darklingscribe

^ Educational and an intense, fun, 12 day workout, I'm still recovering. By the last day I was so exhausted that my immune system left me open to a sinus infection I developed on the flight back home. I'm glad everyone likes the photos, Up next is Efteling, a park I've heard almost nothing about (except from the flying Dutchman construction updates a couple of years ago). I was pleasantly suprised by this huge and beautiful family theme park. It is sometimes nice to visit parks geared toward the 2 to 80 demographic rather than the thrill seeking crowd. I've made this a multimedia update, because the Charm of Efteling cannot fully be conveyed through pictures as the sounds and music of the park play role as well. After some experimentation, doing this requires me to break up this update in a couple of posts in order for the audio to appear in the right places. Right when we entered we also encountered our first... I guess the best word for it would be, a framed talking statue. Every single one in the park had an open mouth and seemed to be speaking Dutch on a looped track. Even without the rides running, this park was gorgeous. Almost immediately the beauty of the park hit us. We entered the park that morning though the back entrance reserved for hotel guests.

Your link says that these are just images included with a survey the park was doing. Yeah they look cool and it is always neat to get a glimpse inside of those designing the new areas of a park, but nothing has been announced.

Thanks for the compliments. Day three was Bobbejaanland and Toverland. While I do have Photos from Bobbejaanland I'm missing all of my photos of Toverland, something I didn't notice until now. I remember taking pictures there, but have no idea where they went. Perhaps after getting back my memory card from Robb I accidentally reformatted the card, forgetting to upload the pictures on to my computer beforehand... Oh well, on to the photos. And at last I leave you with a picture of this dumpster, which, after spotting it, I couldn't not take a picture of it. This should give you some idea of my childish sense of humor. Next up day 4: Efteling and Drievliet. When leaving Bobbejaanland two new buses arrived to come and pick us up. and instead of another regular bus and short bus. There arrived a regular bus and the VIP bus, rear poker table and all. Having just gotten off their powered coaster, this Picture of Ryan gives some idea of how most of us looked. Later in the day the clouds really opened up. Though this photo is rather blurry it gives one the idea of how long ®evolution train was. 30 cars long according to RCDB. In the distance was the building of ®evolution, what turned out to be the biggest surprise Bobbejaanland offered for me. We next had ERT on some flats, which they were kind enough to run for us. While a fun ride, Typhoon ranks below my first Eurofighter, Speed at Oakwood. Part of Team Larry makes their way over Typhoon's past vertical drop. Our first ERT for the day was on Typhoon, the second Eurofighter I've ever been on. While other parks I have been to have a park water tower to display their name on, this was definitely the first park windmill I had seen. Robb meeting with today's park representative. The place we were supposed to meet at noon for our paid for lunch. The only pic I have of the strange tree that sat in the center of the entrance of the park. Today we had an included meal, and Robb was handing out meal tickets. The included meal seems to be different at every park we go to, sometimes we need tickets, other times our wristbands are enough. This is Ryan (Ryancrash), with his awesome H. R. Giger sleeve. We arrive at what I think is the Belgian equivalent of Dollywood. Bobbejaan Schoepen is a Flemish singer who, according to Wikipedia, was one of the people who introduced American country music to Europe. Another favorite photo. Kidtums, rather than being shy in front of all the strangers around her, would often pose for photos on morning bus rides and commandeer the microphone from Robb and talk nonsense to the group on the bus.

Wouldn't work. Just about all of the slide were built into the terrain. Part of the whole fun of the place was the home made feel of it's attractions.

Thanks Steve, it's one of my favorites of the trip. The candid of Melanie helping Larry with his hat is another favorite, I love the expression of good natured humor on Larry's face. On to day two. As you can see most of us were in awe. Others began looking worried... I must now redirect you over to Robb's thread for ropes course picture goodness. Come back later for day 3. What the place looked like the moment you entered their parking lot. I don't have many photos of the ropes course, mainly because I couldn't carry a camera around and participate at the same time. Most of the group by now was no longer riding the rides. We all sat around eating waffles waiting for the buses to leave for the ropes course. Yes, we were in Belgium. So we had to get some Waffles. This is John (flossy) displaying his waffle. We then did something really touristy. The broken Vertigo's elevator lift. After that we got off. The wheel's ride cycle was only one rotation, and while that sucked, we were not all that surprised. We got on the wheel, surprised that they were only loading six Gondolas on the entire wheel. Here is a shot of Loup-Garou I took from the top. A shot for Ferris Wheel enthusiasts. The park was swamped with school kids and by noon practically the only thing without a one hour line was the Ferris Wheel. After getting off the flume somewhat wet, I marveled at what appeared to be a fish petting zoo. Other TPR members waiting in line ahead of us seemed to be happy having finally gotten on the ride. Next to turbine was the park's log flume. Which, when I heard it was a reversible flume, I had to ride. This photo was from after an hour standing in the line. you can see how crowded the ride was that day. ... and Turbine , a forceful indoor shuttle loop. Our other ERT sessions that day were on Cobra, a standard Vekoma boomerang which was located right next to the park's indoor waterpark Aqualibi... I was expecting quite a lot from Loup-Garou. The only previous Vekoma woodie I had ridden was Thundercoaster at TusenFryd which, depending on my mood, alternates with Balder as my #1 wooden coaster. Too bad. Loup-Garou was one of the tamest woodies I've ridden. Our first ERT of the day. Then Robb returns ten minutes later with the admission and a park representative who leads us over to the coaster/s in question. The way most TPR trips work is that the group arrives 15 minutes to half an hour before ERT starts. We then wait while Robb goes to the group tickets window to sort out the details. Walibi Belgium. This park was almost like the opposite of Asterix. I went in expecting to have a great time and came away thinking that I was glad to finally get out.

Parc Asterix, for me, was one of the biggest surprises of the trip. I went there expecting it to be one of the more mediocre parks of the trip and came away thinking it might be one of the best. Hanno and Will (willmontu) getting in their kiddie credit for the day. That's it for Asterix, stay tuned for Walibi More great and humorous theming. Craig (Stealthfan) demonstrating the proper way a person should react when being put in the stocks. The theming at Asterix was exceptional for a non Disney park. "So how was it Bill?" The ride was running surprisingly well that day and once you got through the first butterfly element the rest of the ride was fine. This confused most of the group. We were afraid to go on it too, but probably not for the reasons the park intended. Gouduriiiix's reputation in the coaster world for head banging is one of the worst. The Story behind Gouduriiiix, is that a viking comes down from the north to speak to the Park's mascot, Asterix the Gaul. The viking claims that he does not know what fear is, Asterix responds by making him ride Gouduriiiix. First Drop. Bill (Nrthwnd) and BeetleBen riding front seat second-to-last car. Jeff, having ridden Gouduriiiix on a previous visit volunteered to be everyone's bag lady. The most dreaded credit of the day. Our ERT that day was on Trace Du Hourra (pictured) and Tonnerre de Zeus. A shot I included for the MiniDV Camcorder enthusiasts. Terrance gets his first official statue credit of the trip. Robb, like any full blooded Italian American, would be completely unable to speak if he lost both of his arms. (I'm the same way.) Melanie helping Larry adjust his hat to a more attractive angle. On the ride to the park Dave handed out two of the most incredible hats he was able to find at the dollar store to Larry and Big Mike. Everyone filing off the buses early in the morning.

For those who haven't already guessed, my name is Tim. When on the TPR trips I tend to take pictures according to my mood. This means that while I may have over 50 pictures of the Flying Dutchman at Efteling I have none of Vogel Rok (IMO a better coaster) located at the same park. Forgive me if the collection of photos I post of some parks in this Trip report don't seem as extensive as others. I also prefer to take pictures of people, rather than rides. On a trip with 69 other coaster enthusiasts I felt like there would be enough photos of rides as it is, so I decided to turn my lens towards the group and general park antics. I have a pretty even spread of photos of everyone in the group. On to the photos. The Temptation was too much for Terrance, which resulted in this gem of a photo. Stay tuned for Parc Asterix photos. ...reading a book under a tree, oblivious to the group gathering around him. As we were waiting for the buses to pick us up Terrance spotted Bill... "Okay. Now how in the hell do I get back down without killing myself?" View from the top of the cable Pyramid. Some TPR members were already making their way up it. An awesome play structure you'd never find in an American park due to fears of litigation. This park was also a small zoo with animal exhibits placed randomly around the park. This tree just looked so strange, like it was some kind of weird monster that came out of Jim Henson's Muppet Workshop. How you can tell if a person is a coaster enthusiast or not. The third coaster at the park. The second credit was one of the strangest Spinning mice I've been on. It didn't do much of anything, the only thing that even made it a mouse were the cars and the fact that none of the turns were banked. Our first credit of the trip, if you count powered coasters that is. I spy some rides. The Park itself was really beautiful and had the feel about it of a large garden. Just to remind everyone where we were. We arrive at the day 0 park, right in the middle of Paris. The elusive Hanno, caught in his natural environment. The bus driver in question. To which Lou responded: "Why are you telling me this?" Elissa then said "I though you'd like to know." To which Lou replied "Well, if I think he's cute he's probably gay." After she was done talking to them she ran back over and excitedly told Lou that the bus driver was Cute. The buses show up and Elissa goes over to check in with them. Robb handing out detailed itineraries that would help us be on time for the next 12 fun filled days Everyone waiting for the buses to show up to take us to our first park. This was the airport hotel we stayed at for the first couple of nights.

The park went under and was sold to a land company. They plowed it down to enlarge Oakwood lake and then around the border of the lake built luxury lake front housing, just in time for the housing bubble to burst. Which is kind of funny because one of the most hardest hit cities in the country when it comes to housing foreclosures is Stockton, located right next to Manteca.

Goliath513 I might as well post this here rather than in a PM. I've highlighted where I remember the paths to be in green and color coded the entrances and exists of the slides. I've also highlighted other splash down pools. Don't assume that this very accurate e.g. in the picture I remember that cyclone and High tide were located right next to each other, but I'm not sure which was on the right and which was on the left. Turbulence was the longest slide in the 9 slide Complex, going from pretty much the apex of the hill to one of the lowest splash down pools. The pools highlighted in the lower left corner were 2 inner tube slides, these were not enclosed and were just built for speed. Just straight slides that dropped ad leveled out twice before hitting the splash down pool. They started at the upper pool and ended in the lower.

I feel like I'm going to dissappoint you guys. You have to understand that most of the slides had at least one section underground and they were tube slides, not half-pipes. One of the things that made them so fun is that is was impossible to get an idea of the layout no matter how many times you rode one. I'm afraid all I can do is just give you an idea of where each slide let you on and where the splash down pool was. Here are the pictures. back inside Inside. Time for a bonus perk. I found that my mom had saved one of the brosures from the early 90s. This is the front cover. This is the final splashdown of the rapids ride. It basically was one long river consisting of many interconnected pools. The final drop was the largest drop on the rapids ride. This is a better background shot of the children's area. This was their Childrens/deck area. It was where all of the deck chairs were and you can see part of the large shallow pool that made up the children's play area. Again taken from the pizza shop balcony. Their oldest slide called The Plunge had a splash pool in the middle of it's course where you could get out if you wanted. This is the mid course pool. If you chose to continue, the second half of the slide was called the Waterfall for no obvious reason (It didn't have any big drops) View from the balcony of the pizza place. This pick shows how you were supposed to go down the slides headfirst. I think the slide in the picture was called Subway because it had the longest underground portion. This is probably the best picture I have of a slide layout. If you look at the background you can see the twists and turns of the slide dubbed the Elevator Shaft and then later the name was change to something I can't recall. This slide held two distinctions, it was the only one of the nine original slides in which you couldn't ride headfirst (the splash pool was too small and actually had knocked some people out in the past) and this is the only one of the nine slides that was entirely above ground and not covered by vegetation. They had a pizzeria located on the second floor above the building that housed the 9 original slides queue. These were some of my favorites when a kid. This is a photo of their innertube slide. There were three right next to each other even though you can only see one pictured here. As you can see you still had to use a mat but they allowed you to sit on it rather than lie down. This photo is from way back when they were still using the lake's water. This was their Kiddie slide. it was located outside of the 9 slide complex.

I actually have recently been looking around in old phtot albums and stuff, and while I have not come across any picture that solely concentrate on the slide complexes I did find a few. Give me time to scan them.

The fact that they kept the sign is a fairly good omen that some new ride with the same name will replace it.

I love the tunnel on SCBB's Giant Dipper, surprise laterals in pitch blackness.

I don't know, but I can honestly say that I haven't heard of any other park owned by a ride manufacturer. Someone said to me on the Europe trip that even though Silver Star is B&M manufactured, Mack designed the layout and then gave the plans over to B&M to work out the finer details. I'm not sure if this true or not. As for the teaser ads, I think they are more likely designed to induce wild speculation rather than to hint at what the ride might be. All that seems pretty certain is that it will be launched and the first coaster at Europa with inversions.

Umm... thanks? It's turning out to be a great trip so far. I'll leave it to Robb in posting updates, as i am waaaaaay too tired after doing the ropes course of death today.

I've got one old and one new. This is the old one. Obscure?

Thanks for all the compliments. The tiger photos are my favorites as well, I'll try to take some more when I go back to SFDK next week.

I did the same thing too with my first Photo Trip report. Just remember to upload the photos in the order you want them to appear, though the preview button will show them in reverse order, once you hit submit they will post in the right order.

There is also the narrow and still somewhat unused track of land where Greased Lightning used to be.

That is sad news. I hope my local boardwalk, SCBB, never becomes corporately owned.

I know all about shutter speed and the like, I'm a film major and have taken classes. I've had the camera for less than a week and my main purpose for taking it to SFDK was to practice my composition. The menus on this camera are labyrinthine and the night before I had misplaced my manual, so I decided to concentrate purely on composition and just have a good time.

I noticed that the saturation levels on some of the photos was high as well. I'm not exactly sure why, but somehow iPhoto did that when I batch exported them into a smaller size. Here is section two of the trip. Sploosh! And thats the Last picture I have to post. My camera's memory card was full. We didn't do much after the killer whale show, we just went over to ride Tony Hawk and Roar and then the park closed at 6pm. Hopefully I'll be back at SFDK next week to check out all the shows and exhibits I missed. This is really turning out to be one of the best parks in the SF chain. And she makes it! Shouka coming up for her largest jump. (my favorite picture I got of the show) Sploosh! Only to have Shouka drench him. They got this poor kid to stand up close to the pool. But what Shouka lacked in maneuverability, she made up for in grace. This show was less energetic than the dolphin show. In these pictures it is hard to get an idea on the size of the animal. I can't remember the last time I saw an Orca show. We then went to see Shouka the killer whale. This aviary is located in the kids section near the petting zoo and the elephant rides. Beautiful plumage. These birds have tongues like paint brushes, all the little fibers just sponge up the liquid. The black and orange gimpy bird seemed to appreciate my gesture. You have to be careful when you are in here, because these birds will bite you if you try to pet them. I then went to offer the nectar to the gimpy footed black and orange bird. These two birds kept on fighting. They give you two little cups of nectar, you walk into the aviary, and then the birds swarm you. Next we went to the lorakeet feeding. Both of the cats were over eight feet tall when they stood on their hind legs. See that? All muscle. The tigers also got some two percent milk. Say cheese Odin. "Can I has more meat?" There it is. This one had some trouble keeping track of where the meat was thrown. The teeth on these animals seemed to be at least six inches long. Using it's claws to grab the meat and drag it into it's mouth. This tiger really acted like a cat. See that front leg? Yeah all muscle. Are they trying to scare us? Nope just diving for meat. Rawr. They want your kids. Odin then demonstrated how he can jump over ten feet, and that we should fear him. Om nom nom. The paws on this tiger were huge. First they showed us how tigers can swim, using meat on a stick. We were in luck, the show was about to start. Where the now internet famous, Odin resides. We then went over to the tiger exhibit. She also said that they regularly walk their animals around the park after closing, and early in the morning. A really beautiful cat. The trainer said that the three cougars they have at Discovery Kingdom are still not fully adults and that they were from the wild, found a couple of weeks old after a hunter had shot their mother. Don't worry Andrew, they have it on a chain. Holy sh!t, a cougar. They also had kale, usually the giraffe feeding is one of my favorites at Discovery Kingdom, but today it was kind of subdued. After the green onions one of the giraffes finally came over to munch on some carrots. Om nom nom nom. "Green onions, did you say?" Finally one of trainers went over to lure the giraffes over with their favorite snack, green onions. It was time for the giraffes' feeding but neither of them seemed all that hungry. The lions weren't doing much. I'm not too familiar with the children's series, but why is the rear end of the train smiling? The families seemed to be enjoying themselves... generally. The railroad crossing lowered as we were leaving and we got a glimpse of the new Thomas kids section. We then ate and went to the shark tunnel exibit. I'm sorry to say that none of my photos came out in dark tunnel as I haven't yet figured out how to manipulate the ISO factor to a satisfactory level so here here is a random photo of a stingray I took outside of the exibit.

I got a DLSR camera to take along with me on the TPR Europe trip and decided to give it its first test run at SFDK. That's pretty much all I have to say, most of the trip report will be included in the photo descriptions. Synchronized dolphining (is that a word?) This is the last photo for now. I'm only half through but it's nearly one in the morning and I have to go to sleep. Stay tuned for tomorrow when I'll be posting the other half of the trip report. Dolphin doubles. Weeeeee! Sploosh! The People were then soaked. Dolphin limbo. Do the twist. (I'm running out of captions) They called up some people to dance with the dolphins. ...and splash the audience while the other one was doing a trick. One would often sneak up... They were really quite graceful animals. Dolphin signature shot. Oh well, what can you do. She then wiped her hands on her shirt to get rid of the fishy smell. They called up a little girl on stage to help feed the Dolphins. Weeee! It was here i really got to test out the High Speed shooting function of my camera. Sploosh! Weeeee! The stadiums here are pretty big and it's nice being in the shade. At the dolphin show waiting for it to start. But the line was looking a little long and we wanted to see the Dolphin show in 30 minutes. We then went on over to check out Tony Hawk's Big Spin. BS that this doesn't count as an inversion. Up the 45 degree barrel roll. I love this photo. She just looks so thrilled. V2 launching. my Favorite of the impulse coasters. Someday I may do this, when I'm not carrying all this camera equipment around with me. This is where you can pay to swim with the dolphins. A little bit further down the path is the dolphin experience. Is it me or does it look like they are plotting something? I spot a Penguin. Their enclosure is very randomly placed across the path from the Sting Rays. Yes, thats right, a place where you can PET STING RAYS. We then went to the Sting Ray petting pool. Clean up Andrew. "Did someone say fish?" "NO! Don't eat my fish!" NO Andrew! DON'T eat his fish! Andrew has his fish. He wants fish. Every animal enclosure today had at least one staff member in front of it to answer questions about the animals and educate the kids. This is the first time I've seen this kind of attention at SFDK. ...to the seal enclosure. Hmm... He seem to be contemplating whatever that thing is. We then made our way past the kiddie section... It was a long and slow line because there was only one person there, though we couldn't complain because the sign on the door said that the place wouldn't open until 2 and it was only 12. We then went to get our season passes. Water dummy enthusiast shot. Cobra is long for a kiddie coaster and if you sit in the very front or back you might even get one or two pops of air. Can you spot Andrew? Heading to the lift hill. I see you. Andrew waiting in line, excited to finally get his Cobra credit. First we headed over to the land section to hit Medusa and the kiddie credit Cobra. The animal that they were showing today was one of the largest parrots I've ever seen. Be careful now, it eats fingers for breakfast. My friend Andrew, happy to finally be here after enduring an hour and a half of Bay Area rush hour traffic. This is what you will see after entering the park, by the Discovery Kingdom sign there is always a trainer showing one of the animals. Roar was also running great today and offered many little "pops" of airtime after the first and second hill. First drop of roar, through the trees! Now that all the trees have grown, you'd hardly notice that this is a parking lot coaster. Into the first helix! I still think Medusa (west) is the best floorless I've been on and it was giving great rides today. The drop out of the MCBR of Medusa gives a nice pop of air. Into the Zero-G Roll! Though the Loop! Signature Shot! The public seemed to really enjoy the ride. Personally it was fun, but nowhere near the ride of my Favorite Spinning coaster, Dragon's Fury at Chesstington World of Adventure. A new credit! Tony Hawk's Big Spin Still a ways to walk, but what is that I see ahead of me? ...and that fish is... sleeping. Yeah that's it, just sleeping... Um... Yeah that water looks perfectly... clean. Just to remind you where this is. This is what SFDK's parkling lot looks like, as parking lots go it's not that much of an eyesore. The park itself has one of the more beautiful skylines of the Six Flags parks, especially from the parking lot.

The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk has a free concert every Friday night in the summer. Usually most of the bands performing I've never heard of, but on the 25th of July the Blue Oyster Cult will be there. Anyone want to meet up at the boardwalk? Here are the details about the summer concert series: http://www.beachboardwalk.com/concerts/#boc If you do I'll try try to get a deal on wrist bands. My local Costco right now has specials on all day wristbands

I'll try to go through your list of questions as best I can. I assume when you say HDV you mean Mini DV Tapes versus Flash memory. The picture quality depends on two things mostly, the quality of camera and the codec in which the video is compressed. We are getting to the point that the recording medium of digital camcorders doesn't really matter anymore. Flash memory has the advantage of being smaller, no moving parts, and it is faster to transfer your files off of (Mini Dv can only move your video files to your computer in real time). Mini Dv does have it's advantages too, it is a much cheaper recording format and because of this you can afford to keep hard copies of all of your raw footage rather than erasing and risk losing all of your videos to a hard drive malfunction. Codecs are another story. All consumer Digital cameras compress the video in camera using a codec. For the longest time the North American codec for recording standard definition digital video onto a Mini DV tape was NTSC. With the advent of HD camcorders NTSC has been left by the wayside because it was not enough to shrink down 60min of hd video onto a Mini Dv tape. Most camcorder manufacturers have substituted their own more compressing codec to be used with HD video. To ensure best picture you can get ideally you should not compress your footage at all and there are really high end digital cameras (I'm talking in the $5000+ range) that give you this ability, but the problem with shooting HD without compression is that it takes up a lot more space than economically feasible for the average consumer. Generally the easiest rule to follow is that the smaller the video file is compressed, the worse the image will become. So if you are recording 60 min on to a 4gb sd card rather than 60 min on to a 12gb mini dv tape, the tape is more likely to have better quality footage (as long as you know both codecs used to compress the video file are recent, the more recent the codec the more likely it is to produce a better picture quality). The chips inside of cameras also play an important role. There are two chips out on the market today. CCD chips and CMOS chips, CCDs are more expensive to make but they produce better video than CMOS chips in low light. CMOS chips are cheaper and use less battery power. Then there is also the number of chips in the camera to consider. A three chip has one chip dedicated to each of the three primary colors, because of this a three chip camera had a much more realistic color scheme than a one chip camera. Though now it could be different between the whole three chip/one chip thing, technology changes so fast. Really, all I can say is do your research, there are better sites out there than consumer reports, I would first go to http://www.consumersearch.com/ a website that compiles the information from most other product preview sites (though their conclusions tend to be six months to a year old). From there I usually head to CNET, they offer good videos of reviews. Look for the features you want and don't be afraid to go into a store and see how the camcorder feels and operates. I prefer Costco for my electronic purchases because of their 90 day return policy, no restocking fees or anything. I do think that a flash hard dive camcorder would be best for your needs, I would have gotten one if I didn't have so many blank Mini Dv tapes lying around. I don't know much about Adobe Premiere, I use Final Cut Pro. Did you try searching for plugins that could make Adobe handle MPEG4? Oh and please excuse this post if it seems somewhat rambling, it's 2am and I can't sleep.