jray21

Every time I think/hear of Carnival I cringe. Anytime I talk to someone about a cruise, I immediately tell them the terribleness that is Carnival. Aren't they due for another ship fire or baby flushed down the toilet?

Great reports! Love all of the places you try. That pork tenderloin looked so good!

I am doing the 5k the day before. It's my warmup run for Sunday! I missed the past week of training due to sickness. I hope that doesn't kill me in the race.

^You probably are in corral A. The Disneyland half marathon is a very relaxed 'race.' Looking at last years race, a time of 1:45 would put you in the top 3%! So many people do the Disneyland half as a fun run versus a race, and usually stop a ton for pictures. You'll be amazed at how many walkers there will be, even in the A corral. I do love it though. I would totally buy some TeamTPR/TPRunning workout shirts but I know it would probably take way too much work and cost too much to do.

I do like the new look. Looks more like a hotel than a cruise ship (but it definitely does seem close to the Disney Cruises). The old way looked way too much like a cheap cruise ship. Good to know that they are always making improvements though!

It was pretty much the same for me with the Chocolate Melting Cake. The first night it was really good, but then it just turned into a terrible cup of uncooked batter.

They definitely could put something way better there. Once they got rid of the Golden Girls house it was all over.

I saw a tentative menu for the Food & Wine Festival. There are about 73 food offerings! I think it's time for me to finally do the Food & Wine Festival Food Marathon! That's where you try and eat all 73 food items in one evening! It will end up costing about as much as the normal marathons, and be just about as tough. It could also make for an epic food photo TR! Marketplace Menu

Bib numbers and waivers are now available for the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon! I found this online, but I don't know how accurate it is. Elite 1-30 A 31-2350 B 2351-4375 C 4376-5908 D 5909-8700 E 8701-11492 F 11493-14284 G 14285-17500 I'm number 2834. That would put me in B. I may move myself down to C since I'm not nearly as fast as I was hoping to be. Averaging about 10.5 min/mile. Was hoping to be at 10 min/mile or less. I'm really really thinking about doing the Walt Disney World Marathon as well.

These really are my favorite updates! The food all looked amazing, especially the Chess Pie and the upside down cupcake. Also, the Hot Brown Sandwich looks absolutely incredible! All of these are now on my food bucket list. I love all the sodas you try as well. Every TPR trip I'm scrounging around all the convenience stores looking for new candy and sodas. Great update!

HAHA! The "Landing Strip!" I'll have to find my pictures of that! Always happy to help a fellow Fatty

It could be like the Carousels that have the rings you have to grab! That really would be amazing.

Thanks for all the comments! It really is a 2 day park. I missed a lot of rides, and a lot of food. Definitely hoping to get back there next year. Can't help you with Phoenix Phall Phunfest though. Hopefully someone here will know. Good to know! Definitely will have to try that next time! Haha, Knoebels was alcohol free if I remember correctly, but the next day at Hershey definitely was not. ie. Cliff and Piers. QFT! Cliff can definitely handle his beer, and Piers can absolutely handle his wine! Get new parents.

Great report! I love the reports on the smaller and unique parks. Definitely want to try all the stuff at Olympic Park. I've got to try those cream puffs and waffle sticks! I'll have to try to make a waffle dog and see how it works out.

Joey did have help with some park veterans pointing out the good food. However, it didn't matter to Joey he ate everything he encountered with or without a recommendation. They definitely did help a ton! All the recommendations were perfect! I did try a few 'extras' but the veterans did pick the best of the best. I couldn't tell if you were joking through part of it, or seeming a little bit rude, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you were trying to be funny. Anyway, I do have a lot of those photos you mentioned, but they just ended up not being used. I actually took over 800 photos that day, and as much as I'd love to show them all, I don't think many people would ever come back to look at my reports! As it is, using 100 photos each update is already too much as it is. I'll try harder next time.

Time for another update! Knoebel's! This was one of the most epic TPR days I have ever had! This was one of those parks that I had always heard about and was dying to visit. It did not disappoint! If there is one park that is the food Mecca of the US, this is absolutely it! I seriously have never eaten so much as I did here. I did get a lot of pictures, but I was eating everything so fast that I missed some of it! Besides eating some of the greatest amusement park food there is, they also have a really fun collection of rides. It was extremely rainy throughout the day, but we lucked out for the most part. They keep a ton of stuff open even when it's raining! It's amazing how much they kept open! It's so frustrating how almost all the other parks absolutely shut down at a single drop of rain, but this place stays open even during a virtual monsoon! We also took a break mid-day to visit the GCI offices! It was amazing, but I can't find my pictures . It was really really cool to see where and how a coaster starts! It was a great tour, and another awesome surprise! TPR is really amazing at putting together coaster trips! I can't say it enough! As amazing as everything was during the day, the greatest part was the evening ERT! The 'Glow Fest" ERT on Phoenix was by far the most epic ERT session I've ever had! It was amazing how much they let us bring on the ride, and also how absolutely crazy Phoenix was running! I never could just let myself ride it without holding on. The bar is so high even when down all the way that I always chickened out because it seriously felt like I would fly out! It really was the most incredible day! I This park really has it all. Incredible employees, food, rides, and atmosphere. This is definitely a park I will get to again real soon! Thank you Knoebels and TPR for setting up what was one of the best days I've ever had at a park! There is no better way to start the day than with a breakfast sandwich from a gas station Blimpie! Are we really going to eat breakfast from a Petrol station?! The pretzel bread breakfast sandwich was actually pretty good! Muffin or Fancy? Definitely Fancy! I decided to pick up a few snacks from the gas station as well. Devil Dogs, Tasty Kake, it's almost like a different country! Yay! We made it to Knoebels! Wow, this is one massive parking lot! I'd hate to see it when it's full! He heard that to be a true gangster, you need to have one sock up, and one down. Rick Knoebel himself greeted us in the morning and gave us some history of the park! Someday...Someday. Maybe. First up was ERT on Twister! It's a really fun ride! I loved their height check signs. They had a lot of really cool ones throughout the park. Rick Knoebel then talked about Twister and how the design was derived from Mister Twister. They even have a Mister Twister bolt as part of the ride. All ready for the first ride on Twister! Some happy, and terrified, faces on Twister! No air gates! It's great that places like this still exist in the US! Larry definitely enjoyed his ride on Twister! Cliff is really making an "I need beer" face. The park is in a really nice wooded area. People who don't go on a TPR trip wait in that line, while those who do go on a TPR trip walk right on! I love how the park clearly puts up front that it is only one train operation. That is so much better than places like SFMM and Riddlers Revenge where the line looks really really short but due to one train it really is about an hour line, but you don't find out until it's too late. I've heard that the bugs are bigger in the midwest, but a yellow jacket the size of the track is ridiculous!!! Martin's got Leslie Hall glitter hands! Cliff still really needs his beer! Phoenix has some absolutely insane ejection air. Spears is 1' or more out of her seat! Gotta love ERT! There are some cool views from the station! Joe takes his coaster riding very very seriously. Three wheels off the track make for some massive ejection air! Finally, some food!!! This was the fried veggie sampler. I think it had onions, cauliflower, zucchini, and mushrooms. Amazing stuff! These guys were playing the pee out the fire game. I probably had a good three gallons of White Birch Beer soda this day. It's a soda somewhat similar to Root Beer, but more amazing. The world's longest update. They still have the grab-the-ring thing on the carousel! I'd rather just take the money. Another rare classic flat ride that makes this place awesome. It's really cool to see it rotate while keeping the cabins from going upside down. It really is an amazing looking park! They're dog friendly! How awesome! KidTums is definitely loving the ride! Time for some amazing pieces of Pizza! And another piece. Ok, fine. One last piece. The shooting gallery, I mean Squirrel Park, was closed because Squirrels are like Dan, and don't like the rain. Piers let me take a bite of his Pizza Log. If it rains any harder, we may all need to get into that boat! It really was pouring! This was my amazing pre-lunch lunch. Fried gator, fried brownies, Haluski, apple fried tortilla dessert thing, and an ice cream sundae! Next up was an awesome backstage tour of their newest ride, Black Diamond, which was still being constructed! Outside, this lump of coal greets you! Jon was our guide and told us a lot of cool stuff about the ride! Thanks again Jon! Taking a well earned eternal lunch break. Amy and Chuck are enjoying the tour! Go towards the light. You may want to get that looked at. I don't think him or the bird made it. Trying to move his ass...or whatever animal it is. Another group enjoying a tour of the death zone. All ready to scare the crap out of people for years to come! Just pushing his budy into the vertical meat grinder. Killer mutant zombie rats. Wait a minute, is this a SyFy movie? The truly short bus. The museum was really cool and this is the actual harness used to rescue a bunch of people from the Anthracite Mine. Practicing. They had an absolutely random, but amazing, ode to Jeff Johnson. I think I got more wet from the rain than they did from the ride! Now it's time for the real lunch! Absolutely amazing Perogies, ham, corn, rolls, etc.! It looks simple, but it was all amazing!! Dick Knoebel even came by to say hi! Given that it was pouring rain, I think our chances of seeing this rope harness in action is pretty high! You can't really tell, but it was pouring and they still had it open! Awesome! We decided to dry off by playing FASCINATION!!!! We're ready to spend the rest of our money and win some cheapo prizes! Miles, Eric, and Chris are enjoying the Fascination game! There's always room for a walking taco! Amy got a flashing pin for the evening ERT! I didn't realize Kid 'n Play were still popular! Joe and Piers got some pole action going. KidTums is all ready for the glow ERT! I'm so colorful! TPDave was amazed for hours. We still had a little bit of time before ERT so we took the Train Of DEATH! It seriously looked like a horror movie. Really really creepy at night. I swear this guy is only on the ride to eat all of the children. This is by far my favorite height sign ever! Miles and Eric absolutely win for the best item for ERT. What kind of ride is this!? Umm, where are we again? Oh! Bumper cars of course! These are seriously the most extreme and violent bumper cars I have ever been on. They are absolutely amazing! What's that glow I see from the top of the lift hill? That can only mean one thing..... It's time for GLOW ERT on PHOENIX!!! The happy faces say it all! It was a truly incredible ERT session! Most of the time you just saw a beautiful trail of glow. So pretty. Better than the 4th of July! Knoebels was so amazing! They let us bring on so much stuff and Rick even joined us for a few laps! Thank you to the Knoebel family and TPR for a truly one-of-a-kind and absolutely amazing day!

You're wrong. I sit behind the computer all day and know so much more than you. That's pretty cool that they would let you guys control it. I bet it made for some incredible employee rides!

That's Amy and I in the second row! Awesome video.

That hotdog looks absolutely amazing! I love hidden off the wall places like that. Definitely will have to stop by if i'm in the area.

I do love these types of rides and wish more parks had them. They are pretty amazing for such a small coaster. What Elissa said. They are an improvement, but not a huge one.

It's finally here! The next update! I took a last minute vacation the past week and a half and am finally back. After SFGA we drove to Snooki's state of New Jersey! We arrived at Atlantic City really really late. I think it was about 1-2 am. We had to get up really early for the next park so naturally we did what any sane person would do, we gambled and ate until about 4-5 am! Piers ended up winning about $80 on Let's Make a Deal, and I got about $40. The rooms were really really nice! We had an incredible view and it was amazing. We went to Morey's Piers for the day and got a few credits, saw a few wannabe Snookis and Situations, ate a ton, and had a surprise credit that evening on Hellcat at Clementon Amusement Park. We had an incredibly amazing and exhausting day in Guidoville! Here is the view from our hotel! Great accommodations! We passed on the three eyed fishing add-on. Back at home in Reno this place would have a completely different clientele, but then again, this is New Jersey so maybe not. Walking toward the pier! That's a pretty long pier! This is the one of the three piers they have as part of Morey's Piers. They cram so much stuff on it it makes Santa Monica look like a children's fairs. Checking in for our wristbands and free chapstick! (I see a legacy shirt from my first trip, Deep South 2009!) Piers at Piers! Not too many of these in the US. The needle, beer bottle, and condom filled beach and one of the other piers. It was a pretty far walk between them. Home of the National Marbles Championship! LOL! Can't go wrong with a shark! Or coke! The Ignis Fatuus Ghost Ship was amazing! We got a special tour of it as well. Don't jump! (I know, terrible) Catherine approves! Just floating along. Piers does his celebrity pose. Can you tell Amy's a little tired? These honestly looked like a bag of castrated 'manhoods.' He was a little scared. If this was a lot higher I would totally have done it. Sexy new trains for the SLC! Will these save an otherwise terribly painful ride? Can't say you weren't warned! All ready for some ERT on shiny new trains! We're good. We rather take our chances with cigarettes than ride on that death machine! Up and over. Bye Amy, you're going to die! Laura's got the "Oh yeah, give it me" loves pain look. You know you're a professional when you can get great POV's of Vekoma's! Hi Laura! If you want to keep your head. Not an ACE friendly ride. I think I can see a gravy stain on the guys shirt. Hairtime! This is it's name. No, seriously. It's name is "It!" It's right up there with "Didja" from our ghetto cruise. They are enjoying IT. Any grandma who takes their grandkids to an amusement park and wears bunny ears is awesome. "It" in all it's glory. "It" is even Brazilian approved. Just waiting for this palace of fine dinning to open! We got in a little credit while we waited. Deep fried Oreos are one of my favorites. The deep fried strawberries were really good. Like a bite sized version of a funnel cake with strawberry. The deep fried PBJ & Banana was amazing! You ride these cars just like Matterhorn...Oh wait, never mind. The lunch included two huge slices of pizza. But the slices weren't big enough for me so I got some shrimp, wings, and calamari. Now those are some quality prizes! Awesome! We got a welcome sign! I love these older type coasters. We took the skyway to get a nice view of all the piers. I swear Boomerangs were made to torment us credit coaster nerds. The beach and the neighborhood. Great location for a woodie! Looking back at the 'first' pier. Next up was our special tour of Ghost ship! Yes! They are allowed to touch you! Very few places in the US allow this. I have no clue why They have some great locations to pop out of! Ahhhhh! Zombies! Funny how much they just blend in with our group. Eric was really scared to death. He was just closing his eyes to keep the tears back and pretended to look at his camera so no one would notice. Even with the lights on they were able to get some good scares in. It looks like a room from The Walking Dead. Where the makeup is done. Extreme closeup of TPDave! Looks can be deceiving. It's never too early to teach a child how to kill a terrorist! Next up is the woodie credit! Awesome name and theme! All ready to get the credit! No one can ride a coaster in style like Piers. The Chris's's are still going at it. A ride like this definitely makes you proud to be an American. You think? What the hell are we doing? The girl in the pink has the appropriate Boomerang riding face. James got his hand stuck in the up position. Normally this would be ok, but on a boomerang your hand will get ripped off and you will break your knock by not being able to hold on. I think Satan is riding behind David. You enjoy your rides on the boomerang, I'll have some more fried Oreos. Next up was dinner and Hellcat for a surprise credit, although I'm a little scared. The girl in the back is thinking, "so this is what coaster nerds look like." And away they go! Hallcat was a really fun ride! Airtime! Wow, I guess that was some ride for the first two! Elissa has the, "You are all stupid and going to die so I'll just stay safely here" look. Oxidizer is for when the ride isn't rusting fast enough. Martin, Cheryl, and Chris love the ride. The others, not so much! They are just a little bit scared. Hot dogs and hamburgers are always a good thing. Dinner! We got to sneak into the infield! This bolt is the very center of the ride. It just is. Accept it. This is the moment the girl realized she's dating a complete baby, and not the tough redneck she thought he was. It has some decent speed through these turns. More satisfied customers. KidTums is giving Piers his "I Freakin' Love Minnie's Boutique" tattoo. And that's the end of another incredible day! Next up is a massive update from Knoebel's!

Here's a quick review of our day at the commercial shoot! We ended up riding the ride over 20 times! The first few rides were fun, but the more I rode it the more I liked it! It is a short ride, but there are a lot of great intense throw-you-out-of-your-seat moments. It is a lot faster and intense than it looks. I think my favorite part is the reverse launch. It kind of reminds me of the intense pop you get when you hit the back spike on a shuttle loop. Then the first vertical 'hill' has some intense airtime in the first few rows. The corkscrew is slow, but it gives you a nice fall out of your seat feeling. The drop after the top of the ride is really good and yanks you out of your seat. I was really surprised at how much the ride feels like it's trying to throw you off of it. Anyway, the commercial shoot was a lot of fun. Before lunch we only got a few rides in while they were setting everything up. After lunch, they did shots from the ground and shots of the corkscrew so they just sent us over and over again as fast as they could. It was cool to see how much goes into the video and photos for the ride. Sorry for the quality of the photos, I only had my iPhone because I wasn't sure I would be allowed to take pictures. Oh well. Anyway, on to the pictures! We arrived bright and early for the commercial! On our way to the ride! We had to wear solid bright color shirts with no logos. Our first view of the normal entrance. The dual sided entrance to the station. We waited here while they picked people for some of the shoots. I was way too ugly and fat to get picked Looking back towards the normal entrance. Amy is all excited to go! They had these comic billboard panels to read while you wait in what could be a very slow moving line. Ok, so the real reason I came was for the free breakfast! Nice and slow roll. Noobitizer gives us a rundown of what to expect and to pump us up for the ride! The first official non-employee train! (I think. But it doesn't really matter because it's another day closer to opening to the public!) Captain Lee hung out with us quite a bit. Too bad Piers wasn't with us! Rigging up the vehicles for all the cameras and GoPros. We met two other TPR members, Sunfire and JeffyJosephNorCal! The sign is really big, shiny, and new! The main entrance to the ride taken from under the giant Superman sign. Left safety sign. Right safety sign. Looking towards the beginning of the line from the station building. And now the other end. Looks like they may have a sports bottle rack. They didn't have one during the commercial but they may have one when it officially opens, or they may just let you have it on the side. Superman getting attacked by Kryptonite. This sign is right in front and above you when you first walk into the station building. Waiting in the station for a few more rides! The loop is too big for the iPhone camera. The crane in the back was taking the shots of us through the corkscrew. It was pretty windy and that crane was moving a ton. So glad I wasn't up in it. It's a really good looking ride, and it really stands out from the freeway. You also get a nice view of the roll from the offramp. Thank you Six Flags Discovery Kingdom for an incredible time! Now it's time for a quick run through the park. This is sooooo much better than those ICEE machines! He was just waiting for me to throw him a child. Dolphin. Pig. The white tiger was out and about as well. Well, they missed it by a season but oh well, at least we already got to ride it! And what better way to end the day than with the Cheesecake Factory!

On the ride warning signs there is no maximum height posted. The only thing is the 52" minimum. 52" & 53" riders are allowed when accompanied by a 54" or taller rider.

Yep! I didn't realize it, but it launches you both forward and backward kinda like V2. It's like a fun collection of a bunch of different elements. Definitely some airtime in the first two rows at the top of the launch. The roll is pretty slow, but you definitely hang. The first drop into the loop isn't huge, but it's pretty intense. It would definitely make one hell of a water challenge! Definitely needed my motion sickness patch. They do staple, hard, but it does depend on the employee, and honestly, you really do need it. As for cycle times, they could cycle it pretty quick with the right team, but with only 12 seats it will definitely be slow moving. It can definitely load as quick as a normal coaster.

We've started! Hoping to ride in the next few minutes! Here's a video to hold you over MOD: Had trouble embedding the YouTube video from my phone so feel free to do it if you'd like.Feel free to use it as you like. Hi-Def version coming as soon as I get wifi.