was sitting next to me). he also used his phone app - which showed this Shinkansen from Himeji back to Shin-Osaka, was going 165 mph. as Robb would say: "Wheeeee!" to be continued (in the next few days), with a stop at Rainbow Festa - gay pride in Osaka!, and a quick visit to Dotonbori before we head to Nagoya.

Today was the transfer day from Osaka to Nagoya. . . we basically had the day to ourselves as long as we ended up in Nagoya by the end of it. working with Elissa, most of us had already booked Shinkansen reserved tickets from Shin-Osaka to Nagoya (I believe they were ~5pm). . so we had the whole day to ourselves. Even tho the day before, a massive Typhoon had hit Japan? you would never know from the area we were in, and the day was gorgeous (other parts of Japan sadly were impacted pretty badly, and there was some loss of life as well as monetary losses - in particular I saw reports of many Shinkansen trains badly damaged resulting in millions of $$ in losses). but as noted, this didn't really impact us, as where we were, the trains were running and even the scheduled luggage transfer - to move our bags from Osaka - Nagoya for us, was on schedule, as long as we had our bags down in the lobby of Universal Port Hotel by 8am. there were lots of options on what to do today, including going back to Universal if we wanted to (no need, as I had gone the night before our full day, as well as open to close on our full day). or sleeping in, or shopping. If we wanted to do "theme park" stuff, the options were: Hirakata Park in Osaka (oldest Amusement Park in Osaka area) Legoland in Nagoya or the Zoo in Nagoya a few folks did go off to Hirakata Park, and then Legoland (and were kind enough to send me pictures of the Carousels & Miniland areas - since I would have *loved* to see these places). But I didn't go to the "Amusement" options, as I really wanted to use today for a "Culture" day, since it was so gorgeous and everything was open with no Typhoon impact. and since we were fairly close to Himeji - only about 30 minutes via Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka? That was what I wanted to do today. Himeji would have been our stop the prior day to switch to other transportation for heading to Central Park, and in Himeji is a World Cultural Heritage Site, Himeji Castle. I'd tentatively "penciled" into my itinerary for the prior day to leave Central Park a bit early to explore the Himeji Castle (based on feedback from the group). The universe had actually given me a gift, as it turned out that I was able to spend more time at Himeji Castle on this Sunday, then I would have been able to even if I had left Central Park early. So it all works out like it needed to. So myself, and a group of others, decided that we would be the "Himeji Castle" group, and that was our plan for the morning. expect LOTS of pictures of the Castle, so apologies if you aren't into this stuff. . . I took well over 400 pics there (!) but cut it down to only ones I thought were fun to share. onwards: Waking up fairly early (since we had turned in fairly early), I opened the curtains to the room and looked out to a beautiful Sunrise looking towards Osaka. . . so pretty. hard to believe there had been a Typhoon the prior day. most on the TPR trip headed down to the buffet breakfast, and we ate and visited, then all went back up to the rooms just be 8am to grab our bags to hand off to Elissa in the lobby. last looks at Universal Studios Japan, from the hotel window by the Elevators, as we are heading down to check out and hand off bags. gorgeous day. bye-bye Harry Potter world on the short train ride from Osaka to Shin-Osaka. the train had an advertisement banner for the "drumming game" we had seen in a few arcades. not sure who wanted this picture, Zach or William. . but it's a cute pic, and we look well rested, LOL. snapping pics of unique Osaka architecture as we pass by. on the right is the famous The Umeda Sky Building - which features a "floating observatory" in the circular suspended area - that you can just make out the escalators going up into. Unfortunately, I never made it to the building during the trip. . but if I ever go back it will be a stop! When we got to Shin-Osaka station, we headed to the Shinkansen booth and the ladies in the booth we extremely helpful in assisting us in booking round-trip Shinkansen reserved tickets to Himeji (it was meant to be, as there was a train leaving in ~20 minutes, and it had just enough reserved seats for our group). . so we headed off thru the station the Shinkansen platforms. tho not as big as some of the other stations, we'd been thru, the Shin-Osaka station isn't tiny, so lots of turns and steps to get where we were going. I'm not a big enough Star Wars fan that I was tempted to go to this exhibit - but I *loved* the art direction in the posters, so stopped for a moment to snap a picture as we walked past it. I also made note of the "Rainbow Festa" posters, that happened to be happening today (I'd assume the prior day's activities had been cancelled due to Typhoon), and pointed that out to the folks I was with. I ABSOLUTELY was curious what a Gay Pride event in Japan would look like, and expressed interest in stopping by there if we had time (and general consensus was that others were at least curious to take a look as well) we had a little bit of time before train arrival as well, so we popped into a convenience store to pick up snacks for the ride. up the stairs to cross over the regular train line track, and to get to the Shinkansen tracks an approaching train zooming by, caught my eye why yes, if you zoom on this pic, that IS a "Hello Kitty" wrap on this train. gawd i love Japan. and before too long, we were on our platform ready for our Shinkansen to arrive. and here it comes. most of the group posing for a pic William took cept me. . I'm in the background taking a selfie with the engine of the Shinkansen see? We had reserved seats, so no huge rush to get onto the train. So we posed for a few more pics before getting on board. here's Alex and me. . in Japan. . about to ride a bullet train (again). yay. the Shinkansen we were about to get on and just before we boarded, another Shinkansen pulled into the station to load from the other side. thought it was interesting to see them side by side, and happy I got at least 1 pic where they are both kind of in the frame. and then it was time to get aboard. Car 8. Seat 13. and thru the window, can see into the other Shinkansen that had pulled in next to us. a couple of pics from the Shinkansen as we headed from Shin-Osaka, to Himeji when we exited into the Himeji Station, there are several photo-ops. . . yep, I wanted a picture. . LOL Here's Tabatha, me, and Allison as Geishas and warriors the Station also has a scale model of the Himeji Castle/White Keep grounds. and this stunning carriage/royal chariot (?) closer view of the model not really sure what these were - they kinda looked like lanterns, but don't' think they were. Maybe ceremonial storage canisters? or drums? Stepping out of the station, you get an incredible view of the Himeji Castle, at the end of the street. it's going to be a little bit of a walk, but such a gorgeous day, it makes no sense to hop on a bus. Let's walk it and experience the area! Glad we decided to walk, as along the pathway to Himeji Castle, there's all kinds of interesting sights, and sculptures to take in. as a huge KISS fan, these fanged fish/dragons, really intrigued me. I'll bet these are exactly where Gene Simmons got his inspiration for his dragon boots! very nice. .and I saw them represented several different times while in Himeji, but no where else in Japan. while walking, was missing my spouse, Nick. and then I got a sign from the universe, that all was good: more wonderful sculpture work as we made our way up the street Getting closer. . just across the street from the main Castle Grounds. or as the guide books they handed us call it: "World Cultural Heritage Site National Treasure Himeji Castle" and I can absolutely see why it's so revered . . it truly is a stunning site, and it's awe-inspiring to see in person. the nickname for the place is: the White Heron Castle Getting ready to cross the street to enter the Castle. . . there's Jon in a pic but not before snapping a pic of a Rickshaw - and the "driver" was kind enough to stop for a moment and actually pose for my picture. just look at that face! the Rickshaws were doing very brisk business, but didn't seem to be among "tourists" . . at least not foreign ones. I don't think i saw any non-Asian riders in the rickshaws. now on the same side of the street as Himeji Castle, a look over the water at the main entrance to the area in this pic is the "Sakura-mon" bridge, and on the right is the "Ote-mon Gate" in the center is the spectacular Dai-tenshu (the White Keep) (why yes, I do have my Himeji Castle guidebook out with me while working on this Trip Report update) The 7 of us who formed the "Himeji Castle group" today, stopping for a group pic to share with the TPR Japan trip messenger (mainly to show we had made it here!). LtR: Tabatha, William, Me, Allison, Jon, Alex, Zach another, slightly closer picture, of the bridge, the main gate, and Dai-tenshu (the White Keep) Tourist version of a "Ride Sign" for Larry. . . there were some boats (sorta like gondolas) giving rides in the water around the outside of the Himoji Castle complex. I didn't see any docks, but I'm sure that if we had walked around the outside of the grounds, we could have found them. while it looked enjoyable, i wanted to tour the grounds, rather than just go around outside them. . so we headed inside, rather than look for the docks. I have a suspicion that the hats & Robes everyone is wearing were provided by the boat guide. better view of the Ote-mon Gate as we approach to head inside and buy our day pass tickets once thru the gates and onto the grounds, you really get a sense of just how large the site is. where one purchases tickets to actually get onto the grounds, is way back there on the left, where people are walking up the hill path. but in this open area, which based on the site maps, appears to at one point have been: the San-goku-bori Moat" you can get some fantastic pictures of Dai-tenshu (the White Keep) another group shot, this time inside the man gate site map (like a park map!), near where we bought our admission tickets. the red arrow is where we are now, over on the left, you can see the walkway over the water, that we crossed on the Sakura-mon bridge now on the main grounds, you can see the many directions the paths branch off to, depending on which part of the site you wished to explore. we were all most interested in the Main Keep, so headed that way, although not everyone made the full climb up to the top, and a few split off to go see other parts of the site. you can see some scaffolding on the right, as parts of the site are constantly undergoing restoration, but the vast majority of this site is ancient and that's why protected. Castle history, if anyone is interested. We ended up buying the combo ticket, since it was only ~.50 more to add the Koko-En Gardens (something that would have been much more if purchased separate). tho we didn't know if we'd be able to have time to visit the gardens, as I believe we had scheduled our return reserved Shinkansen tickets for 2:30. but for such a little upcharge, we went for it. the admission tickets were beautiful too, and you bet I kept it as a souvenir. starting the climb up some fairly steep pathways. (and astoundingly, there were quite a few elderly folks effortlessly making this trek. . . in way better shape that those of us in other parts of the world, it would appear). looking at Dai-tenshu (the White Keep) beyond the Hishi Gate, one of the famous spots in the Castle a closer look. . .this is SUCH a stunner. Dai-tenshu only looks 5 stories tall, but it's actually 7 (6 stories + a basement), and you're allowed to tour all floors except for the basement (but you can peek thru an area to see it). the famous Hishi Gate (Hishi-no-Mon) this is the largest gate in the Himeji Castle complex, and was built in the Azuchi-momoyama period - 400+ years ago! yes, another pic of my smiling face, with the Dai-tenshu (the White Keep) behind me apparently, looking at the site map, this is part of the San-goku-bori Moat, that sometimes has herons nesting there. This part of the moat still has water in it. the back side of the Hishi Gate (I was coming back from the restrooms) A bit of culture shock to come thru a 400+ year old gate, and next to them are modern toilets. . but what are you gonna do. Tourists gotta go. And at least they are discreetly designed to blend in with the area. one more pic of the Keep before we head up the path that will take us to the base level of it. it's a climb to get up to Dai-tenshu, but we all did it. not sure if the fences on the left there are to protect the rock walls from touching hands? or more likely to supply a hand-rail of some sort for those that might need it. some of the architectual details on the rooftops of some of the buildings on the castle grounds you can see from the amazing detail, why I took so many pictures during my visit this morning. everywhere I looked, was just jaw dropping beauty. now headed into the guard post, that leads into Dai-tenshu (the White Keep) (they route the tourists in thru this gate, and keep everyone going one direction thru the keep, and so everyone exits out a separate area) again. . astounding detail. bert about to head into Dai-tenshu. . I'm excited. . . I'll be walking in History. Looking back to give an idea of the steepness of the grade -and how low the ceilings are - in this guard post. William is taking an artsy pic down one of the canals thruout the keep. . no idea if this one was for transporting water, oil, or (possibly?) human waste. getting closer to actually getting inside the keep made sure to duck to pass thru this THICK metal door, which is the last big defense area before one enters into the actual keep and here's where we encountered really the first "line". . . as this is the "real" entrance to Dai-tenshu, and once past thru this doorway, you are asked to remove shoes and carry them in a bag. for the most part, everyone followed the request, and the line was a constantly moving one. tho I did see one or two non-Asian tourists here, completely miss the multiple signs and try to go up the steps with shoes on. another super thick metal door, with a smaller metal door embedded in it. thankfully they had the big door open, so we didn't have to squeeze thru the smaller opening I tried to take pictures of the signs on each floor of the layout. this was on the entrance floor, with this map posted of the "off limits" - but with a peek down into - the basement/cellar they say that they don't know what the basement was used for, but note the platform was slanted - so whatever was done on that platform drained into the basement. I would assume not human waste, as there are also toilets here. . so maybe blood from interrogating enemies? (but that doesn't make sense, as why would you bring an enemy past the thick doors, and into your keep?). perhaps medical treatment waste (such as bleeding as was done in the middle ages?) and some pics of what the interior areas looked like. some lovely architecture views from the windows on this floor, and even tho it's the 1st floor, you can see we're a bit high up. all those slanted trails we took to get here! From the first floor central window, overlooking the Bizen-maru Bailey way down at the end of the street there is the Himeji Station. they send you thru a marked path, as you go around the floors, and up steps (each set increasingly steeper), to the upper floors. You only get to see ~ 1/2 of each floor on the way up, as the other sides of the floors are used by the tourists coming down from the upper floors. it's incredibly interesting, even without any furniture. and I could have spent HOURS here, reading every sign - but instead I took pictures of the signs to go back and read later, and continued on (we had limited time!). this is a great pic, because I like how William and Alex appear to be discussing the historical aspect of the beams used to support the ceilings. and I love that it gives a good pic of *everyone* carrying their shoes in plastic bags. really like the detailed work on the ceilings, even tho I'm certain it's more "practical" than detail driven. here's the map for the remainder of the 1st floor Up a level to the 2nd floor, and this was the armory area - where the walls were all set up to hold spears and swords. as well as these beautiful latticed windows areas, that were used for lookouts. the view from one of the windows this pic is a bit blurry, sorry. . but it's a pic from the 4th floor (I was standing on a mid level "Stone-Throwing Platform", that was where warriors could "drop stones"). In this pic you can see the stairs leading up from the 3rd floor, and another set of stairs leading up to the 5th floor this is from the queue on the 5th awaiting to go up to the 6th floor, the people exiting are coming down from the top floor above us. a better view of the shrine the View out of the "front" window, looking towards Himeji Station. and note the Fish/dragon gargoyle. so cool. the 6th floor also contains the Osakabe-jinja Shrine (the shrine of Himeyama; a local deity) there were people lined up here to make offerings. now up on the 6th floor, the uppermost part of Dai-tenshu . . as would be expected, this is the smallest part of the keep, and is basically one large room -but with some stunning views of the surrounding areas. looking out a side window, at more of the views. i believe these buildings are part of the Nishi-no-maru Bailey. .that runs around the entire outside of the castle, where the troops defended the castle. on the way back down, on display is the scale model they built to understand / use, during the (2009) restoration of Himeji Castle.

Space Fantasy was open, but with the "Black Hole" overlay.. so the only lights in the whole ride was the "strobe" room. made for a super disorienting ride, as you couldn't tell if you were spinning or not, since EVERYTHING in the pitch black felt like you were spinning. I enjoyed it, but would love to see what it looks like when it's running standard without an overlay. at least no VR on it tho

^ agreed (and ^^ agreed) sorry for the delay in report. . I've been sick all week, and just haven't had the energy to get back to it. but I believe next update will be up by weekend.. and should be Himeji Castle, Osaka Pride Festival, Dotonbori, and train to Nagoya.. . . I have a lot of pics to sort thru for those. but I will say, that this was the day AFTER a massive typhoon hit Japan..and you could not even tell it had affected anything at any of the stops I made that day.

why not cut back on some of the stops, and still do it?

it looks impressive, but as I'm not really a gamer (and when I do play, it's always Sega, not Nintendo - yes, I've never played a "Mario" game, unless you count his appearances in "Donkey Kong"). but then again, i'm not a huge Harry Potter fan, and I was blown away by the Forbidden Journey ride. So I'm willing to keep an open mind, and enjoy whatever attractions they put in at least once.

this is a fantastic report, with some amazing pictures (as usual), Andy. thanks so much for sharing - I was just thinking that I hadn't seen any updates/pics from you in a while. I'd love to check this place out (tho the cave simulator box would be a hard pass for me too). I'll have to hope that some day I'm on a tour that goes thru this part of the Country, because with my Claustrophobic, and Acrophobic Spouse? he would ride a grand total of ZERO of the attractions there. LOL Hell, it would probably be a struggle to get him on a Gondala to get up there (we only got to the top of the mountain in Juno, by him sitting on the floor in the center of the car and staring down the whole time). thanks again for sharing!

^ I'm hoping they are doing some trackwork and that's why closed at the moment.

yeah. . . we walked up to clearly marked queues when we were there in October, and asked for single rider passes. what he doesn't mention is that at TDR, they ask permission from groups for you to join them tho. on Splash Mountain it *can* take a while on Single Rider, since you are sharing a log with folks.. . tho I ended up on one ride with a rowdy group of girls who were celebrating one's birthday. so we were a Party log, and I think they enjoyed having me as the one Tourist with them - and yes, I got into the cheering and party attitude for the drops.

great pics. . it's been so long since I've been on a cruise. really need to do another one, as this report has me itching to go again!

thanks, Canobie. I mean, it's really a case of: This is what's happening, and you can either be upset about it, or you can just accept it and enjoy the company you're with. Getting upset would do nothing. And the company on the trip were all fantastic people. So yeah, just count it as a "relax" day and enjoy the company. I think most everyone was hanging out with folks doing some sort of visiting on this day, so I believe everyone had a good day - even tho there was a Typhoon coming outside!

the Slinky Dog pic from Spaceship Earth is priceless. why is that not your profile pic yet!

Waking up still kind of early (I think it was 8ish), I knew today was going to be an "inside day" - as the original plans for the day were impacted by Mother Nature, who had sent Typhoon Hagibis careening towards Japan. it was a major storm, that was bigger than the entire Country. .so we (with plenty of warning/notice from Elissa) had loaded up with supplies for a day in the hotel. The tentative itinerary had us going to Central Park today, but it had already been decided that it simply wasn't safe to even attempt that. And really who can complain? we had gotten a PERFECT day at Universal Studios Japan the prior day, with no Typhoon impact. So today was a "relax" day, even tho there were some concerns about the storm. It looked to be turning Northwards as it approached Japan, and was going to impact the Tokyo area, more than it was going to impact us since we were in Osaka (more Southward part of the Country). A quick peek outside the window showed a steady drizzle, but no real heavy rain. I checked the message group list from the folks I had been hanging with and saw that William had posted he was headed down shortly to breakfast if anyone wanted to meet up. . .so I got dressed, and headed down to meet some folks in the buffet. the Hotel had slipped these under the door to the room, and also had them posted thruout the Hotel. it wasn't a surprise, and we hadn't planned to go to USJ today anyways, but was really nice they did that. The timestamp shows it as 1:24 in the afternoon. Here's what the Typhoon path projected , and what the weather in Japan looked like today. we're the Blue dot, that's Osaka. so you can see we were getting rain, some heavy in the afternoon, but the Typhoon path was gonna miss us for the most part as it had sharply turned North East. We hung out in the Hotel playing games and visiting until I think ~5pm, and by then the storms seemed to have blown thru, and it had just gotten. . . "moist" outside. The rain seemed to have completely stopped, so with a bit of Cabin Fever, we decided to head over to the Citywalk to see if anything was going on. down at Breakfast, William and I bumped into Luke and Trent who sat with us and we hung out eating and chatting. We also saw Robb & Elissa, as well as Joey & Hanno at another table and popped by to say hello, while we were loading up on our breakfast choices. at the time of this pic, we had pretty much finished eating (I believe Allison had also joined us), when Robb messaged the group that the Starbucks in Citywalk was open until 11am if anyone wanted coffee. I REALLY wanted a White Chocolate Mocha, as am not a fan of Japanese Coffee (which is a little too bitter for my tastes), and since figured that if the Starbucks is open, maybe some of the other shops in Citywalk would be open - and I still wanted to pick up some small souvenirs for folks if I could find some. The weather didnt' seem to be all that bad yet, so after checking that outside was just intermittent drizzle? William & I (joined by, I think, Tabatha & Allison), put on our TPR ponchos, and headed out to walk the block to Universal Citywalk and get some Starbucks. we got a little moist, but it wasn't too bad, and in just a few moments, we were removing our ponchos (to not drip on the floor), of a fairly crowded Starbucks. yep, a MASSIVE typhoon was bearing down on Japan, and the Starbucks in Citywalk was going to stay open - at least until 11am - to serve the folks that wanted coffee this morning. And still give the employees plenty of time to get home/to safety. if anyone was *forced* to work this morning? You couldn't tell - as they were all smiles, and seemed genuinely happy to see us coming in for drinks/snacks. I wasn't hungry, since we had just eaten breakfast at the hotel, but man was that Venti White Chocolate Mocha gooooooood. Warm drinks in hand, we headed back out into the Citywalk, and noted that the Convenience Store was open next to the Starbucks, as well as the McDonald's, and the Universal Studios Store (both levels). Score. . .so we headed across the open walkway in the drizzle, and we all did some browsing/shopping. I ended up finding some unique Hello Kitty Mechanical Pencils for my friend, but no luck on a magnet for me as I didn't care for any of the ones available. I believe the ladies bought some stuff, and so wanted to head back to the Hotel before the weather turned really bad. . but William and I decided to stay for a bit and roam the levels of the mostly deserted Citywalk. from the 2nd level, you can get a wonderful view of the really cool Gargoyle/clocks on the corner of one of the big Hotels in the Citywalk. i thought these were very "Harry Potter-ish". . . so snapped a pic. and you can see it was only just after 10am. Walking down to the end of the 2nd level closest to the Park (and the escalators weren't working. .but you know what a non-working escalator is called? Stairs). the sitting Angel gargoyles over the hotel entrance on this side were lovely too, so snapped a pic of them. Leaning out over the 2nd floor balcony to get a good pic of the closed (and therefore deserted) USJ. . Hollywood Dream looks so sad when there's no movement on it. in this pic you can really see the top of the Ferris wheel across the bay, as well as the bridge too. Luckily that's not quite as noticeable as when you're inside the park, but I continue to find the sight-line issues interesting. Obviously, it's simply not that big a deal for USJ to disguise things outside the park, tho when in Wizarding World, you really can't see much of the rest of the park. I took the opportunity of the deserted Citywalk to take a potty break . . . and discovered little baby seats in the corner of every stall. This really does put into perspective the oddness of the baby the man placed directly over the urinal at Toshimaen that we had seen, and which had seemed so odd to us. Since if making use of this child seat, the child would be looking directly at you while you're pooping. (remember, these were in the men's room stalls - the Citywalk Men's restroom I went into had no urinal's and the little "warning" on the child seat says don't turn your back on the kiddo, so certainly not for holding the kiddo while you're peeing. LOL I guess it's a cultural thing. .but I found it an interesting thing. . so took a picture of it. There are a few "forced perspective" photo ops - that seem to be really popular - set up underneath the stairwells at the Universal Citywalk. Here's one on the 2nd floor, that was Despicable Me/Minion themed. . and seemed appropriate with the weather. so here I am balancing with my Starbucks, and my bag of purchases from the Universal Store. I enjoy very much how it looks like the Minion is peeking up my poncho. hehehe it was still only a little after 10, but the rain had started to get a little more steady, so William went back down to the main level, planning to head back. But decided to walk thru the Citywalk to exit that way - as it's rare to see it so deserted, and thought it would make for some interesting pics. Right next to the McDonald's - that was starting to close up - is another Official Universal Studios Hotel. as ours has Despicable Me / Minions stuff all over it, THIS one was covered in Sesame Street stuff. (with not a Minion in sight). Cookie here seemed to be a photo-op where you lean on him, but since we were getting rained on I didn't want to pose and ask William to step out from under the overhang and into the rain just to get a pic of me. So instead, I just took a picture of Cookie Monster. Besides, I had gotten a pic with the character yesterday in the park. there were a handful of people out in front of the park, taking pics. . since it was such a unique situation. So before heading back, William and I decided to also. here's William - but I can't recall why he has his umbrella on the ground just looking at it while he's getting wet. Guess we were doing "artsy" pics. . LOL the stairs to go down to the street headed back to our hotel, were just to the right of the main entrance, so grabbed a few more pics, as we passed by the sign. . . and here's me, but actually using William's umbrella - and using my body to block out the folks behind me, so I look like I'm there all alone then it was time to head back to the Hotel, as the rain was really starting to come down. Hogwarts, deserted, in the rain. we got a nice "wettening" as we headed back to the Hotel. all I wanted to do was change into something dry, but of course, we had timed it that we got back right as housekeeping was tidying my room. Grrrr. . so I went back down to the lobby, and stood out front (couldn't sit on anything, as my lower half was soaking wet - the poncho only covers so much acreage ). Jon was hanging out front too - getting some air I think, or maybe taking pics of the storm, so he and i chatted for 15/20 minutes, and then I headed back up to the room to see if Housekeeping was done. he was just finishing up, so I headed into the room for a warm shower and to change into dry clothes. the whole room reeked of Bun, Shumai, and Gyoza - LOL. . so I guess he had peeked into the fridge to see what I had in there. I got a ping from Allison (or maybe Zach) saying that some folks were going to hanging out in Zach/Alex's room, and could I bring by the leftovers? I said sure, decided to skip the hot shower, and instead just change to dry shorts, grabbed the boxes of leftovers (re-stinking up the room the moment i opened the mini-fridge) and headed down the hall to Zach/Alex's room. I didn't get into the Peanut Butter, Jelly, Banana's or Bread, but I did open up some of the "panda cookies" i had bought as Typhoon Supplies on arrival day at the small grocery store. look how cute! they tasted kinda like Hydrox cookies. the cookies themselves, not the creme. they were ok. .but look how cute! side 1 side 2 so the panda is cute on one side, and screaming that you're about to eat him on the other side. for some reason, I didn't think to take any pictures as I hung out for most of the afternoon with Zach,Alex,Allison,William & Jon in Zach/Alex's room.. as we munched on leftovers from 555, drank Sake that Alex had bought, and just had a fun time hanging out. Actually..I think I DO know the reason I didn't take any pics. . . we downloaded a few games and spent a couple of hours playing them - on our phones! So that's why I didn't use it for pics. I still have a couple of them on my phone, so a quick check reveals that we played Ellen's game: "Psych!" and "Evil Apples". . i know we tried to play a space game too, but it just wasn't' working very well as we couldn't get it to load past the download screens, so gave up on it. but the two we did play were a lot of fun, and there was lots of laughter and giggles - tho some of that may have been due to the Sake. at some point, both Allison and William used the teapot in the room to make their UFO Yakisoba Noodles we had all made at Yomiuriland. (I saved mine until after I got home, and they were decent). of course, we had to stop at the photo-op to take pics for those that hadn't been with us earlier when William/I came across it. Such a great pic. . .LOL it was pretty deserted, but there were more people out and about than had been earlier in the day (Pre-Typhoon Hagibis landfall). and a few thing had started opening up. . oh, not most things to be certain, but a few places had opened up - such as the McDonald's again, and it looked like TGI Fridays had opened up. so we headed upstairs to see what else might be open. as is this one.. . posing on the "stairs' reaching for Bananas. Alex must have taken this pic, as he's not in it, but it was William's request that we pose, so he could get a picture. Behind us is the sadly (but understandably) close Takoyaki food court. the neon was on for it tho. Cute little Octopi in headbands. After walking thru the 2nd and 3rd floors, we were about to give in and just head back over to TGI Fridays, since they have a bar. . . to continue the drinking. When we stumbled across the Hard Rock Cafe, which was open too. . and had plenty of seating due to USJ being closed today. they weren't crowded but did still have all the Halloween Decorations up. Such as KISS pumpkins at the bar. I'm a huge KISS fan, of course I took pics of KISS Jack-O-Lanterns. look how happy we all are. .. I can't recall if we were buzzed, or just happy that they were open, and all in costume too! Yep the waiters were dressed up! nobody was really hungry (especially when Elissa pinged the group message thread and said she had a few extra discount coupons for the dinner buffet at the hotel if anyone wanted them, they were up for grabs. A quick discussion, got consensus and we told her we were drinking at Hard Rock, but if were still up for grabs we'd come get them in a bit). so we ended up not really getting food as we were going to eat buffet dinner at the Hotel - at least I think most of us didn't get food, a couple of folks may have eaten something here. and here come the drinks. LOOK. HOW. HAPPY. yep. . even my milkshake was alcoholic. . and the bartender was pouring strong too.. at least mine was. one of the Waiters was Picachu! and the bartender was Waldo headed back to the stairs by the front entrance of Universal Japan to head back to our hotel. . it was incredibly spooky and quiet . . . and so cool. We met up with Elissa and got the discount coupons, and headed up to the Buffet - where we bumped into Luke & Trent . .and we all sat together and enjoyed a really amazing dinner buffet that had *tons* of fresh Sushi, as well as lots of other Japanese cuisine, that I ate way too much of, considering how full I had been before starting. but it was all really good food, including the desert bar, and the crab legs. that we had a discount on it made it all the better too. not sure why I didn't take any pics that came out decent of the dinner - they were ALL blurry - but I blame the strong alcohol in the mudslide shake I'd had at Hard Rock. . LOL. after a great meal, and feeling stuffed, I just really wanted to take a shower, and sleep off the day. So we all headed back upstairs to the rooms, passing this Halloween display near the elevators. I'd assume these statues are always there, and they put them in costume for Halloween. the middle is Marilyn, and the right is (I believe) Judy Garland . . tho it could also be Audrey Hepburn. who is that on the left? Clark Gable? the Mustache looks wrong for him. I'm amazed THIS pic came out clear. . LOL I really don't recall the rest of the night here. It couldn't have been must past 8:30 at night, or at the latest 9. . and I assume I took a shower, called Spouse, and hung out in the room. But I don't remember anything else about this night, and don't have any more pictures, so must have charged in phone to charge. We did have an early-ish day the next day, even tho it was really a "free day" as long as we ended up in Nagoya by the end of the day. But with luggage transfer to Nagoya (meaning Luggage had to be in the lobby by 8am) we had to have everything packed up and ready to put luggage downstairs. Elissa had confirmed that the Luggage Transfer was still on track, even with damage from the storm in parts of Japan. so in all likelyhood? I packed up everything, maybe visited a bit with my TPR "neighbors" in the rooms near me, and then turned in. I would know the typhoon had made CNN in the USA this night too, as my phone started going off with texts and FB messages in the middle of this night .. friends who'd seen it and worried about me. It was my fault for not turning off the sound, but I was worried if I turned off the sound, the alarm wouldn't sound (hey, I'm new to using my phone for alarm). After the 3rd ping, I went ahead and logged into Facebook - at 3:30am - and posted I was fine, that Osaka just got some heavy rain in places, but we weren't really impacted by Typhoon Hagibis - and that I loved everyone, but stop texting me! and then back to bed.

wasn't it a group dressed as giant eyeballs . . . . big white glowing orbs over their heads. . which ended up being from some anime or something? I didn't get a pic of them tho, as remember on Space Fantasy, the cubbies are outside the queue, so phone was locked up for this particular ride. . hence only the "buy the photo here" pic

that didn't get into my head as much as the Parade song, or "Rat-Tat-Tat". . but how awesome that you caught the audio from the "candy float parade" that I got the pics from the other side of (with the Goth Hello Kitty). TRICK OR TREAT

^ doesn't she own a skydiver already? or is that another woman?

oh yes. . because "offensive clothing" is the biggest issue I have with Carnival Cruise Lines. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/carnival-cruise-line-bans-offensive-clothing-trnd/index.html (the Wal*mart of the seas, and unless it's something like a "TPR Klassy Kruise" ? No way in hell will I ever book Carnival).

the mall itself is way nicer than I was expecting. are they actually going to have tenants? or are they still trying to rent out the spaces? great TR, Michael. .thanks for sharing.