jray21

Wacky Soap Box Racers at Knott's and Tidal Wave at CGA. Glad that it's gone, will be, White Canyon.

^ In the past, they would only show previews during the evening. I hope that's the case. I do like the muppets. I really thought they would re-do the movie after the new muppets movie.

^ It wouldn't be difficult at all to print out a label!

Please try and keep it civil and no personal attacks. Everyone has a right to their opinion. As for the teenagers. When I was at the park they weren't too terrible. That being said, they are absolutely terrible when they are at WDW. The language was very odd to me. I understand the idea behind it, and thinks it's a fun idea, but it is extremely confusing. For a lot of Brazilians it's a great thing, especially for those who may not have opportunities to travel, but it can be a bit corny. I could totally see how some people can love it, and some hate it. It was a fun park, and I did have a fun time. A lot of unique and interesting things, and some areas for improvement.

Their website was really confusing. I had this person in Sao Paulo try and help me and she couldn't figure it out! We didn't want to get the wrong pass so we ended up not getting them online at a discount because we couldn't understand it. I think you're right about it being a great park if they haven't traveled abroad. To be fair, I've never been to any other park in South America, but when you compare it other parks in the world it is definitely not that great. Not terrible, but nothing amazing. Other things: Sao Paulo has some great areas, and some pretty areas, but it is still mainly an industrial city. It's like Detroit in the US. Sure there are some great things, but it's definitely not the top place to visit in the US. Packs of wild dogs, yes, monkeys, no. My parents are doing humanitarian work in Brazil and have only been there for 10 months so that is why I knew nothing of Brazil. And was I ignorant about Brazil, absolutely. I'm sorry, but Brazil was no where near the top of my list of places to visit. I decided 3 weeks before I left to even visit. I only went because my mom was sick and I was worried about her. Definitely not impressive. Fun, sure, but very rough. Not as rough as I expected, but still pretty rough. Definitely in the top 20 of roughest rides I've been on. I don't remember saying it was better than other parks I visited because it was the only full park I went to. I was actually impressed with Xuxa park more than anything. However, that is just a kids park, and not for theme park enthusiasts. I wonder how many wooden coasters they've been on. Honestly, it's not nearly as terrible as some rides out there, but it's really nothing special. When you compare it to rides like El Toro, Phoenix, or Thunderhead, there is really no comparison. It reminds me kind of like a smaller Georgia Cyclone. But it's a spinning coaster! It is supposed to spin but it really doesn't expect for one seat. I honestly don't know what they mean by 'more intelligent,' it was a slow ride, with really not much too it. The only way I can explain this is that it is like a lot of the forceless japan coasters, but kiddie sized. The ones that just go straight, turn, straight, turn. It's a smaller version of those but in a warehouse. The outside of the building and the queue are really nice, but inside the ride there is nothing. That's exactly right! I did feel there wasn't enough security to control the teenagers. At least not enough visible security. They could have had plenty, but they should have been more visible. There wasn't anything extremely terrible, but there were a few kids I saw who were not even close to legal age openly smoking and drinking walking around the park and being obnoxious. I do want to visit Beto Carrero World. I've heard some good things about that park, and it would be nice to compare it to Hopi Hari. I know people have either a love/hate relationship with Hopi Hari. It really was an average park, which isn't a bad thing at all. It's not nearly as terrible as others I've been to, but at the same time it's definitely not one of the best. It's a good park. I do think the park is going in the right direction. They have a lot to work with, and can really make some great improvements. They seem to be investing a ton of money into the park, and it's looking really good. The Looney Tunes area was nice, and the DC area looks very good as well. It's too bad more wasn't open, but it's totally understandable. I was so sad that the Schwarzkopf wasn't open as I am sure that would have been my favorite ride there. I am very happy that they are taking care of it and the paint job and theming really is amazing! Also, you're description of Vurang is spot on.

I probably had 50-60 pounds on him. We spun quite a bit in the very last seat, but didn't really at all in the middle.

I'm in as we'll this year! It was awesome last time. Thanks for putting this together. I can do international as well.

This past October I visited my parents in Brazil for a week and a half. I went to the city of Sao Paulo and was able to visit Hopi Hari Park, Xuxa Park, and a small park in a mall. It was a fun trip, and I had a lot of fun. Part 1 - Hopi Hari park, and a new country credit! Part 2 - The World of Xuxa, and Neo Geo! Plus some Brazilian randomness! Page 7: POV of the Log Ride at The World Of Xuxa! The first part is my arrival and Hopi Hari Park. I've been told it is the nicest park in Brazil, and even all of South America. This was the only full sized park I've been to in South America so i can't honestly say if it is. The park itself was like a smaller average Six Flags park. The really odd part about this park is that it has it's own 'language.' The theme of the park is that Hopi Hari is its own country, so they even made up their own language. My dad speaks a little portuguese, but he was so confused at the park. I did visit during the absolute worst time of year, school days! Imagine a theme park full of children only Brazilian tour groups! Luckily, they didn't have any whistles, and didn't chant nearly as much as they do at Disney parks. Also, they have an upcharge fast pass, so we didn't have to wait in the 2 hour plus lines. It's good to know that not only America has terrible teenagers. Park Operations - The ride ops were so incredibly slow! The employees seemed to move so slow. They were all nice, but slow. Like Italy or Indiana Beach slow. Also, I was told that due to the accident, safety was pretty intense now. It definitely was. Not a terrible thing, but it slowed down operations way too much. The lap bars are checked two or even three times. Small rides would have double restraints, and while that sounds great, they were incredibly unnecessary. Because there were 2+ people checking each side, they seemed to rely more on the other person doing it correctly, so they would barely check the restraints assuming the other person did it. Also, when you add in how slow they would walk and check the lap bars, cycle times were so incredibly terrible. However, the river raft ride doesn't have restraints and people were standing up a ton. They had some people watching the rafts for people standing up, but it would happen constantly. I know in Europe they don't have restraints, so it must be just a sue happy American reason to have them. I was honestly expecting a dirty, un-themed, and crappy park, but was pleasantly surprised. To be honest, the only countries I've visited south of the US were Jamaica, Haiti, Bahamas, Grand Cayman, and Mexico. So I was definitely, and unfairly, attaching those experiences to my expectations of Brazil. Overall, Brazil, and Hopi Hari, were much better than I expected. The food was good, the people were nice, and the park was relatively clean. The theming in the Looney Tunes area was really good, and most of the theming throughout the park, while a little run down, was pretty nice. The DC area looks pretty great as well, like SFMM's newly redone DC area. Only two of their credits were open, as they were working on their new DC Comics area. That area looks really good, and will be a huge improvement for the park. If they ever get their new coaster built, it will also make the park much better. The park definitely looks to be going in the right direction. If they can just keep it going, they could have a really great park. As I said before, it's relatively small, and really felt like a six flags park. The rides overall were themed well, but some looked and felt very very old. Montezum, the wooden coaster, was really rough, and really old, but a decent ride. Wasn't as bad as others I've been on, but nothing amazing. Vurang, the only other credit that was open, looked like it would be a great ride, but it was so incredibly slow. It used to be in the dark, but now there is light that shines in so it's like being on a slow coaster in a warehouse. It's an odd spinning coaster, but only the very back really spins. If you sit anywhere else it's pretty boring. If they were to make it pitch black and have lights and stuff it could be a lot more fun. It's a very unique ride, but almost as slow as a wacky worm. They did have some dark rides, which were nice, and their rip off It's a Small World reminded me a lot of the ones in Europe. The haunted house dark ride was pretty cheesy, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Definitely better than the traveling carnival ones. Overall, I had a really fun time, and it was a fun park. Sorry for the long annoying words, on to the pictures! I have arrived in Brazil! New continent and country credit! The first thing I'm greeted with is this river that smells like a sewer! It smelled sooooo bad, and I'm told it's one of the dirtiest rivers in the world. Traffic is so terrible that people walk through traffic selling things. It's actually not a bad idea! Much better than just standing there doing nothing asking for money! Yes, they have McDonald's! At least I know if I end up not liking Brazilian food I'll have this place! At another burger place they offer the Sex Burger. It must be an amazing burger! I'm sure it's safe, but there is something that feels so wrong about milk not stored in a fridge! Bacon Popcorn! It was pretty good! The shopping malls I visited were really really nice! The food courts were pretty amazing, and my favorite place to eat were kind of like high quality buffets where you paid by weight! This is a sweet corn ice cream bar. Very odd, but really good! This is a cashew fruit! The top green stem is a single cashew nut. The actual nut that we eat is inside the green shell. The bottom part is fruit that is really good. The texture is kind of like a persimmon, but the flavor is very good. This is a picture of a nicer road. The roads and sidewalks were so messed up. It was so hard to run around the city. I really thought I was going to see a live death. I expected gas prices to be a lot lower, but when adjusted to gallons, it ended up being around $4 a gallon. This was a weird looking drive in. I don't know if it was just a drive through bar, or if they had food as well. Behind this building there was an area that looked like individual garages that the cars would park in and be served. Their version of Sonic. The city itself was very very dirty, but they had these garbage cans everywhere! There were so many, but no one seemed to use them. The yellow phone is about 3 feet off the ground. I guess it's for kids? Nothing like a kid riding his horse through downtown Sao Paulo! To get to the park we took a bus to the city of Campinas. We told the but driver were needed to get off at Hopi Hari. He pulled over on the side of the freeway where the white truck is and said, "Here's your stop!" (the busses were really really nice!) This was the only picture I could find of the Wet and Wild. Sorry. Across the street there is a Quality Inn, a McDonald's, and a Shell station. I could definitely see TPR staying here if they ever visit Brazil! We had to walk about a mile to get to the park. This was my first glimpse of the park. It looks like a pretty decent sized coaster, but really needs a paint job! It looked incredible rusty, but the ride was bigger than I was expecting. They do have a tunnel! The track goes under the road bridge. It cost about $30-40 US dollars to get in, annual pass around $100 (if I remember correctly). If they ever do build their new ride, it will go here. They are calling it the world's most looping coaster, but it will only tie the record and share it with two others. They do have some shows, but I'm not a show person so I skipped them. Seven attractions were closed today, which was unfortunate. Some were for the DC area, and one was because of the accident. Too bad. Inside the park I met up with TPR member HeitorAntunes! This is what is so amazing and awesome about TPR. I can go virtually anywhere in the world and have friends to help me out and go to parks! A HUGE thanks to Heitor for taking me around and figuring everything out for me. This is the entrance plaza area. This is their main street. The ferris wheel was down so I couldn't get good overhead shots. I love drop towers, and was sad that this was closed due to the death of the girl a little bit ago. Worst part is that it the news released that it was operator error, and easily avoidable. It's really open, and right near the entrance so I'm sure a lot of people witnessed the terrible accident. You can see some people working on the control boxes, so at least some work seems to be going on to get it back open. The buildings looked really nice. This one reminded me of the Sangerfest Halle at SFFT. This is a map of the park. The top right area was closed and is where the new DC area will be. The very bottom right is where the new coaster will go. This is on the other side of the ferris wheel. The main part of the park is on this lower area. The new Loony Toons area is really nice! Uh Oh, another Looney Toons fountain to break! Fun pirate ship. Katakumb is a walkthrough haunted house. It wasn't too bad. I had no clue what the story was (they had an intro that I couldn't understand). The theming was really good, but a little sparse. Better than SF or Knott's, but not as immersive as Universal. The cool part was the exit. The monster would chase you out so everyone could see you screaming and running. I just pity the person who happens to be walking by when they run out and get's nailed. Their new Top Spin was testing, but didn't open. Finally, my first credit in South America! The ride sign is pretty similar to everywhere else. Almost there! The line was about 2 hours long, but they still took a while to load. The trains looked kind of like a big sheet of plywood with some benches put on it. It also felt like a big sheet of plywood with some benches put on it. They also had some media shoot going on for a show, so they were down to one train operations for a while. Nice building for the motion simulator. This was the 'quick que' entrance for Vurang. I'm so glad they had it! The building was so much more impressive than the ride! It has dinosaur theming!!! Baby dinosaur. The front of the train had a massive eyeball in a bird claw. The trains were really unique. Each seat would unlock and would spin freely during the ride. Unfortunately, they didn't really spin and the ride was slow. The ride goes outside right after the lift hill. They really could re-do this ride and make it amazing. Here you go Adam! The new DC area. I see two credits, including a Schwarzkopf! Back to the Looney Tunes area. It was nicely done. Two nice frog hoppers! KidTums would like this! Not as nice as the ones in the SF parks, but still the same play area. The tea cup/tin can ride was standard. I don't know what these were for, but they would make a great picture spot. This may be the best thing out of any park with Looney Tunes! Two of my favorite characters on a FOOD location! I was pretty impressed with all the theming. If they put in the same effort in the DC area it will be an awesome area. I thought this was a good idea. They store the balls in the air and can easily clean the area. No more diapers or bloody band aids hiding in the dark anymore. Time for some food and to try the famous Hopi Dog! It's a standard hot dog with really thin potato sticks on top. Oh wow, there are two hot dogs in each bun! Now I have to eat four hot dogs! They were pretty good. They were even better with my second favorite soda in the world, Guarana!!! They were having their halloween event, but I couldn't stay that late. The outside looked good though. Another 'house.' The one thing I really liked about their haunted house rule signs is that there is no question wether or not photos or video are allowed. The most frustrating thing is when parks aren't clear on their rules about photos and flash. (USH was the worst) Half the time it's ok with no flash, half the time it isn't allowed at all.) Another view of the new area, and the incredibly looking Schwarzkopf! Evolution was a very odd ride. It is sooooo slow! You spin super slow, and go upside super slow. You sit upright to start. It then tilts you back when it begins. It really could be a fun ride if it went a lot faster. The wagon was closed. No one has tried to marry it that I've heard of yet. Next up is the Rio Bravo raft ride. Unlike the American versions, they don't have restraints! A view from the malaria river ride. The on-ride photo was just a DSLR in this box with a remote trigger. This was the 'Small World' type ride. Instead of countries or lands, each area represented a state of Brazil. This reminded me of the Mexico Boat ride in Epcot. I hope you're not scared of clowns! Creepy animatronics with annoying songs. Just like all of the others! One last one for you Adam! Superman is flying! Is this considered offense in South America, or is this just normal?! This probably wouldn't be allowed in the US. The wild west area wasn't too bad. They also had a haunted house, but I couldn't take any pictures because I didn't bring my nice camera. The best part of the park were the churros! They were amazing! They offer them with toppings (Sprinkles, coconut, chocolate sprinkles, and nuts), and you can have them filled with things like dulce de leche! Mine had dulce de leche inside, and coconut on top. It was absolutely amazing! I had a really good day! Thanks again to Heitorat for being my guide! These were the busses that brought all the terrible teenagers. They were actually really nice double decker busses! It's too bad there isn't much storage space or they would be perfect for TPR two bus trips!

As long as it's faster and easier, I'm all for it. I like that they seat you even though it's somewhat of a quick service restaurant during lunch. It reminds me of Tokyo Disneyland Resort style quick service restaurants. It's so much better because you don't have a bunch of terrible humans taking all the tables to just sit down and rest, leaving no tables available for those who are actually eating. I do like touch screens, but there are few things more frustrating than idiots who have no clue how they work and cannot decide what they want. Hopefully they will have a 'frequent user' line! Also, I would love to see it linked to the smartphone app so you could just order it outside, and have it all ready when you walk in!

For me, the room type depends of where I am going, and who I am with. If i'm sailing to Alaska, or Europe, I would probably want a balcony view since a big part of those cruises are watching the scenery. If it's the Caribbean or Bahamas, I don't need to see outside too much because it's mainly all ocean. Also, if it's just Amy and I, I would want a balcony as we would be relaxing more in the room. If it's with TPR or friends, I would get something cheaper since I really won't be in the room at all. One major benefit of an interior besides price is how incredibly nice and dark it gets!

When I would visit WDW, and stayed on property the DDP was great! It took some work to figure out how to get the absolute most value out of it, but that's what you always have to do to get the best deals. Of course for me, it wasn't too much food as I could eat all my food, and anyone else's! I really do like the apps that they have now. It saves so much time! No more waiting on the phone for the dinning people, and no more walking across the entire park to see what the lines are like.

Would be interesting to see the breakdown between Minis and the 4th generation iPad, but hard to scoff at 3 million of anything in a weekend, especially since they aren't selling the LTE equipped Minis yet. Definitely a dumb move on Apple's part. It's obvious that they are too overpriced and there wouldn't be enough demand like some people said. If I had the money I would totally get one and do this with it!

I agree with this. I like them both, I like Spiderman because they have more complete sets and interactions with the sets, but like the action of Transformers. Overall though, they are very similar. Still pretty amazing rides!

I bet 99% of them have never ridden an SLC. If they had, they would totally be agreeing with that statement. SLC's do look like they'd be great rides, but they really are extremely painful. Also, why do they bring up Kingda Ka? Do they really think that Americans think it's the greatest ride ever? I like how some people treat coasters like they are an endangered animal. As if the coasters in New Jersey just became extinct and can never be rebuilt. Well, if it was such an incredible coaster they will build it exactly the same, but my guess is that they will build something better. It's just a bunch of steel thrown together. There's no steel shortage I'm aware of. I could understand people being bummed that one of their favorite rides was gone, but this ride looked terrible.

It really was an amazing ride! I would love to see topper track on it. Is there ever a line for it? Anytime I go there is barely any line.

Good to know! Now I won't waste any money on seeing him live. We did see John Caparulo a few years back and he was pretty good.

I wish they did something similar to ghost galaxy for the rest of the year. It really is a fun effect.

Can't wait to see the exhibit finished! Penguins are always a good thing, except when you can smell them . I'm really interested to see how it will all turn out.

Even comparing just Epcot to the entire DLR it's no contest. Now I'm all depressed thinking of Epcot and food and wine.

Prime Time and Sci-fi are some of the most uniques restaurants. Not the best food, but a lot of fun. MK has always been lacking food wise. I'm really looking forward to eating in the new fantasyland area and see if they have some good choices I really do like DL food a lot. The churros and Bengal BBQ are all I need for a great day!

It really is an all around amazing park. The uniques rides and flats, and the amazing food, more than make up for not having 'extreme' rides (but the rides are still very good)!

Looks like a nice ballpark. I like how they use stanchions in some lines. I hate it when the lines are a free for all and you have fight everyone likes it's a coaster line in Italy.

Saw Wreck it Ralph last night. Great movie. Lots of awesome retro gaming jokes, and a good story. 3D quality was really good and clear. I highly recommend it! There was even a food reference that Elissa would love!

I always enjoy great food pics! They looked amazing! The pasta with pesto looked really really good.

I can't say it enough. The City Museum alone is worth going on the trip! I've been on quite a few trips with TPR and I've never been disappointed with any of them. They've always gone above and beyond, and I absolutely trust their decisions! I would go on every single one if I could afford it!