Divv3k

Mitsui Greenland was an interesting place, a surprisingingly big park with quite a decent range of coasters. This park is home to one of those messed up "Ultra Twister" coasters I'd heard so much about. Needless tosay it certainly offers a unique experience! The park also has a decent number of unique non-coaster attractions too such as the haunted walkthrough where the amount you shake the "candle" they give you determines your "scaredness score" or the ghost train where you have to wear headphones to hear the soundtrack! Topping all of these attractions of course is the alpine slide! Just be careful on it though because there's a small chance you might wipe out... Another morning and another sleepy train ride for Scottish Steve. But he better get his wits about him soon, because we’re in for a unique TPR trip situation… It’s Taxi Time!!! Hey, I’m in a TPR Taxi! What could this sight possibly mean for us? We’re at Mitsui Greenland! First stop of the day today – white hot death! Big Mike and Andrew are all set for Ultra Twister glory! It’s certainly a “unique” experience! When you get to this stage you’re just happy you’re still alive. Big Wheel Quota for Mitsui Greenland – FILLED. Mitsui Greenland took the rather unorthodox step of naming their indoor space themed coaster The Black Hole. Brad makes his favoured Black Hole hand gesture. The Mitsui Green and map is brought to you than another of Peena Puu’s Japanese relatives! Oh joy. Some people are more excited about Spin Mouse than others. Yeah, this is the park with the Stego-Coaster! In case you can’t read Japanese Mitsui Greenland make sure to spell out for everyone which toilet is which. I forget what this is called so let’s just say it’s the Aztec Coaster. You’ll be forgiven for thinking you’ve been transported to North Africa. Rootin-Tuten fun! Mitsui Greenland offers fun for all ages! TPDave knows better than to be excited for a Togo stand-up contraption! This 4D theatre was home to one of the most messed up 3D movies I’ve ever seen. Gao, Gao, Gao! TPR knows it’s in good hands when there’s a dinosaur behind the wheel! While they might not always be the best coasters in the world Mitsui Greenland certainly do a good job of making their rides look unique! Godzilla doesn’t take any chances when it comes to precipitation. TPR is having a whale of a time! It’s only a Vekoma – I don’t remember this being too terrible either! This Vekoma on the other hand… This photo pretty much sums it up. The chair ride is often the site of a religious experience for Brad. This thing just looked nuts to me. Legend of Salamander aka Shooting Dragon! Scottish Steve takes Salamanders very seriously! Move over Spider-Man, it’s time for Adventure Ride! It’s kind of like a simulator on a dark ride track. Very weird! Yay, Ghetto Spider-Man! Little does he know it at the time but this journey to the top of the hill is the beginning of Scottish Steve’s appointment with destiny! And no, that appointment with destiny does not involve this haunted house at the top of the park’s hill! Needless to say, Scottish Steve did not enter this house! And as a result missed out on this awesome Spider-Man meets Two-Face contraption of a man! Steve’s destiny does not even involve the profound awesomeness that was Peena Puu: The Ride on top of the hill! The top of the hill gives a nice look over the park. It also gives you the opportunity to try out the alpine slide! Just watch your speed! First wipeout goes to Brad who doesn’t brake in the station, but that’s nothing compared to… TPFail!!! And Scottish Steve!!! The Wipeout Two were very lucky that the ride attendant had some kind of antiseptic spray for such idiots. Whilst Steve went off for some extra medical treatment we were met with the sheer terror that is DANGER IN A MAZE! Pay real close attention to the instructions for part three. It’s REALLY important! I’ve no idea what Larry is up to here. Larry has no idea what danger is about to engulf him. Larry was very careful to carry out instruction 3 to the letter. Beware the danger of the wall of balloons!!! DANGER, DANGER - UV LIGHT!!! Okay, NOW I’m scared! Everyone checks out the Danger in A Maze grand prize. If you want to know what it is you’ll have to do it yourself! Outlets like this are exactly the reason why these Japanese parks are so awesome! Even the kids can get a beer at Mitsui Greenland! Right in the heart of Mitsui Greenland is this. Every park needs one of these!!! Here is Scottish Steve’s favourite place in the world- on the left is the scary dark ride and on the right is the scary walk through maze! This dark ride had a headphone soundtrack! Brad still hasn’t quite recovered. The scary walkthrough is actually a bit of a challenge, you each get given a candle and depending on how much you shake it you get a score. With sights like this, you can be assured that Scottish Steve will never win! This translates to “Politically correct African maze” Nothing politically incorrect here, except TPDave. OMG, the ravenous African box section was so lifelike! It was pretty hot today so the Giant Penguin Ice House provided great relief! It costs a few Yen to get in but it’s so worth it on these hot days! I wish US parks had stuff like this! Yay, penguins! Steve somehow dodged a trip to the hospital (mostly thanks to Elissa’s negotiating skills) and provided great visual amusement for us all! We had no idea what was supposed to happen in here… But it looks like we passed! Larry REALLY enjoyed his ice cream float! Larry struggled with the gun game massively. Luckily for him ammunition refills were included with admission but he risked almost missing the trip back in order win something. He was still there long after I’d won my prize. So that’s Mitsui Greenland! A REALLY big park with some real unique rides! Be careful on that Alpine Slide!

Our second park of the day was Wonder Rakutenchi, a park high up on the side of a hill much like Tibidabo in Spain. Also like Tibidabo Wonder Rakutenchi gives some real breathtaking views of the town below. The park itself has one smallish coaster which uses the terrain a little but really the park is more about charm and quirkiness which it certainly has in places. It also has an awesome unique attraction in the form of duck racing. If you're not sure of how such a concept might work then please by all means ask any participant of the trip to explain it to you. Well maybe don't ask Fran... The only real issue with this park is that since all the signs were in Japanese one of our group was unable to decipher the sign that told him to secure all loose articles while riding... Park number two for today – Wonder Rakutenchi! Even the Japanese parks get excited about a TPR visit! The bathroom windows are well placed at this park. To get to the park at Rakutenchi you are required to pile into the cute funicular railway. ICCEEE CREAAMM!! Erik describes to the poor girl his vision of the perfect cone. Hill top rollercoaster! Nice! TPDave totally loving being MBF on Jet Coaster today. Has Larry been here already? Holes in the floor would suggest yes. Larry Shotgun Fail POV. Everyone’s loving some Grape Mountain Dew! Gobble gobble. The Meerkat motto is 'Be Prepared!' Peacocky! I’d seen pictures of these things before but was still amazed by the randomness of them when I finally saw them in action. TPDave is clearly enjoying himself more than you’d expect. I’m guessing that’s Japanese for “Chico and the Poachers” Ghetto shooting dark rides are all the rage in Japan! Remember me? Don’t pretend you don’t like it, Steve! Now this ride is very interesting. Notice that the vehicles don’t have much in the way of "sides". Also note that the people who rode this ride today were mostly seasoned amusement riders who are well versed in the practice of “Securing all valuables”. So how did it come to be that this poor staff member had to walk all the way around the track of the ride? What’s that? That can’t be a wallet, can it? Surely not, and if it is surely it won’t belong a TPR member. Certainly it will not belong to a TPR moderator at least. TPFail. TPFail. Bridge POV! Watch it, you! Another peak at the Jet Coaster. Such a nice setting for a ride! Ah, now this what this park is famous for on TPR – gambling on duck racing! Is it exploitative and immoral? Maybe. But do we love the concept anyway? Kinda! Well done guys, you backed the right ducks! At the high up temple area Scottish Steve is praying that Larry's umbrella is safe. TPDave pays homage to the wallet gods. The park has one of the best views from any park anywhere! Look mum, I’m up a hill, in Japan! TPDave probably looking for the iPhone he lost on the funicular railway. Yeah, nice view! Wonder Rakutenchi bends the Giant Wheel law in Japan by having this two-for-the-price-of-one effort. It’s a long way down! Some Japanese family asked if their kid could have his photo taken with me. 1000 Yen later and we had a deal. The family were clearly TPR readers. Scottish Steve points out his handiwork. Wonder Rakutenchi was quite the quirky park. The only other place I can compare to it is Tibidabo, even then it really is quite unique. A few of the guys fancied trying out this place in the train station. Not me. Another train ride, another Sleepy Scottish Steve! Larry got back to his room to find this ransom note. He had clearly got himself involved in some really serious shit! Tonight’s dinner – two kegs of beers! Yay! We had some food on the side too. After dinner a few of us had a wander around a local arcade. House of the Dead 14 is clearly no laughing matter for Erik! By far the best game for us in the arcade was the Taiko Drum game! Flight of the TPNavigator. Even as there were roadworks going on at night there was a little man there making sure everyone was getting across the road okay! Or something like that. That’s it for Hakata! Awesome, awesome place! Mitsui Greenland is next!

Next up was our first two park day! This was also a little bit of a throwback to traditional TPR trips as it involved a couple of bus rides! Our first park was Kijima, a park up in the hills with a very scenic setting. This is absolutely one of those quirky parks that just feels "Japanese", I don't really know how else to describe it! The big coaster, Jupiter isn't the best by any means but it looks really good and the park's management even acknowledged that our ride may be a bit "bouncy". There's also a good selection flats and indoor rides. Here's some photos... Start the day healthy with a green tea donut! Thanks Mister Donut! Back to old-style TPR tripping this morning! Scottish Steve loves his bus trips. Today’s first park – Kijima! Park entrance photo. Just in case the Park Index ever requires such photos. We’re future-proofed, Larry! Iced coffee from a vending machine appears to be a new concept for Scottish. First coaster – Gold Rush. A comfortable experience for all! Well maybe not everyone. But it was memorable at least! It’s just a Vekoma! Scottish loves that it’s just a Vekoma! Terry is clearly loving the powered dragon! Such a nice setting for a park! Unfortunately the green coaster would be off limits for us today. No worries! Kijima’s big ride is Jupiter. One of the “bounciest” woodies you might ride! Gotta love the TPR takeover! It looks nice though, right? This is the stuff that Andrew’s nightmares are made of! Another weird Japanese concept – the covered splashboat! Full on skloosh protection. The covered boat is TPApproved! Another awesome thing about Japanese restaurants is all the plastic versions of the meals that they display in the windows. Makes not being able to read the menu much less of an issue! My choice – Chicken Katsu Curry! Good stuff! That’s a lot of Katsus! Steve vs Wallet. Current score: Wallet 2 – Steve 0 Kijima is also home to the most cutting edge of ride technologies. Move over Forbidden Journey, make way for Galactic Bumper Cars! Notice the extra theming in the form of cardboard boxes in the background! Shooting pirates was another favourite, think of Pirates of the Caribean and Buzz Lightyear but without any of the budget or technology and you get something like this. Everyone took Shooting Pirates VERY seriously! The flying island theming was brilliant! The views of the park were pretty cool too! That’s where Andrew tried to kill himself! Shut your eyes, Andrew!! Jupiter looks really cool in amongst the hills and clouds! Spinning teacups aren’t for me so I went a wander by myself for a few minutes. OMG, where did Godzilla get that prized red umbrella from??? This would be the park's “Main Street” - just goes to show the lack of people here yet again. Anyone else remember Cadbury’s Dream? Japan's the place to go for these now! That’s it from Kijima,a very friendly and hospitable park. It’s genuinely one of those picturesque, quirky Japanese parks I’d been hoping to encounter! Our second park of the day, Wonder Rakutenchi will be up next!

Our next park was one of the first "big parks" of trip - Space World! This was a nice park, they have a theme and boy do they stick to it! There's some decent coasters and interesting coasters here, the Arrow hyper and Japanese Stealth being the big two. There's also some other interesting contraptions like the forward/backward coaster and the Black Hole indoor coaster. This was another day when rain was a theme but amazingly we still managed to get all of our credits and ride everything we wanted to. There's also a live horror maze in the park which is always a plus in my book! Oh yeah, there was also the little issue of substantiating the authenticness of a certain space craft too... Today was the first “Big” park of the trip – Space World! Replica or Real Spaceship? Will we ever find out the truth? Jes wants to get his photo with the Spaceship just in case it is real. I have it on good authority that this plaque lies. It is absolutely a real spaceship and not a replica. Whether it's real or fake there’s a still a coaster to be rode and we had ERT! It wouldn’t be one of my TRs without bringing back a recurring joke that only about four people find funny! Well I’m one of the four dammit and I find photos of Erik licking large plastic ice cream cones highly amusing. Please note that I have no desire to see photos of Erik licking anything else however. Japanese Stealth! Better than regular Stealth. Why? Because it’s in Japan and not in Thorpe! TPDave finally gets a Qoo. Uh oh! I thought we were miles away from all that! Arrow Hyper time! Hello Titan! Just like your average Arrow Hyper it goes up the lift hill. The difference with this one is that it’s in Japan. It’s better than The Big One and that’s not just because it’s in Japan! TPR are loving themselves some Titan! Japanese girl in the front has just spied some green monster making off with a red umbrella though. As I came to find it is law in Japan that all theme parks have some form of giant wheel. We have a place called the Vicky Lounge in Glasgow. Please note that it is nothing like this one though. Check out Larry, in his natural habitat, overlording it up to the max. The kiddie coaster was apparently a bit temperamental but luckily the majority of us managed to get the credit. As kiddies go it wasn’t too bad! The backwards/forwards death machine was a ride once affair for me. The rest of the guys seemed to enjoy re-riding though. Guess I just hate riding backwards. On rollercoasters. No Aliens in the water! OMG, it’s Japanese Peena Puu! That stupid tree from Finland is still giving me photos and captions for TRs year later! This is the indoor rollercoaster station. Can’t really remember what it was like! TPDave is all about the Happy Return! Go on guys, dive in! Caution: Scare in motion! It was little details in theming like this that made me really like Space World. They have their theme for their park and they’re sticking to it! Alien themed horror mazes do not appeal to Scottish for some unknown reason. Andrew asking where was the drop tower portion of the maze? Lunch in the Colonel’s Lounge sounds like a great idea to me! A Wa-Fu Chicken Cutlet, Nuggets and Melon Fanta! I love visiting fast food places in new countries to try out local menu items! 4D theatre! I wonder what delights await us in here? OMG, it’s Panda-fucking-vision! I’m losing track of how many parks I’ve seen this in now! And now for a first. These rapids really are cutting edge. Yeah, these are the only rapids in world that soak you from the bottom of the boat up! Bizarre! With the rain beginning to lash down again we figured we could find some cover in the form of the Giant Arse Wheel. Andrew and Tom cosy up together for a hot and sweaty encounter inside Hendrix. Despite the rain I really liked Space World. And once again we got all the rides in even with the strict rain policies in Japanese parks! Nice one, Space World! Back in the hotel we encountered on the TV what seemed to be some kind of inferior Japanese version of Yo Gabba Gabba. WiFi Party!!! The local electronics store had free WiFi which is a bit of hot commodity in Japan so it was often a hang out point for tour participants! Tool. Love in an elevator! This night we decided to check out another restaurant in the Hakata area. This one was another of those cool Japanese concept restaurants… It’s a vending machine restaurant! Here’s TPDave not ordering a Katsu curry. What you do is buy your meal from the machine, which gives you a ticket. You then give your ticket to the waiter and he brings you your dinner! Jes loves his Vending Machine meal! Here’s my Vend-a-Meal! It was very good! I’m loving these different Japanese restaurants! No beer left? Go to the vending machine and order another! Pub takeover!!! We came all the way to Japan to check out the British pub. That’s how we roll. Cheers! Not content with the beer I had in the pub it was back to the hotel for a nightcap! Back with more soon!

The next day was a very special day for the majority of us as it was our first opportunity to ride Japan’s famous Shinkansen aka The Bullet Train! So it was an early start as we took the bullet train all the way down to Hakata in the south of Japan. Luckily for us our hotel was conveniently located not far from Kashiikaen, a small park with a couple of coaster. Unluckily for us it was pretty rainy and it didn’t look like we’d get to ride anything. But amazingly, Elissa with her incredible negotiating skills managed to persuade the park staff to open the coasters for us so we could get the credits! Unbelievable, just another example of the tour operators going above and beyond for the participants! The evening was capped off with some Yakitori at this little place that Robb had found on a previous visit. Let me just say it was AMAZING! Let me also just say – CHEESE WRAPPED WITH BACON ON STICKS! Here are the photos… How’s that for a view out your window to greet you in the morning? Even better was the driving school on the roof of our neighbouring building! Now for another first - it’s bullet train time!!! Scottish Steve absolutely loves the Shinkansen! We got Kashiikaen in the evening and the rain situation once again wasn’t good. It was looking like the trip could be starting out with some missed credits. But amazingly due to some excellent negotiating by Robb and Elissa we got our credits! I’ve no idea what those guys offered the park but it worked! These guys can’t wait to ride the Bee! Yay, more credits in spite of the rain! You can always count on TPR to make the most of any chance to whore themselves up to the max. OCTOPOOS!!! (Hi Erik!) Now it was time for our first experience with these hug Togo machines that are seemingly all over Japan. Note that this is not TPDave’s umbrella. It is Larry’s. TPDave should not be in possession of this umbrella, neither should anybody else because this umbrella is one of Larry’s most prized posessions. So back to the Togo thing. It was… okay. Not bad, not good, just a rollercoaster! The Japanese sure love their helices! Scottish Steve at last shows Japan what they’ve been waiting an age to see – THE RUG!!! This was our second hotel. And like the first one it was in a great location close to the station with lots of cool places to go explore. Just when you feel like there’s no one you know in Japan you find this guy. He’s a personal friend of mine. Scottish loves his balls nude and crunky. The best thing about Hakata was this Yakitori restaurant that Robb introduced us to. This could quite possibly be my favourite place in the world to eat! You see that? That’s melted cheese wrapped in bacon on sticks. SOOOO GOOD!!! After the eating frenzy a few of checked out the multi-storey Japanese electronics store. It was pretty cool. Hi Larry, we have umbrellas too! Not as awesome or as highly valued as a red economist one though. Japan has Honey Lemon Fanta – I’m all over that! Did I mention that I love this country yet? Because I really do!

The first full day was early arrival day so the majority of the participants went to a local zoo but for a few of us "Southern Japan Only" participants this day was a great opportunity to check out a park that we wouldn't otherwise get to visit from the TPR Tokyo Trip itinerary. So Mike, Andrew and I made plans (with some help from Elissa) to head out to Tobu Zoo and get our Intamin Mega-Lite on! Only problem was that it was absolutely pishing it down with rain on this day. Now going into the trip we were all well aware that this was going to be a rainy season and that in Japanese parks rides don't tend to operate in the rain. But despite the rain the three of us navigated the Japanese train system and made it to a very wet Tobu Zoo where not one ride was in operation. Have a look at how our day went... The trip hasn’t officially started yet but a few of us who weren’t doing the Tokyo portion of the trip decided to try our luck at Tobu Zoo. As you can see it was a bit rainy. Chances of Intamin hotness for us are low. Oh dear, that’s Japanese for “Sorry guys, coaster’s closed, rain in the sky should have told you.” But where there’s no Mega lite to ride at least there’s the Itarian Restaurant! Regina looks like she’s shut up shop as well. At this point I started to relaise how deserted some of these Japanese parks were gonna be. Who’s Andrew kidding – no one’s winning right now! The rain started to get really hard again so we took shelter in the lion enclosure. This is the female lion trying to burrow in and attack Mike. Andrew’s attempts to aid her effort were unsuccessful. Still no rides open but at least the rain held up enough for us to check out the rest of the Zoo part of Tobu Zoo. Andrew loves the really young chicks. Japanese penguins look strikingly like British penguins. ZEDBRA STAMPEDE!!! Oh look –an open ride! That’s a Mad House on the right hand side, or should I say the world’s most scary, ghetto mad house! Very interesting! Being new to Japan we were all loving the crazy selections in all the vending machines! Andrew neglected to tell me that he was scared of these things until we were actually strapped into the seats. It was a very amusing drop tower experience! This ride is more Andrew’s style! Look, people! It’s just staff picking out the weeds from between the bricks but it’s people! The rain let up a bit so we were able to get our coveted car ride credit. This was closed. This makes me very sad. Thomas Land! Pretty much on a par with any effort from Six Flags! Still no sign of Regina operating. Even worse, Kawasemi hasn’t moved at all either. But wait! Surely this is a good sign?! Yes!!! It opened! Unfortunately for all you readers whenever people were on the ride I was a part of that group of people which means I have no photos of the ride in motion! But needless to say the ride was awesome, every bit as good as it’s counterpart in Denmark! So Regina never opened but we weren’t too upset because Kawasemi was amazing and we got plenty of rides. We also got the kiddie credit too, so all in all the day was rescued from a very grim place! Onto Tokyo now… “Hi, I’m Shibuya Crossing, you might remember me from such movies as Lost in Translation and Godzilla vs Mecha-Umbrella” TPR arranged an amazing opening night meal for the tour participants – Yakitori. It was amazing! Don’t believe me? Just ask Erik!!! Oh yeah, we had lots of beer too! That’s the way TPR rolls! That’s a lot of yakitori we've consumed! My first Green Tea related dessert – it was good! Back to the crossing and it just looks incredible. I’ve never seen so many people crossing the road at once! Glad to see all tastes are catered for in Japan – I’ll be checking out this establishment later in the trip! First night and first Doritos score – Gourmet Sausage Flavour. Japan pulls off another incredible win! I got back to the hotel this evening expecting my bag to be there since I used the baggage transport service at the airport the previous day. Sadly my bag had not arrived. Yeah, the Desk Clerk at the hotel informed me that my bag had been lost. It wasn’t looking good. But leave it to the Japanese, 45 minutes after telling me the bag was lost they had not only found it but they got it to the hotel! Any other country and I probably would never had seen my bag again! The official trip is about to begin…

After living in England for almost five years I can tell those nods a mile away now! I think you're gonna enjoy this TR, Larry! Thanks for the responses everyone!

Okay, I know that I should have done this about nine months ago, but I've been busy with some real life stuff. But let's just pretend that it's summer 2011 and a Divv TR from TPR's Japan trip is something you might actually be interested in reading! As with all other ongoing TRs on TPR, lots of comments are encouraged and appreciated if for no other reason than it lets new updates appear on new a page which helps keeps things neater in my weird OCD world. Thanks! I can only begin with saying I LOVE JAPAN! This was my first visit to the country and I had heard good things before hand. With that in mind I was worried that it might have been a bit of a letdown but that didn't happen for me. I totally loved it and can't wait to go back! Hopefully this TR will get across at least some of the reasons why I feel this way. And on top of Japan I was mesmerised by the amazing planning and organisation from Robb and Elissa. A typical 50 person bus trip looks like an insane amount of work so I can't comprehend how much planning and work went into an adventure tour like this! UPDATES: Part 1 - CHINA (Below) Part 2 - TOBU ZOO Part 3 - KASHIIKAEN Part 4 - SPACE WORLD Part 5 - KIJIMA Part 6 - WONDER RAKUTENCHI Part 7 - MITSUI GREENLAND Part 8 - UNIVERSAL STUDIOS OSAKA Part 9 - PARQUE ESPANA Part 10 - NAGASHIMA SPALAND Part 11 - TOKYO DISNEYSEA Part 12 - TOKYO DISNEYLAND Part 13 - MORE TOKYO DISNEY! Part 14 - EVEN MORE TOKYO DISNEY! Part 15 - FUJI-Q HIGHLAND --- We start with my journey to Japan. Never one to miss out on a bargain (#Scottish) I rolled the dice and took a chance on some flights with Air China. Now I didn't really know much about the airline but I do know that I'm capable of sleeping just about anywhere so I took the chance and booked on a flight to Tokyo from London with a two hour layover in Beijing. Amazingly, I actually thought Air China was very good! I was able to sleep for the vast majority of the flight to China, only waking for some dinner and beer (and I don't often eat plane food). I got to Beijing and everything seemed to be going well. I managed to buy some really cheap Scottish whiskey in duty free and got onto my plane to Tokyo without any problems at all. Until I got on the plane that is... Just as the plane was about to start moving the heavens opened. This was the craziest rain I've ever seen. I could hardly see a thing out the window because it was raining so hard. Then the lightning and thunder started... Needless to say the plane wasn't moving anywhere for now. But we were told not to panic because as soon as the rain stops we'll be on our way. Fast forward three hours and we're still sitting there doing, they'd even given us our dinner and given me a good few beers while we were waiting. Eventually word comes through that the flight's been cancelled due to weather and that we needed to get off the plane. I figured at this point I'd need to spend a few extra hours in the airport while rain does its thing but it turns out that there won't be any more flights for the rest of the day! Everyone from the plane got herded through the airport towards security. Not having any kind of Chinese Visa I was convinced that I would be spending the night in the airport but amazingly the security guy sent me through with the rest of the passengers and I was standing outside the airport on Chinese soil! Next thing I know we're on a bus. At this point I figured we'd be taken to some nearby airport hotel, but yet again, I'd be wrong! We took an hour long bus ride right into Beijing and to this really swanky hotel! At the hotel I ended up getting roomed with this old Japanese guy, named Nadata who spoke some really good English though didn't have many good things to say about the Chinese. He was a really cool guy though and was a great introduction to the Japanese people! There really is something to be said about the Scottish guy and the Japanese guy discussing world issues in a Chinese hotel room in the middle of the night. Early the next morning (after an "interesting" Chinese breakfast) we were back on the bus and on the first flight to Tokyo. Luckily for me I had been planning on coming in early so I wasn't going to miss out in any TPR trip time it only meant that I had to use the Japanese baggage transfer service so that I could make my own way to the first stop of my Japanese adventure... Yes, at long last I WAS IN JAPAN!!! So here’s how my Japanese adventure begins – at Heathrow Airport and getting ready for some Air China action. Yeah, Air China – I have a short three hour layover in Beijing on the way to Tokyo. I can’t foresee any problems here! Except for the fact that my flight out of Beijing got cancelled due to horrendous weather and there wouldn’t be another flight until the next morning. Night in China without a Visa for me – Woohoo! This interesting structure sat outside the Beijing hotel the airline put me in. To be honest I think the sculptor made a tit of it. Check out the swanky room Air China put me up in! (Not pictured: Old Japanese Dude called Nadata who spoke good English and didn’t have a nice word to say about the Chinese. I liked that guy) It’s not quite the “Capsule hotel” I had imagined I’d be staying in for the first night of my trip but it’s not too shabby either. Plus it had a phone right next to the toilet seat! Thumbs up from me! Let’s try getting to Tokyo again! This is a good sign! YES!!! I can’t tell you how excited I was to see this! So, you’re in Japan for the first time ever. Where’s the first place you go?? Tokyo Disneyland of course!!! The reason I went straight here is because Space Mountain was gonna be closed during our visit with TPR later in the trip. It’s good enough that I’m in Japan, that I’m at Disney and I’m getting to ride Space Mountain but it’s presented by Coke too! Nice! These people are “Japanese size” TPDave is not quite that. But that’s all the Disney you get for now! Space Mountain was great plus I got a whole evening of Disney fun in Japan. But you’ll have to wait a little longer if you’re looking for more Disney photos! Up next – Intamin hotness vs Rain. Who will win?

Good job with the TR, Brad! Can't believe they finally got a ride sign for Twister. Someone is clearly looking out for Larry. Glad to see some of those Loudoun Castle rides showing up here. Quite ironic since I'm pretty sure about half of Loudoun Castle's rides came from Lightwater Valley in the first place! It's good to see more halloween events showing up in UK parks, even if it is pretty low key like this.

Another October, another Scarefest at Alton Towers... Yet again I really enjoyed visiting this Halloween event with the Brit Crew. It certainly isn't on par with any of the big US parks but the stuff they do is pretty good considering the more family-oriented clientele that visit the park. The big change for this year's event is that the two upcharge mazes have been moved inside the park. They used to be out next to the resort hotels but now they take up residence inside the Black Hole tent which has lay dormant for years. This is a good move in that you can still be in the park after you've done the mazes letting you get in more night rides. It also means that they're more visible to guests which I'm guessing means visitor numbers are up. The one drawback is that a lot of the creepiness that you got from the mazes being on in the middle of some field next to the hotel is lost. A minor drawback really seeing as it makes things better for the rest of your visit. The mazes themselves are largely the same as last year. Being in the new location didn't mean much change to the content and apart from a few minor changes the experiences were very similar to years past. Of course, the Terror of the Towers which has always been inside the park, inside the towers themselves is there too and it's still one of my favourite mazes in the world. I don't want to talk this maze up like "Haunted Hospital" was but still it's really good. Being in the Towers is what really makes it in my view. The disappointment for me this year was that Duel just ran in it's usual year round gun blasting mode. Usually the ride reverts to it's old dark ride style during Scarefest and adds live actors. Usually this is one of my favourite parts of Scarefest if for no other reason than you get to see Scottish Steven crap himself. Repeatedly. Hopefully this will get brought back in the future! Oh yeah, there's a new "Scare Zone" this year but really a bit of path that you have to queue to walk through isn't quite a scare zone in my book. All in all we had a great day, it was good having both Andrews over from across the pond for this. It really is the best time to visit Alton Towers, especially since you get to ride such classics as Nemesis in the dark! In what’s now absolutelya Halloween tradition for the Brit Crew, we’re at Scarefest at Alton Towers! Scarefest Map! It seems that gardens get smaller every time I look at an updated Alton Towers map. Ooh, the Dark Forest vines are turning blue! OMG, IT'S TPDAVE!!! Scottish Steven isn't falling for "5 Pumpkins of Fun" ths year! Andrew's not quite sure what to make of a maze in the UK which is actually inside a haunted castle! Mike's beginning to feel apprehensive about Terror of the Towers but unlike Steven he made it through. Just. In order to stop the Sky Ride from going up in flames you have to wave your hands continuously throughout the trip. OMG, a coaster photo! OMG, a better coaster photo! It's been a long time since I saw a Nemesis shirt for sale at Alton Towers! Steven was rather taken with this fetching girlie top. I guess the Brit Crew will have to drop by next year to see what this is. Jeez, Anth. That's honkin'. Ever since McDonald's left Alton Towers there's only one place to have lunch here - Pizza & Pasta buffet! Such great value. I was pleased to see this in Legoland Florida too! I think that guy's got a boner. Happiest rapids in the world! Why? Ask Mike! Shows you how out of touch I am in park enws lately - I was totally shocked to see Beastie all boarded up! But who needs Beastie when you have Squirrel Nutty! Most people come to Alton Towers for Nemesis but for Andrew it's all about Squirrel Nutty! The boiler house has a bit of a futuristic looking entrance this year! The maze itself seemed quite similar to last year and while I enjoyed it, I kind of hope this is the next maze to get changed. Carnival of Screams was still good fun. Maybe not quite as creepy as last year since it's not in a deserted dark field anymore but it's still my favourite of the upcharge mazes. To get into the big tent you have to get through the wee tent first. It's called a tentrance. Yay, coaster photo! I forget to take these sometimes. Oblivion's drop managed to get us wetter than the rapids this year! Well, except for Canadian Andrew. Beware the bookcase!!! Lines weren't quite as short as they had been at our previous Scarefest visits, but that's probably more to do with the date we visited. It's Spinball. There you go. Yay, we found Southern Steve! Another stacker, another epic fail by Steven. The Zombie scare zone was very similar to Thorpe's offering from last year - a queue to walk through an area with some scare actors. Essentially, Path: The Ride. But still, I always prefer my paths to be zombie infested. Even if you don't like the halloween stuff, Scarefest is still well worth visiting since you get to ride stuff like Nemesis at night! Here's our group of heroes for today. Not a boob in sight! (Or nine boobs in total, depends how you look at it) We had a great day at Alton Towers, even if the park was a bit busier than we're used to. If Scottish Steven can have a good time at Scarefest then I guess anyone can! Thanks for reading!

Part Two: WEST MIDLANDS SAFARI PARK The next day we hit up an old Brit Crew favourite, West Midlands Safari Park. Notable to us because both Fudge brothers have worked here in the past and Mike was actually a ride op on our last visit! Needless to say the operations have improved tremendously since our lasy visit. Can't quite place my finger on why though. All in all it's a great little park to visit with some really good animal sections. Special note to the cutting edge prizes on offer at the redemption games too! This park has it all! It's Safari time! Will TPCar make it through unscathed? Not if the rhinosaur has anything to say about it! These are camels, they have humps. And toes. Zeeeeeeeeeeebra! Onto the "rides section" of the Safari Park which is still looking as good as it was in 2009. The one part of the sea lion show where the sea lion did the trick he was supposed to. There's some great food at West Midlands Safari Park for the health conscious among you. TPDave was the only one of our group who hadn't been to the park before. This meant that he was also the only one of us who needed the Wacky Worm credit. Being the cruel bastards we are we stood and watched as he rode along. TPPathetic. The redemption game parlour offered all the latest prizes for all the kids who collect trading cards. Knowing that those Free Willy 2 trading cards would be snapped up by another gamer within minutes if we didn't do something we set about getting the scores of tickets required. Result! Brad got his hands on those Batman Forever and Bill Nye trading cards before anyone else in the world!!! Seeing as we're in a safari park and meerkats are all the rage these days here's one from WMSP new Meerkat and Lemur area. And here be the Lemurs that complete the picture. They're very active. It's only a Veloma! Behold Russ, the goat whisperer. Dr Umboto's Catacombs just aren't quite the same without Scottish Steve. Hey Larry! New ride sign! I think Dave Thomas may like this one too... That's a pretty cool flat ride if you ask me! It's not quite Apocalypse but the drop tower at WMSP is one of their better rides. Seeing as TPDave still needed his credits we made sure to hit up the Rhino Skater. Plus the Twister. (Well, not me) You can tell they loved it. Immensely. The rapids have moved to a new location since our 2009 visit. But since Anth wasn't with us we gave them a miss. Of course Mike can't visit the Safari Park without paying homage to his old favourite, Black Fly. I think he misses it. Before we headed out of the park to head home we figured that it was a good time for a beer. Well, it's always a good time for us! That'll do it from West Midlands Safari Park for this time. Always a nice place to spend half a day or so! Thanks for reading the TR, hope you enjoyed it!

It is indeed still there, Chuck but I get the feeling that the ride is on it's last legs and won't be around much longer. The area sits on just looks like prime "Thomas Land Expansion" real estate. Thanks for the comments everyone! - Divv "If I ever manage to take a normal photo of TPDave some day, there's no way I'm posting it" Walsh

It's been a while since the Brit Crew all got together for a weekend and actually visited theme parks but we just did that this past weekend. In fact it's been so long since we all got together this was actually my first park visit in the UK this year! Drayton Manor was quite busy, something I've never seen before. That said, there weren't really any long lines except for Ben 10 which is to be expected since it's brand new. I will say that I quite liked Ben 10, in fact I'd even say that it's my favourite Vekoma Boomerang! Shocking I know. The rest of the park is looking okay. Thomas Land really is too small for the amount of people they get walking through it. I hope rumours of expansion are true. The only thing that let down the day were some really demotivated staff members, but that aside the park is looking good and if it keeps expanding the way it is the next few years should be very interesting! Here's some photos... My first UK park visited in 2011 - Drayton Manor! Here's our fearless crew for the day. I say fearless because we're in line for The Haunting and Scottish Steve wasn't with us. We wanted to make sure we got on The Haunting in case it's not around in its current form next year. Why might it not be around? I don't have a Scooby! For breakfast this morning I'll be eating this weird bacon/cheese/pastry contraption. It was awesome. Of course the real reason we're here is Dave 10: The Ride. The Mike Fudge Army is ready to take on Dave 10. We all approve of lapbar-only Vekoma Boomerangs! Best Vekoma Boomerang in the world! It might be a short layout but at least it doesn't attempt to maim you! Marvin the Martian 3D now resides in the 4D theatre! Put your 3D glasses now and experience it for yourself. Apocalypse! Still the best ride at Drayton Manor! Dave and Russ prepare for bullock realignment. Mike's favourite ride in Drayton Manor is obviously the Wiki Wiki Wild Wild West Shoot Out! I don't know why he's smiling, this was yet another case of TPFail. Thar be some crazy spinning going on in the drunken barrels. There were some ill people after this. But really this ride just inspired us to do one thing... DRINK BEER!!! Dread the thought! Dave’s eating Humble Pie for lunch. Seriously! The Fat Controller really does say a great mass. Oh yeah, there's some "big" coasters in Drayton Manor. This one is weird. The big news for all you Shockwave fans is that the trains have been painted new colours this year! In the turtle box there was some REALLY kinky stiff going on! Mike and Brad got to live out their life long dream of visiting 1885. No trip to Drayton Manor is complete without ordering a Waffle Cone! Or if you're Dave you just say "Give me a giant one" Buffalo Coaster is where the good times roll! The big disappointment for Mike today (apart from being bald) was the closure of the amazing Dinosaur Cave! But still, we'd heard stirrings of dinos still residing somewhere in the park... Damn, the raptor pen's empty. Aha, this looks like a result! All your favourite plastic lizards reside here. Some AMAZING use of the word “where”. Standard group photo. With added Tyrannosaur. Drayton Manor was looking pretty good this year! I get the feeling we'll back pretty soon for more new hotness! West Midlands Safari Park is up next!

Movie Park Germany looks quite interesting. I really should visit that place some day.

Ah! That makes MUCH more sense! Glad to see you're still keeping the old camera and film trade in business, Bill! Keep the photos coming!

DAY SEVEN: KING'S DOMINION The last day of the trip was East Coast Bash at King's Dominion. This was an excellent event put on by TPR and the park. There was a crazy amount of ERT and a load of of other amazing perks. (Beer kegs at lunch!) With the trip being called The IntimidaTOUR it's clear what the big attraction today was. The new Intimidator 305 coaster was fantastic. It's so good to see a coaster like this being built. It's very intense and is just a lot of fun. The night-time ERT on this thing was insane and I got a crapload of rides. In all honesty I wasn't overly impressed with the rest of King's DOminion but I really was impressed with the lengths the park went to to give us a great day. They really were fantastic for us and it really was a great way to end a few weeks of TPR tripping. The funniest part of the day was at lunch where Robb hosted the TPR Quest game in which I was a lucky participant. The game involved a LOT of running around the picnic grove on my part trying to find random items from the rest of the group. Needless to say, I didn't win but I think I put in a respectable performance. The beer kegs at lunch were HUGELY appreciated by me during this! All in all, the TPR IntimidaTOUR was yet another fantastic TPR trip. Huge thanks to Robb and Elissa for all their efforts in putting all this together once again. I can't wait for the next one! Here's the photos... Last park of the trip and it’s East Coast Bash at King’s Dominion! We had some morning ERT on Dominator. It’s still as good as it was at Geauga Lake. Except a lot more orange now. I think this is Grizzly. It wasn’t that great! Now for the whole point of visiting King’s Dominion! Intimidator 305 was excellent! The train goes up the lift VERY quick! I had heard people complaining about the trims but I thought the ride was crazy enough with them! I can’t imagine what it’s like without them. Gratuitous shot of TWISTY! Yeah, this one’s more about the twistiness than the airtime. I’m glad to finally see another 300 foot Intamin coaster. Hopefully we’ll see more in the future! Intimidator 305 is Divv-approved! We’ll be back for ERT later! I’m Divv and I like beer! This was my cool prize from the amazing TPR Quest game! I don’t know how I’m still alive after that! Thank God for the beer! Domo lurks… Renee scores Taxi Jam with thanks to KidTums! It’s so handy that Elissa brings Kristen with her on these trips! Oh dear. It’s another Hurler! And another Wayne’s World style diner! Sadly this Hurler wasn’t any better than Carowinds! Rebel Yell only had the red side open so that’s one credit I’ll live without. The Togo stand up coaster wasn’t the best. I was shocked! I wonder if the ones in Japan are any better? At least the ones in Japan are in Japan! This ride op made friends with us. Mostly thanks to Steve. I bet you’re shocked about that. Volcano was a blast. I’m surprised there aren’t more inverted launched coasters out there. What an AMAZING name for a drop tower! There’s some TPR members enjoying Drop Tower. Funnily enough the name doesn’t make the ride any less INTIMIDATING! Oh look, it’s Boob Lasters!!! Ouch! That’s a tough way to go! Woohoo! ERT on Inimidator 305! TPDave loves his straps! I got about 11 rides on Intimidator during this ERT session. I really did like the ride! So that’s the TPR Intimidatour in the books! Thanks to Robb and Elissa for putting on yet another fantastic TPR trip! Hope you enjoyed the TR! Thanks for reading!

Sounds like a good looking guy! I can't believe I missed such an obvious Larry related caption. I'm so ashamed of myself. Thanks for picking it up, Scott! Thanks for the comments everyone!

Fantastic update, Joey! I'm so excited for next week! Too bad you're not coming with us, but thanks for helping getting me even more excited!

DAY SIX: BUSCH GARDENS WILLIAMSBURG This was the only park on the trip that I'd been to before and it's a pretty good place to repeat. Especially when you have a day of extensive backstage tours to start off your day! Seriously, the access that the park gave us to see how things run from a geeky behind the scenes perspective was really cool. The tour of Curse of Darkastle in particular was fantastic! BGW really is a beautiful park with some really solid rides. We had some excellent ERT on all the B&Ms, which was much appreciated! We’re at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and what better way to start than with Apollo’s Chariot ERT?! Looks like Ash had a late night last night. Apollo’s Chariot is one of the better B&M Hypers in my view. Certainly better than what we rode at Carowinds the other day. Look at all those empty seats. I love TPR ERT! After ERT we started our even more exclusive section of the day – here we are behind the scenes at Curse of Darkastle! Layout blueprint! How cool! It was really cool to see such an advanced ride with the lights on. Even with the lights on this wall still looks pretty INTIMIDATING! We got a look at one of the control rooms. It looked very techie and sophisticated. I'm sure TPDave needs to calm down after looking at this again. TPPorn! When Busch Gardens met Lost… Some CRAZY things go on in the Fog Room! TPNerd. TPGeek. DARKASTLE POV!!! This lamppost looked fine before Dave Fudge rode this ride. Nothing to see here, move along… Hey look, coasters! We’ll get to them later! First we’ve got a behind the scenes tour on Escape From Pompeii! We’re special, so special! Layout blueprint! Steve’s probably lucky he didn’t drink yesterday seeing as there was a few ladders to climb on this tour! FIRE!!! And now for a tour of a ride very close to my heart… Loch Ness Wheels! TPDave seemed to be getting aroused in here. Good to know there’s plenty of spare restraints for Loch Ness Monster! TPDave is pointing out something incredibly boring and of no interest to anyone. Don’t miss out on BGW’s entirely authentic Irish Nachos!!! In 2010 BGW introduced You’re Up In The Air! Oh sorry, Europe In The Air! It’s kind of like Soarin’, except that it’s nothing like Soarin’. Europe In The Air also has this nice tribute to Lost’s Swan Hatch. Our next tour was at the B&M Dive Machine, Griffon! Our tour let us get some photos from geeky angles. Steve’s feeling really special right now! TPDave may need to get some tissues looking at this photo. Griffon has some BIG wheels! TPDave looks like he’s just about to reach out and pet the ride. In fact he did! One last shot of Griffon, we’ll be back for ERT tonight! Our last behind the scenes tour was at Alpengeist! The entire ride is built around this gigantic tap next to the station! Looks like all the trains are out in force today! Bad sleeves! Go to your room! Free burns for everyone! At lunch Tyler was struggling with the concept of actually consuming beer. Look at TPDave staring on in pure jealousy. This is new since my last visit! Sesame Street just turned 41 recently. Over the years they’ve added a lot of new characters, like who’s that girl on the top here? She wasn’t on Sesame Street in my day! Sesame Street’s kind of like TPR, they’re both full of puppets! I don’t believe the rumours about these two. (You know the rumours - like Oscar isn’t the only one who likes it in the can.) Our Sesame Street dinner offered a the all-to-common opportunity to eat Elmo’s face! Did you notice that Big Bird walks around bare arse naked all the time? Kind of like Southern Steve. They call him Big Bird for a reason too! His junk is covered in feathers. Kind of like Southern Steve’s! Whilst Tyler and Robby have just turned 21 Cookie Monster has recently turned 41. That’s right kids, C is for colonoscopy! Tyler and Robby are feeling the Sesame Street love! Is TPDave thinking about soaking the rapids riders by pushing this button or by some other method? It’s a lot of fun spraying over a boatload of TPR members! Gotcha! Looks like we got them good! For my money, the BEST named theme park game out there! Hi Scottish Steve!!! Soft toy orgy! Nice! Tyler still hates beer. TPDave is still incredibly jealous. We finished off our day at Busch Gardens with ERT on Griffon! Look at all those empty seats. You literally could sit wherever you wanted each time you rode! At the end of ERT it was up to TPEnforcer to lay down the law. On the bus ride after ERT Scott gave out his renowned Pointless Awards! Thanks to Steve letting down everyone with his 24 hours of sobriety I was able to snag the Booziness Award! Thanks Steve! Thanks to Scott too! This was a fantastic day! There was so much great behind the scenes stuff and we didn’t have to wait in any lines all day! Love it! One park to go!

^ You need to get yourself on a US trip full stop! Busch Gardens Williamsburg is coming right up!

Actually, Elissa should get the credit for informing us of the existence of the brewery! She clearly knew it would be must-do for Steve and I! It was almost as if Elissa had scoped out the area ahead of time. More people need to experience the Jurassic Jungle Boat Ride!

DAYS FOUR & FIVE: PIGEON FORGE AND MORE! There were no big parks scheduled for days 4 & 5, instead we indulged in a LOT of other activities (I won't get into them all! ) in the Pigeon Forge area and beyond, including: - Amazing food - Go-karting - Big arse mountains - Booze! - Bungee jumping - Zorbing - Waitresses! and best of all... JURASSIC JUNGLE BOAT RIDE!!! Take a look... This guy puts the pig in Pigeon Forge! Turquoise is the colour of the season. Knives and Dolls – you can’t sell one without the other! This is exactly the type of establishment you’ll find plenty of in Pigeon Forge! We decided to get in the mood the 2011 Japan trip very early! Our chef prepared our food in front of us and entertained us by bouncing eggs. FIRE!!! This place was awesome! Looks delish! TPDave and Steve approve of the Japanese cuisine! YUM!!! DOUBLE YUM!!! A very Dave Thomas approved golf course. Pigeon Forge has many high quality go-karting establishments! TPFail imminent. The next day we headed to Ober Gatlinburg for some non-theme park activities. We started with an aerial tram ride up the Smoky Mountains. Once we got off the big aerial tram a few of us took this chair ride even further up the mountain. Getting high! I’m sure Southern Steve’s been higher! I guess we are pretty high up! Nice view from up here! Hey look, it's a touristy shot! Steve says he just spotted a brew pub! Apparently it’s down there somewhere! This was really funky – a band performing at the top of the mountain! It’s the “Top of the Mountain” crew! We then headed back down the mountain slightly to check out this alpine slide! Elissa and KidTums tested it out for all of us. Brakes - Robb doesn’t worry about those! Naturistic! Back down the mountain to see if Steve’s eyes are as keen when it comes to booze as we expect! What do you know – Steve was right! A few beers for me! And a few more for Steve! We even had some food to break up the beer drinking. Our waitress hadn’t met a Scot before. It was a big moment for her! Our next stop was Colin’s most anticipated stop of the trip – NASCAR Speed Park! This is the real reason the trip is called The Intimidatour! Another Hit and Run credit for TPR has been scored! Now this was something I was VERY excited about! I always wanted to roll about in balls with TPDave and finally I got my chance. I don’t think I’ve laughed so much in my life. The wet zorb was a bizarre experience! The rebirthing process getting out the zorb is crazy in itself! I'm pretty sure there are photos of TP and I being reborn somewhere. Zorb-tastic! That’s another thing I can tick off the list! Our next stop is one of those Pigeon Forge fun tourist traps – The Track! There’s some quality TPFail going on at the dodgems here. Check out KidTums holding on for dear life! Yeah, that’s me jumping off the platform. It’s not the biggest bungee jump in the world but it was fun. I’d love to do a bigger jump in the future. Bungee-tastic. Can cross that one off the list too. Bumper boat takeover!!! TPDave just can’t get enough of crossing streams with Steve. TPMoist. That’s hot. There’s some quality pant-wetting from Tyler going on here. The visit to The Track was finished with a round on the go-karts. You’d think with this we’d have crossed off just about every cool touristy thing that Pigeon Forge has to offer. But you’d be wrong. The greatest and most amazing attraction still awaited us… Woohoo! Jurassic Jungle Boat Ride! TPDave has no idea what amazement awaits him! All your favourite dinos are represented in the boat tour. Brachiosaurus, please sneeze on TPDave! TPDave can’t belive how authentic everything appears. Fresh off of blinding Dennis Nedry, Dilophosaurus is here to get his spray on unsuspecting boat riders. Here’s the ferocious GRANDE FINALE of Jurassic Jungle Boat Ride – terrifying!!! Our included dinner for the Pigeon Forge day was the always fun, TGI Friday’s! Steve was a bit too tired out from all the zorbing and bungee jumping that he needed TPDave to feed him his dinner. This waitress didn’t know quite what to make out of Steve’s photo requests but she was a good sport! Not to be outdone by me, Steve wanted to get his random person photo credit in Pigeon Forge! Steve finished his day by signing up for some high speed go-karting. Yeah, he’s a risk taker. Look at Steve going at BLUR-SPEED! Day 5. Let’s get this show on the road!!! As if we hadn’t had enough of go-karting joints on our travel day we made a special stop at this place! But here’s the reason why! Scott, you’re such a whore! Steve chalks up yet another back row kiddie credit. A worthwhile stop on our travel day in my view! We finished our travel day by visiting one of TPR’s favourite restaurants – Carrabba’s! Steve was trying something unthinkable today - 24 hours without alcohol! Notice the two untouched Jack Daniel’s and Coke we bought for him. There’s a beer from Robb right in front of Steve. How’s your will power now? My dinner of choice at Carrabba’s tonight – lobster ravioli! Amazing! TPDave is loving his Carrabba’s experience! I’m loving my Carrabba’s experience quite a bit too. It’s midnight and that means that Steve can drink again! I can’t believe he actually made it 24 hours! Steve drinking again at this precise moment couldn’t be any more appropriate for a very special reason… Wake up Tyler!!! You’ve just turned 21!!! That’s right, we forced ourselves into Robby & Tyler’s room at midnight and woke them up so that they could start getting drunk on their 21st birthday! Steve was very proud to have introduced Robby and Tyler to beer and spirits! The legacy of SteveC will go on forever! Yeah, feel free to blame us for starting Robby and Tyler’s long road to alcoholism. Or you can thank us for the hilarity that it generates for the world! Okay, that’s this long update done – Busch Gardens is next!

I would agree with this. But really there isn't much in it at all. It really was interesting to visit both parks in such a short space of time, they're actually a bit more different than you'd think!

^ Yeah, you should feel sad - you missed an amazing trip! Thanks for the kind words everyone! It was a lot of fun looking back on this trip, big arse and all!

DAY THREE: DOLLYWOOD This was a park I'd been excited to visit for years! And after visiting it's sister park, Silver Dollar City a week earlier my anticipation had only grown even more. Thankfully Dollywood didn't let me down! The park has a great array of coasters, they're all in the upper tier of their ride-type in my view. But really it's the other things like shows, staff, atmosphere and food that set Dollywood apart from other parks. We got a great range of perks starting with a really cool tour and ERT on Tennessee Tornado in the morning followed by some great ERT on the Mystery Mine and Thunderhead in the evening! On top of all that we also got priority seating and a behind the scenes tour of one of the park;s the shows! Okay, without any further here's Dollywood, where every day's Sha-Kon-O-Hey! It's Dollywood or bust!!! What better time to make your first visit to Dollywood than the 25th anniversary? We start off our morning with a special behind the scenes tour of Tennessee Tornado! Don’t mess with this dude. TPGeekgasm. Tennessee Tornado is a total anomaly amongst Arrow loopers in that its actually smooth! I guess Vekoma will take credit for this one, since Arrow gets the balme for all the Vekoma roughness! We had some great ERT on it! The new attraction for 2010 was the ropes assault course called Adventure Mountain. This was a LOT of fun! Well done to Dollywood for adding this! It’s quite a decent size too! Not a bad work out in the morning! Of course since we’re special (so special) we got Q-Bots! And now for the BEST food outlet in all of Dollywood!!! YUM! Can you see what that is?! That’s right – cinnamon bread!!! The best bread on the planet!!! OMG, I want more of this right now!!! Dollywood is also home to one of the most renowned GCI woodies around – Thunderhead! Look at the GCI woodie doing it’s GCI thing! I really liked Thunderhead. Not my favourite GCI but right up there with the best of them. Not to be outdone by Silver Dollar City in Missouri, Dollywood has some kick-arse skillets as well! But forget about the food, there’s a kiddie coaster to ride! Well actually don't because it’s food themed! Yay, we fit! Okay, back to the real food! These fry type things were great! After the awesomeness of the Silver Dollar City train ride how could we pass up Dollywood’s? TPMesmerised. Choo choo! Watch out for that BEAR!!! Dollywood used to be a Silver Dollar City too! Fascinating! TPDave was amused by a bat called Able. I forget why. If this is anything like the Silver Dollar City swing (and why wouldn’t it be?) then Barnstormer will be a great addition to Dollywood! Plenty of paraphernalia is available for all you cock fanatics. Don’t buy the melon, the melon is bad. So says Steve! Whilst everyone else trip goes out drinking tonight TPDave is gonna stay at the hotel and weave this basket. Special Dollywood Coke! Cool! For our TPR included lunch today we were treated to some more local cuisine at Granny Ogle’s Ham & Beans! For starters we had this awesome corn bread brought to our table. So far so good! When the sign says Ham & Beans it REALLY means Ham & Beans!!! And that’s a good thing because this meal was GREAT! We picked a good time for lunch too as it meant we got to avoid this crazy downpour! Steve was crazy enough to brave the weather so that he could have a smoke. Then Steve disappeared for a bit. No one was quite sure we had gone. Then he returned… In 2010, it’s all about the HAT!!! As another of our TPR perks we were given priority seating at the park’s show – Sha-Kon-O-Hey! How can you visit Dollywood and not see their show? Sha-Kon-O-Hey is fantastic! I’m still singing along with the tunes! Steve and the hat were thrilled to take part in TPR’s special behind the scenes tour after the show! Oooh, behind the smoke screens! What looks like a house is actually a melding of flumps and penny chews. Who would’ve thunk? How special are we??? That’s right, so special! Steve somehow managed to get through this part of the tour whilst fighting the urge to make off with the bird hat. This all looks pretty important! Luckily for everyone I was kept far away from the guitars and microphones during Sha-Kon-O-Hey! It’s all about the TPHat! Smile guys, we’re about to ride Blazing Fury! Blazing Fury is very similar to Fire in the Hole at Silver Dollar City and is just as good! Fireman on the pole! It’s all about the DW hats! Okay, enough rides and shows, let’s get back to the FOOD! TPTasty! Of course there’s plenty of Dolly related stuff around the park too, like this tour bus. There’s also this place if you really wanted to get the lowdown on who’s park you’re in. Just like the inside of Scottish Steve’s wardrobe! The Topple Tower was down for our visit but having been on them in other parks I wasn’t too concerned! We ended our day with some fantastic ERT on Thunderhead and Mystery Mine! If only TPDave was pretending to snore the rest of the time! Woohoo, you can’t beat a bit of Eurofighter ERT! Mystery Mine is one of the only Eurofighters in the US and one of the best themed coasters you’ll find in the US! I still prefer Saw at Thorpe Park. I feel really dirty saying that but it’s true! That said, it’s still an awesome ride and it’s not at Thorpe Park which kind of makes it better than Saw by default! What a time we had at Dollywood, where everday’s Sha-Kon-O-Hey! Thanks to the park and Robb & Elissa for setting up such an incredible visit for us all! More Tennessee fun is up next!