RCFreak

That was a freakin' awesome PTR! I have yet to really explore much of California and all the cool places like Hearst Castle and much of the coast line as when I lived or traveled north it was always up the 99 (dear lord there's a boring drive for you) It was great seeing you and the rest of the gang at the party though.

Dude, it was awesome meeting you and hanging out for a bit. SFMM really went all out for us all and It's awesome that it was your first experience with the park instead of a what it normally was (you can definitely tell there's a difference then the past) Awesoempics and see you at WCB if you end up making it.

I saw this on Monday and I have to say I was really impressed with what they did. The lack of showing the monster was awesome and giving us the glimpses of it during the movie made my imagination run wild. Same thing with the plot. I like that they didn't have a story line where every single thing was explained. Just like life, some things you'll just never get an answer too and I think this leaves it wide open for the audience to come up with it's own conclusions (not reading interviews from the writers lol) as to what the monster is or where it came from. The shaking never bothered me as it takes a lot for me to get motion sick and added a whole other level of realism combined with the great (and consistent) effects worked. It was well acted and despite having to suspend some beleif (it is a monster movie after all) it felt like I was really watching someone's story in all the chaos. If the obvious sequal does get made, I really don't think it would be as good as this especially if it comes in using the same approach. that movie has already been done with Cloverfield, I would hope they try and go for something different, which could be difficult when "Hollywood" is invovled.

LOL! and here we all thought we were the awesomest because we made it to the end. Way to crush our spirits man, although the park should REALLY add scores to each gun/seat if that is the case of not even having the "different" endings.

OMG an update! I love that you got completely different pictrues then what I ended up with lol. Makes the trip a little more complete. And I'm sorry you forgot your card this past weekend too.

^^^ The Hotel was gorgeous, but I still think the other one we stayed at in Benidorm was far superior. But yeah, I could totally live there too. ^^ I'm glad you were able to join us on the trip and celebrate your birthday with us! ^It's simple sweetie, don't smoke and you wouldn't have to worry about that lol. have fun in Europe and you never know who may or may not show up. Just saying.

I finally got to see Juno the other day and it was a really well executed movie with a lot of witty and funny dialogue. Awesome job on the script and if the Dave Letterman interview is any indication, you should come to a TPR party lol. Keep up the great work on writing great stuff and now I need to go find a copy of that book.

As the days started winding down I had a sense of sadness that the trip was over, but also a sense of calm that I know I've made many friends with people I would have never even considered talking to passing in the street. I also got to travel all over europe and stay in some amazing hotels adn ride amazing coasters with amazing people (get the hint that this was amazing yet?) Anyway, it was our final few days at Phantasialand with the side trip to toverland (already covered) and then it was ERT on Black Mamba and then it was back to the airport for most of us who did Spain. Honestely it wasn't as tearfula sI thought it could end up, but like I said, I ended up leaving with a sense of great accomplishment. I really hope you've enjoyed looking at the 500 posted pictures from the point of view of a dork and for those of you able to have joined us at any part of the trip, thank you for making it so special to me. And finally, To Robb and Elissa, thank you for all the hard work you put into the trips AND the baby.You guys are special people that I'm glad I got to know and know more as time passes and I'll never forget that. now what are you waiting for, sign up for a damn trip already and Get TPR's Coaster Expedition 9 available soon-ish! Last shot I took of the trip. In closing, I'm glad I took the chance (and debt) to go on an amazing journey with some awesome people and I can't wait to do it AGAIN! I miss you lou I miss you Zamperla Hat, I wanted you so bad but at least I got to hold you for a few minutes! Duesseldorf Airport. Funny story. We were all just sitting around and some random guy came up to us and gave us his McDonald's and said he ordered to much. riiiiiight we tossed it in the trash as soon as he left lol. Ok, so it was funny to me at the time... I gues you had to have been there? Stop looking at me like that... Nap time! (even though id di take the picture myself...) TERRORIST COOKIE!!! This damn cookie got me stopped TWICE by airport security The Living Statue couldn't hold it anymore. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Hey how'd you get on that side so fast? You spin me right round baby, right round, like a record baby, right round, round, round. YAY Vekoma! I wonder which stick of chocolate enjoyed it more? You ok Ed? Art-y or stalker-y? You decide. uh Robb? I don't even want to know... The Dragon bar is way up there I'm in love! Where's Waldo? Old Guy Statue: "What up bird?" Bird Statue: "not much dawg. Chillin' witht he dragon out again, but I think he had too much to drink." No dry souls allowed to exit please. Mystery Castle was AWESOME unless you got the crappy chair that i want to burn down Mmmmm River Quest

Part 2! Overall I really liked Phantasialand, even the creepy mascots that growl. The newly built Africa section of the park was really well done and Black Mamba was an amazing site to see zooming around pathways and trenches. the Other sections were also well themed, not Disney standards, but more like Movie World standards, could be better, but could be WAY worse! Beautiful double decker carousel see? They had some nice theming around the park Watch your feet! Still broken and I didn't feel like waiting for a train later on. Sadly it broke down the first day, but we made up for it sooner rather then later! The mist is trying to hide the topless ride. oooo Colorado adventure Dave don't look! Hi Derek Not too many rides you can do this on MORE FIRE! WATER! WEEEEEEEEEEEE FIRE! Mist attack! Talocan Mmmmmmmmm This is the main entrance right? We never used it as we had the side Hotel entrance to use. awwww cute little baby ducks (filler) We're all hungover, make it spin faster! ooooo it's so pretty!

GRAND FINALE Part 1! Like Port Aventura in Spain, Phantasialand was our base for a few nights and we had the immense pleasure of staying at the beautiful Hotel Ling Bao. Prior to our arrival, Germany had seen a lot of rain and little sun, but someone knew we were coming and it hardly rained during the day the whole trip. At night however, that was a different story as we pulled into Phantasialand, we noticed we would have to walk up the driveway to the Hotel in the rain as the bus could not fit. That made for an interesting arrival. Soon after drooling at the gorgeous lobby we headed off to our rooms and then up to the Bar were we had more "get to know you time" with people who were not on the Spain portion and have fun in general. The next morning proved great as we had ERT on Winjas, which just beat out Tarantula for my favorite spinning coaster. Plenty of darkness and things coasters should just not do meant it was a REAL treat for those of us who knew little about the ride. After ERT ended, we headed out to explore a bit and find Talocan. New for 2007, Talocan is a Huss floorless Top Spin featuring a half show building and plenty of water and fire to make "oooooo" more then a few times. Running a very decent program for a top spin, we managed to flip 7 times every ride (and there were multiple re-rides of this bad boy) making it just enough to make it disorientating, but not too nauseating. The sound system they use for the ride also provided much bass and the soundtrack was very exciting for those just watching from in front or from up on the bridge. It's biggest downfall however was the long load and unload time it had. Black mamba was really fun, but pretty disappointing as the park had warned us that we had to walk all the way around the rides line to re-ride because it was so intense, which it wasn't. Some awesome visuals in the front row and you do get REALLY close to the sides (at passing of a waterfall, and you were on the outside right and stuck your hand out, it would get wet.) The Colorado Adventure (insert tired and worn out Michael Jackson jokes here) was a very decent mine train, it didn't blow me a way but it was pretty damn fun. Other rides include Mystery Castle, Intamin's Bungee Drop which actually had two ride programs. One was really intense and unexpected and the other was really tame and made me so mad (lol I still get pissed off thinking about the lame car) and sadly there was no visible indicator of which car did which as they all ran at the same time and looked the same. On of the rides I was definitely looking forward to the most was River Quest. Built by Hafema, the ride was plagued with problems to it's special effects (most notably the last drop was to actually have a trap door drop the boat from mid air) and it had such huge drops that it was a no brainer for me to ride. We ended up using our "fast passes" to skip the line and get straight to the ride. One word of caution, you WILL get wet. It's not a joke, the boats take on such an insane amount of water when they hit the bottom of the drops it's like jumping into a kiddie pool (or having one thrown on you) Luckily the high sides separating the sections of seats protect you from some of it, but that doesn't mean all ( or very much) overall it's definitely in my top four (including Grizzly River Run at DCA, Popeye at IOA, and Acme River at Parque Warner all ranked at #1) YAY we made it to the gates of Wuze town! Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 tonight! Traveling through the old west and into Mexico Time to head back to Winjas! I see you River Quest I'm so in love with this place. The pond right inside the lobby under the stairs TPR(ers?) waiting for our fearless leader and Natasha... er the PR ladies. The rock work and the park entrance Stone art. Very Zen. The gift shop roof More stone work in the paths. This was too pretty not to take a picture of Looking back to the lobby The paths around the garden were peaceful The themeing in the hotel and the park just blends right into each other. the big building is a gift shop inside the park The Hotel had it's own park entrance very well themed We had some time for the PR ladies to come and get us so I took the opportunity to grab a lot of pics of the grounds One ZOmbie and I was gone, next thing I now it was morning and time for Winjas! "Ron look!" In the two story Dragon bar My jaws dropped when I first walked in The lobby was three stories high The Hallway was gorgeous too The hand carved door to our room in the Four Star Hotel Ling Bao

Anyone else think it won't be surprising when some of the rides in Camp Snoopy at the back of the park disapear and something like Sierra Sidewinder shows up? Wicked Twister is taller and faster then all other Intamin Impulses. A Quick trip to RCDB could tell you that.

Two parks left! I decided to do Toverland today Since it's my PTR and I can do what I want So anyway, Toverland! Housed inside (and out) of two giant warehouses, Toverland decided to be amazing to us as well with free food and free drinks as well as using their event space above the park, they also gave us medals and a block of wood from Troy! Well,t he park has three coasters and a whole lot of messed up. First up was Boomerang, the parks custom Vekoma Roller Skater. It was a fun ride with some awkward banking at the tops of the ride, but still a roller skater. Booster Bike was pretty fun and makes me excited for Pony Express (Yes, I know it's Zamperla, but the riding style was fun) and Troy instantly shot up to be my favorite woodie of all time (so far) Granted I haven't been on many world class woodies, but Troy was really really fun! It definitely got better the more I rode it and as time went on so by the end of our ERT the ride was whipping around the course with unexpected pops of air all over the ride and plenty of laterals to satisfy my craving. The Obstacle Rope Course nearly killed me (I think I was the only one to have almost have fallen) and the giant inflatable "triangle" thing was a blast almost taking out little kids. Overall the park had a great local feel to it and the expansions can only make the place better! Off to some pics! We'll end with Chris in a replacement Tiara after having "lost" his original tiara, an Elissa Bingo® Prize Zip line down to a sand pit and have Robb touch your butt! er..."wipe the sand off" a swinging good time, really Insert frolicking here Some prancing here Carnage Crossing Cargo nets of Destruction Boxes of Doom Pretend to be Spiderman here Almost fell here Yup, that's all that's below Leap of Faith right there baby You try no to die here Then you kinda shimmy here First you loose rope across this WEEEEEEEEEEE Rich looks quite comfortable lol Lou's not used to taking it in the back. Mmmm GCI That almost looks like Ed in the bottom left, but I think that's a woman. More twisty goodness Mmmm Good woodie Reversing log Flume (which I didn't get to ride) oooooooooo Hi Ed YAY! Most of us are here! Elissa won like 100 scrunchies so what ebtter then to give themout during trivia and pose!

^ What he said to you Lou!

BONUS UPDATE!! Holday park was the other park we visited this day and I had a freakin blast! Expedition GeForce was heavenly (but felt like it could have been way better without the trims on) I liked their corkscrew (I'm telling you I must be the perfect height or something) The flume (also reversing) scared the crap out of Kristie and I was NOT in my seat the last half of the double down final drop. The Intamin Tower was a great height. The Starflyer was pretty meh to me, all it really had going for it was the height (which gave some great views by the way) and they had a dark ride with boobs too! We ended the day with ERT on GeForce and the park gave us Food! All in all it was a really good (and exhausting) day. Next up I'm doing Toverland! Mmmm rain clouds making gorgeous skylines. Mmmmm Wind farm The drive to Phantasialand. When you gotta go... Hi Wes, enjoy some big giraffe on small giraffe action. Lou makes me laugh in this picture Mmmm erect things omg the airtime on this flume was AMAZING not so twisty goodness Twisty goodness Mmmmm Larry... er... I mean... Expedition GeFore... Do I know them? mmmmmm GeForce.

^^^ I'm seriously impressed with what Gerstlauer did with their bobsleds and I wish some parks in the US would put the rides to good use already! ^^ Thanks, if half of the pics were not already edited it would have taken a lot longer as I have some scratches on the lens of my camera that show up in alot of the pics (you can see them in the pics i was too lazy to edit) ^I'm holding you to that! And yeah, I figure since I have a ton of photos from there it'll be my Grand Finale on Friday!

Tripsdill was a fun little park. We only had a half day here and a half Day at Holiday World (both having ERT for us!) and while I would have liked more time to explore the park a bit more, what we were given time wise was more then enough to do most of the park. Thanks to the Bus Driver though, we ended up being 20 minutes late to our ERT session because he was too stubborn to admit his GOS was wrong. Anyway, when we got there they were filming a TV show or Movie or something and had plenty of work stuff all around the coaster. I was excited about G'sengte Sau as I've seen so many pictures of it (including the video of the guy roller skating along the track) and I had such a blast on Heiße Fahrt the previous day. I was not disappointed as this actually had it's theming complete and was so beautifully landscape (a little to much as I got smacked by a tree branch toward the end on the VERY ground hugging helices) and had some decent airtime. The other coaster they had was Rasender Tausendfüßler, a Large Tivoli (you know, the ones with 1000 cars) that was also beautifully landscaped with trees, lots of flowers and a pond in one of the helices. One last pic of Piers and the Kristie heading down together. Carl filled the screen WEEEEEE Slide! TREE OF DEATH! Man that thing was so freakin awesome. I had no idea what it did and I wasn't going to stand around and find out so I hoped on in an empty seat. Damn that was terrifying! Jeff made his cock shoot into the mouths of other animals, and even the farmer's! uh... right... more of the landscaping around the junior coaster. The Pond and 1000 cars Final drop one Boobs: the ride You can see one of the bunny hops diving into some trenches. "Lou, let's take a nice picture." Kidtums got in on some of the action as well. I guess they wanted to kill us all as they had Robb operate the ride After getting lost in the park we made it out to the coaster and bobbie log flume (which opened later in the day) uh, don't drink the water?

^^^^ Glad we weren't the only ones! lol ^^^Thanks for the info and yeah I'm pretty sure it was the same water. ^^lol I can crop the original picture and get his face a bit closer See below. ^It was definitely a little odd that first day without half the group there and more people in there place. Close up of Robb on the boat jump

I have to totally disagree, I think it's about time they finally started to get bigger and better! CityCenter when complete will cost over 7.8 BILLION dollars, making it the single largest private investment in the United States. The point is to not look like a strip hotel because it's so much more then that, with its own on-site Power plant to it's own fire station, it literally is its own city. The entire project is quite impressive if you look at it's overall effect on the Las Vegas strip. I will definitely agree with the Trump Towers though, personally I think they're ugly, but Encore and The Palazzo are definitely examples of bigger being better. And you may not like Casino's now, but you're only 16 and a LOT can and will change about you before you hit 21. I'm a huge fan of the whole Vegas experience from the drinking to the amazing examples of architecture, to the gambling and just having fun with friends. Even before the drinking and gambling (AKA before turning 21), I was always a fan of the extravagance of some of the Hotels. And think of it this way, the more new bigger hotels going up, the more shows coming to Vegas. When CityCenter opens it'll open with a NEW Cirque du Soleil show (and trust me, I love me some Cirque too so I'm really excited) and the Palazzo is bringing "Jersey Boys" from Broadway to Vegas. Casey, that is so freakin' awesome to hear, I'm glad new technology is being developed and actually used to better everyone's enjoyment. Thanks for the kind words everyone.

Klotten! What a totally fucked up park this is. Most of the rides are actually self operated including one that flips you upside DOWN! Getting to the park was fun, we had to be up really early to catch our flight over and then we got to meet up with the rest of the Mini Euro peeps. Heiße Fahrt kicked so much butt it wasn't even funny, That thing had some MAD airtime and was pretty smooth save for the slam to the left after the last block, but the bunny hills leading to it were pure heaven, and I'm not the biggest fan of airtime! On to the photos of the other rides and general silliness. Up next Tripsdrill!! Obviously not allowed on Heiße Fahrt hugging the trash can like that. SHould be ashamed of himself! The Volcano theming was amazing. WEEEEEEE!!!! Obviously. Mmmmm Air Time-y goodness Mmmm helix-y goodness Chris got stuck on the flip yourself off ride. We all laughed on our way over to ERT on Heiße Fahrt. Bruno chases them in style Ed and lou go for a spin They re-filled the pool so robb could empty it. I guess it was a good way to clean it (mmm look at that water though) The yalso had ACErs... er... I mean wild boars. Wassup the dude chilling all by himself "This rock is too hard." "This rock is too soft." "This rock is juuuust perfect." He had to settle for the adult females (another funny story, he conered the baby deer in the corner of the previous pic and the poor deer started crying out and all the other deers started going over to help bambi lol I left before they could kill Chris) Chris luring the deer with candy to get into his van They also had animals. Funny story, we all noticed that a gate to the enclosure was unlocked and we all laughed and then some family went in and we realized it was supposed to be unlocked and we went in to feed the deer feeling stupid. Coming soon in 2004! NO LOU DON'T!!!! re-creating a fag pack (lol at that name, sounds like an offshoot of the Panthers) uh, do I even want to know? Right before I emptied the pool of water lol, I'm kidding it was actually kinda scary! A crowd gathers to watch the ensuing tidal wave I was the "fat guy test" for the Boat Jump so I think this is Lou kissing me goodbye Boat jump time yay! I see you little amazing coaster Lou gets paid the big bucks Yet another park in the middle of nowhere. We finally made it! The actual municipality of Klotten next to some river 9any help here?) Lou in a cage It is way to F@#%ing early

^^ Seriously, I had such a great time on just the Spain portion alone. And yeah, I think I got a pretty good idea when you molested that sign of Batman outside the queue lol. ^ 1) cause it's a DAMN good picture! 2) That was Sunscreen? lol 3) If I didn't take so many pictures, I probably would have never remembered myself! Traval and Klotten later tonight!

^ I work at Target and we don't carry that flavor, but I did happen to find it at BevMo so I picked up a few bottles and some vanilla Smirnoff and it came out pretty good. I'm more then sure I made them a LOT stronger then the actual WKD though lol.

fixed.

Come on Lou I need more pics of me... er... I mean to see what happens next in your wondefully grand adventure!

Parque Warner, the nicest Six Flags park that isn't! I was really impressed with the level of theming they added to the park, but having been to WB Movie World the previous summer, I had something to go off of. That said, I still can't believe it was a six flags park lol. I was not Impressed however with the heat that day. I know I could have taken a lot more pictures here, but most of the ones I did take are from the morning before heat stroke set in lol. When we got to the park, We had ERT over on SUperman so whilke heading back I kept hearing "this is a six flags park!?!" a lot. Superman is probably my favorite B&M Floorless and the only thing that could have made it better are if the trims were turned off. Batman is a standard clone, BUT it's way smoother and less forceful then the older models (such as the one at SFMM) which was a slight disappointment, but still a great ride. El Spanish Deja Vu-o (Stuntfall) was smooth and just as great as the only other one I've ridden, the one at SFMM. Coaster Express was no where near as bad as I was actually dreading, but it's been said that it's MUCH smoother then what it used to be. Tom Y Jerry was interesting with the crotch vibrators they have, but a fun little junior coaster. Rio Bravo is quite the flume with many surprises if you have no idea what's in store (once again, Spain loves their reversing log flumes) but the highlight definitely has to be Backward airtime! The rapids they have is also quite impressive as I have never spun so much in a raft my whole life. Definitely one of my four favorite rapids rides. Riddler's Revenge is an S&S combo tower and I LOVED that they changed the program from just being a drop to combo the cart we got on, definitely not something we were expecting. I also got to experience my first Vekoma Mad House in Hotel Embruagio which I'm sure would have been much better if any of us actually understood the story (which is in Spanish). After a heat filled day at Parque Warner, we headed back to our hotel and many of us headed out for a "goodbye" dinner as a farewell to those of us not heading onto the Mini-Europe portion of the trip. A sad time for some, an extremely early morning for others, we had to be up the next morning at like 5 to head to the airport to fly over to Germany to start the next leg of our journey. Beautiful sunset as I walked back to the Hotel right before I passed out from exhaustion. one last pic here awww this is a really cute picture of Lou and Kyle Walking to dinner. *sniff* Superman flying to save the day More Spanish Deja Vu-o Waiting for the bus to come back Another view of the Entrance plaza air conditioning AND spinning ed around. We were all delirious at this point. Robb Attack trackless Sally! Thsi was fun to walk under as it felt like the park was on the surface of the sun We don't know either Lou, we just don't know... I like this pic of Lou a lot. again, this was a Six Flags park!?! See? Gotham City the bumper cars The queue for batman which had THE most annoying alarm Stunfall The Queue for SUperman. Reminded me of the queue for Spiderman at IOA YAY Mad House! holy crap This is all theming, I think there was a show here too This was built by Six Flags!?! Riddler's revenge at the end of the blvd. I'm in awe This was a Six Flags park!?! the buildings in the entrance plaza meant we were in for something else. The fountain at the entrance

^ Thanks! Only one left for Spain then it's off to Mini-Europe!