David H

^ Yeah, NYC's skyline is nowhere near as awesome as Shanghai's. A few week's ago I took a boat cruise along Manhattan to get to and from the Electric Zoo dance music festival, and was all set to take a ton of pictures of the skyline at night. But after Shanghai, it wasn't all that impressive. And Shanghai's is still growing. ^^ Yeah, the street vendors in Shanghai were ridiculous. The trick was not to even look at them. But it was tough when they'd throw things right in front of you, or cut you off when skating. Overall, though, I found them entertaining. I actually admit that I kind of wanted those stupid strap-on roller skates. If I'd thought there was any reasonable chance that they might hold my fat American weight, I might have bought a pair, just for the fun of it, if I could have bargained them down to under $5. But I don't think there was any chance they'd hold my weight for more than a minute or two before breaking. The sellers on Nanjing Road seemed to know each other and didn't seem to fight as much with each other as the ones in other places (like the boat dock) for our business. They were also very friendly with the "sexy massage" ladies. I wonder if they all worked for the same people -- probably organized crime. The fact that the "china puss-ah" lady also offered regular merchandise seems to back that notion up. As does the fact that most of them had the exact same merchandise.

Larry showed us all how it's done! I actually decided that I'd get one if I could get it for 20 yuan. My last night in Shanghai, I was out on the bund and looking for someone selling laser pointers. Suddenly, no one had them! The one woman selling them was insisting that they're 150 (more than almost everyone else was attempting to charge) and called me a liar for saying that a friend had gotten one for 20!

84 here. I didn't count Hades 360, though I've been on Hades. I did count X2, although I was only on it as X.

^ Agreed on all of the above! I wonder if anyone ever goes to any of these parks. I was there during the week in October, so it wasn't surprising that they were very dead then. There weren't even 100 people at any of the parks in Taiwan I visited except Janfusun which maybe had 100-150 people there, but almost all of them were with one school group. You guys were there in the middle of the Summer, and they still didn't seem to have many people there. I wonder when they're busy? (Hopefully, you won't find out on the next TPR trip there!)

Day 23, part 3: Shanghai Sightseeing. Dinner on the water, a night riverboat cruise and Nanjing Road. After our ride, we headed to dinner, which was in a really cool docked boat restaurant. The boat/restaurant was shaped like a dragon and lit up really nicely. After dinner, the day was officially over, but we had the option to pay extra to take a real riverboat cruise, which I think just about all of us took, besides Robb and Elissa, who’d done it before and had TPR and trip work to catch up on. When we got off the bus at the boat, we were ATTACKED by street salespeople using the opportunity to try to sell souvenirs to all the foreigners taking the tourist boat cruises! Talk about aggressive! If you even looked at them, they’d follow you. Heck, they’d often follow you even if you didn’t! The riverboat cruise was awesome! It was nighttime by now, so all of the city’s many lights were on. Shanghai has such a gorgeous skyline that all I wanted to do was take picture after picture – and I pretty much did! But it was also a chance to socialize and get to know our newcomers a bit, too. And to try some Chinese beer, for those who like beer. It was a nice long cruise, but was over before we knew it. On the way back to the bus, we got accosted by souvenir sellers again. Larry showed us the true art of haggling, getting the man following him to drop the price on a laser pointer from over 120 yuan down to 20 – or about $3! I actually kind of wish I’d gotten one at that price! When we got back to the hotel, some of us made our regular first stop – to try to find some beverages for the room. We didn’t trust the water in China. After all, do you really want to be at an amusement park or on a roller coaster while you’re having some digestive issues? But for the first time on the trip, the corner store had real vodka – not just some really crappy Chinese liquor! So, I got some for the hell of it. And drank a bit in the room, before heading out with Keith and Leonard to explore the city a bit. I also brought some mixed with orange juice, and shared it with the boys. We saw a McDonalds and decided to stop in for a quick bite. But when we tried to order, the lady at the counter told us that they were out of --- get this, HAMBURGERS! Yes, McDonalds was out of hamburgers! WTF?!? Yes, it was close to the end of the day, but seriously? They ran out of hamburgers at McDonalds?!? We got various chicken products and left. But wait, it gets much better! We found our way to Nanjing Road, which is a famous pedestrian road with many, many stores, restaurants, fast food places and the like. (Yes, there’s an Apple store here, fanboys!) And many, many more people trying to sell souvenirs to anyone who looks even remotely non-Asian! There were also lots of women offering massages. “Sexy massages”, even! Well, they more often pronounced it “Sexy Massagee,” but we got the drift! I’d later be warned by other tourists not to go with them (as if I would have!) because some of them are a scam to get tourists to go with them or to go back to the hotels with the tourists, at which point they’d be robbed by the ladies’ muscled male friends! Would a tourist actually go to the police? Now, I’m going to warn you that this part of the story should probably be rated PG-13, so if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, you might want to skip to the pictures! So, the three of us were walking down Nanjing Road, talking and looking at the sights. And this older lady, maybe mid-50’s or more, came up to us and tried her sales pitch. We weren't even really paying any attention to her, actually, which is the best way to get them to leave you alone, but it wasn’t working with her. First she offered us, “Wallet?” And we said no and tried to ignore her. Then she offered us a “Laser Pointer?” Again, no. Finally, she gave us this conspiratorial look, with a twinkle in her eye, as if she had just the very thing we wanted: “China puss-ah?” Wait, did she actually just say that? We all looked at each other dumbfounded! Yep, they all heard the same thing. Since I had a bit of a vodka buzz going on, I felt the need to repeat it, as she had: “Chiiii-na pooos-ah!” It was really the delivery and the twinkle in her eye and the sureness with which she made her sales pitch that made it so funny. That and her directness when everyone else offered a “sexy massage.” And the fact that she seemed to have a whole catalogue of goods to sell: wallets, laser pointers and “puss-ah!” (Do you get a discount for buying all three?!?) Well, and the fact that this older lady just offered us her “China puss-ah!!!” To three gay men. We just could not stop laughing. And of course, we all kept repeating it over and over again. In fact, it became our catch phrase for the rest of the trip, coming up at the most inappropriate of times! We even had people on the trip who hadn’t been there with us saying it! I’m constantly amazed at how I always seem to manage to find the prostitutes on overseas vacations, no matter where I am. And apparently, when I’m in Asia with Keith, especially, since we’d had a particularly memorable run-in in Japan seven years prior. But that’s a story for another day, and after a bit more walking around, THIS long day was done. Our cool restaurant for this night. In a docked dragon boat! See anything you'd like for dinner? It looks even better at night. TThis was our boat for the river cruise. Time for beer! Some of Shanghai's buildings have video ads playing on them. I love Shanghai's skyline! Gay rainbow anal bead tower! Our hotel, and the buildings along the bund. Some of us called these the pirate ships. Getting to know some of our newcomers. This statue is some icon of the city. The bund side of the river. Larry was barely interested, and offered him 20 yuan when the guy said 120 yuan for a laser pointer. But the guy followed him all the way from the boat to the bus! He kept making other offers, and Larry kept saying 20. Would he take it. Apparently, so! Larry with his new pointer -- that cost him a little over $3. A closer look at our hotel. Fountains out front. Nanjing Tourist Road. If she could move, she'd probably follow us and try to sell us something. A statue in our hotel lobby counts as culture, right?

What's I'd really actually like to know is if there is anything that Robb or Elissa would wait 5 hours for! If they had to.

Day 23, part 2: Shanghai Sightseeing. Oriental Pearl Tower, Maglev Train, plus a bonus credit in the tower! From there we headed to lunch and then to the Oriental Pearl Tower, which was the tallest structure in China until it was surpassed by the nearby Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center (often called the “Bottle Opener”, because a big hole in the top makes it look like one), which you’ll see in some of my pictures, and which many of us would visit on our own in the coming days. (Stay tuned!) They were also building an even taller Shanghai Tower nearby, which is now taller than the Bottle Opener, and still isn’t finished. You’d probably think that it’s a big waste of money to build a “tallest tower in Shanghai” if there’s just going to be a taller one few years later, right? Especially with three of them adjacent to each other, and all three very close to the original Oriental Pearl Tower! At least it makes for a gorgeous skyline! The Oriental Pearl tower is very distinctive looking, since it has three spheres that are lit up at night in varying colors with LED’s at night. Several people called it the anal beads building! But the best part? The bottom sphere has a roller coaster in it! Luckily, we had to go up to the second sphere to get to the first one. We didn’t go up to the top sphere (called the Space Module), but most of us would visit the taller Bottle Opener in the coming days anyways. The second sphere had a glass floor along the outside where we all wanted pictures, even if it was fairly creepy standing over what seemed like nothing. Soon, we headed down to the first sphere to get our coaster credit, Space Switchback, which was in a section named Space City, with some somewhat spacey theming. It was an indoor Vekoma coaster with a bit of space theming inside. The only thing really memorable about it was that it was in a tower and was 90 meters (almost 300 feet) high. But it might have been a good idea to have some windows to emphasize the ride’s height. More pictures followed, and we soon left. The next stop on our tour was the Shanghai Maglev Train, the only commercial maglev train in the world open to the public. We took the train to the airport and back, which is the entire route. The train can reach top speeds of 431 km/h (268 mph), but it only does so during very limited hours – 1.75 hours in the morning and .75 hours in the afternoon. With our flight that morning, that would have meant basically allowing a lot of rescheduling and taking extra time to be sure to make the very lmited afternoon window. And it only hits that top speed briefly, with the trip taking 7:20 minutes, rather than 8:10 minutes at the “slower” speed – if you can call 301 km/h (187 mph) slow! You don’t even really feel the speed, since it builds up and loses speed gradually. You can definitely tell you’re going fast from the speed of objects whizzing by – especially when you pass a train going in the other direction, which passes so quickly and with a loud noise that if you’re not watching carefully for it coming, you won’t even know what happened until the other train is long gone! After all, you’re passing the other train at 374 mph! Several people jumped in surprise! One nice feature of the train was that they had digital readouts of the train’s speed so that you could take pictures under the sign. Because you can’t really get a sense of speed from just a blurry picture! Not me, though! The Oriental Pearl Tower. With a roller coaster in the lower sphere! I don't know why anyone would call it the anal bead tower! There's the Bottle Opener in the back. The cool elevator. A great view of Shanghai! The Bottle opener in the Back, with the Jin Mao Tower in front of it. They're still building the Shanghai Tower, but it's now taller than all of the others. I just love Shanghai's modern architecture. The glass floor had some people really creeped out. OK, so where's the roller coaster? Can anyone find the roller coaster? Ah, there it is! Some cool anime statues in the tower's mini theme park. Some of the windows are tinted pink, which makes for some weird pictures! That's better! I love this elevated pedestrian way. We'd be down there tomorrow night. Early in the trip, Josh and I started copying the locals (particularly the girls) who love taking pictures with the peace sign. It's a trend we've seen in our travels across Asia. We soon got lots of people doing it! Hey, we're back at the Great Wall! I think these statues were made out of the rinds that hold soda cans together. A really cool looking underground Apple store, for the fanboys! Driving in China! I'm not even sure what this is, but it's cool;! Ooh! time for the maglev train! We're sitting in the ordinary section! The different train routes from this station. Odd souvenirs. 301 km/h, baby! Kieth's laughing at George. But the joke's on him! Um, where did the driver go? The blur is the best way to show the train's speed in a picture. Train porn, for the fanboys. Eew! I don't want to know what that was! A cool bridge along the way to our next stop.

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Looks like a really cool park. Let's just hope they keep it up -- and keep it sanitary! This park is in the same city as the newest Happy Valley park, with a new Gravity Group woodie, so there's already a good reason to visit Tianjin.

^ I know I didn't! I'm not the most adventurous of eaters anyways, but I'd heard of it, and considered trying a tiny taste. But I don't think I could eat something that I thought smelled bad. At the Korean night market, I bought some sausage that was darker than what we're used to and took it back to the hotel. When I got back to the hotel, I heated it and another dish up. And the microwave STANK. I threw the whole plate out and never tried a bite. I don't think I actually ran into any stinky tofu in China. Did anyone else? I did see it at the night markets in Taiwan, but passed on it.

Day 23, part 1: Shanghai Sightseeing. Yu Garden Today was a sad day, because we’d be losing some of the people of on the tour, but also a happy one, because we’d be gaining some new people. The Beijing first leg of the TPR Best of China trip was ending today, but the Shanghai second leg was starting. A few people opted for extra days, so there was some staggering in the leaving, but today was the main day for goodbyes. It was also a day for sightseeing. There were several days of typical touristy sightseeing on this trip, which some of us really appreciated. Personally, if I’m visiting China, I want to see more than just the parks and coasters. I want to see some of China! And we did lots of that today! And we even got a bonus credit! After we checked out of our Wuhan hotel, we flew to Shanghai. The first thing our new tour guide Tom did was take us to our hotel to quickly check in so that we could drop off our bags. Then we headed for the Yu Garden, also known as the Yuyuan Garden, which was part of the old city of Shanghai. The Garden, which has been around since the 16th century, encompasses a large area which includes many temples, gardens, ancient halls, ponds, rock gardens and more. To get there, you first have to walk by the City God Temple and through the Yuyuan Tourist Mart, which is full of tourists and vendors trying to sell all sorts of souvenirs to them. We were free to explore on our own, but most of us stayed with Tom, because the grounds were large and confusing! But I was really glad we visited, because it was really cool, with lots of sights to take pictures of. If you couldn’t find him, just look for the stuffed panda on a stick! Afterwards, most of us did a little shopping for souvenirs and got to experience the art of haggling! Well, those of us who were smart did, at least. We had been warned by Elissa that other than in big stores, people are expected to haggle in China. The vendors, particularly in touristy areas, will drastically mark up their prices so that they still make a good profit when you haggle with them. The Chinese always haggle. but most tourists don’t know to, so they usually make out quite well! So, if you don’t haggle, you’re paying more than you should have! They’ll often pretend that they can’t go any lower, but when you start to walk away, they’ll usually give in. And by haggling, I don’t mean trying to get 10-20% off, as a few people did, thinking that they were getting a good deal. You could often haggle down to less than half price, and on some items, much less than that. I bought some dragon souvenir and paid around half of the marked price. Day 23 continues on the next page with the Oriental Pearl tower and the world's only maglev train open to the public. Then dinner on a boat docked on the river, a night river cruise, and Nanjing Tourist Road.... At the airport at the Generic Shop. Driving around Shanghai, enjoying the modern architecture. With a touch of old school still hanging around. The inside of our hotel, where we quickly checked in. At the Yuyuan Market That building in the lower left corner is our hotel. In the Yu Graden. I love that the "China Time-honored Brand" is right next to the Starbucks! Nice place for an antique store! Hungry fish! Wherever you turned, Josh could be seen posing with -- and flirting with -- the local ladies! Back at the market. You can see how close our hotel was. It was easy to find from pretty much anywhere in downtown, thanks to it's unique flower-shaped top. Goodbye to Wuhan. And soon, goodbye to David and few others on the trip....

Yeah, I was amazed that reasonably priced -- and tasty! -- food could be had at the Tokyo Disney parks, even if the portions weren't all that big. I really loved the chicken legs they had near Raging Spirits, which helped pass the time. And I also enjoyed the Rueben sandwiches in the NY deli (both in Disneysea), which I'd eat while watching Fantasmic. I had several of each over my days there! By the way, the rides with single rider can vary. On my visit last Fall, they only had it for one ride in each park: Splash Mountain and Indy. I even double-checked with guest relations to make sure I didn't miss any. For each, you got in the Fastpass line, then split off at the point where you would normally turn in your fastpass.

^ On my visit, it was even temperamental between the two trains. One train was definitely rougher than the other. I mostly rode in the back two rows. On one train, the second to back row was as rough as the back wheel seat on the other train. And the back row of that train was OUCH! (It also didn't help that the rougher train had a much tighter seatbelt in the seat I generally rode in.) It was definitely rough. But it was more aggressive than bad rough, to me at least. And it was a good enough ride that I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to. I've gotten a lot less tolerant of rough woodies over the years since the ECO. I enjoyed it back then, though the wheel seats were rough. I expected to give it a token ride or two to see how it was running, and then probably leave the park. But I was enjoying it enough that I rode it a good half dozen times, with 20-30 minute waits. I probably still have a lot more tolerance than most enthusiasts for a rough ride, if it's also a really good ride. Remember, Voyage is my #1 wood by far, though I've only ridden it early in the season during HWN and an ACE Con, before it got really rough. So take my opinion from that perspective.

^ Traversing Asia on my own was a big challenge. But over the years, I've become pretty self-reliant on overseas trips, unlike my first Japan trip in '05, where I was totally intimidated, and didn't explore much outside of the organized trip. Trip planning for Asia was definitely a much bigger challenge than it has been for anywhere else I've been. The language barrier is the hardest part, since online translating doesn't help on webpage buttons (which of the 7 Chinese menu buttons and 5 sub-menus for each will get me the schedule or directions?!?) or on graphics. And a lot of parks have their public transportation directions in graphics. Luckily, I got help from some enthusiasts who had been to these countries before (including Elissa for Japan), which helped tremendously. And Candice from Roller Coaster Dream China helped with some of the Taiwanese park pages. Taxis being cheap in Korea, Taiwan and China helped a LOT. Taiwan was definitely the most challenging leg. And it didn't help that I was a little burnt out of travel by that point. Luckily, I managed pretty well, with only one major problem. Although missing the last train of the night, with my hotel hundreds of miles away and my phone down to 4% battery was a pretty big problem! But I survived it, as you'll see.

Do you really want to be telling us exactly where we can find a plush Shiriki? And your nonsense is more fun than most people's sense!

I rode it in July. Would you believe it was tolerable? I didn't actually know that it was retracked until this thread got bumped by your question. But I haven't ridden it since 2002, so I figured that some work have been done on it over the years. By no means was it smooth. But it was rideable, and even somewhat (I stress somewhat here!) enjoyable -- which is a major improvement. It's still not going to be making any top 10 lists. But maybe it will move up from the very bottom tier, once enough people have ridden it. Of course, most enthusiasts who have the credit probably won't ride it again, which means it will never jump up much in Mitch's poll, since they'll be ranking it on the pre-retracking rides.

For the Boston area, it's probably Spookyworld, which is now up in New Hampshire. They have a ton of mazes, though honestly, none of them seem terribly world class. I've been to two haunted houses in New York City: Blood Manor and Nightmare. Both of them supposedly use world-class broadway costumers and makeup people. Blood Manor was pretty good, but I have been really impressed with Nightmare on the years I've visited. Every year, they come up with a theme, then ask their fans to submit real nightmares they've had about that theme. They incorporate the best into their house. What I like most about it is that they really build an air of creepiness better than I've seen elsewhere. it's more about a building sense of dread and terror, rather than gore or just cheap scares. Kind of like the difference between Paranormal Activity and Friday the 13th.

As always, great TR, Chuck! I wish I'd seen the Shiriki last fall when I was there! I'd have totally bought it. My main souvenir buying (besides t0shirts) on my Asia trip was small plushies that I could put on an X-mas tree. They were small and more importantly, LIGHT, which was important with the airlines' tight weight restrictions! But I ended up finding so many of them that I now have too many for my small tree! (And I live in a small apartment, so I don't have room for a bigger tree!) For those who can't get enough of Japan, and in particular Tokyo Disney's two parks, they'll be the last stop on my Asia PTR, when I finally get to that point in a few months. I planned my trip to end up on a high note. As a bonus, I was there (and Universal, too!) during their Halloween celebration, so I got lots of pictures of their Halloween theming.

So, with this last update, I'm more or less at the halfway point of my epic Asia trip, and the epic Asia Photo Trip Report! (Well, technically, one more day would make halfway, but this is a better place to celebrate it, since it's the end of the first leg of the TPR Best of China tour.) Yes, believe it or not, this is only the halfway point! Is this the longest Photo TR in TPR history?! Coming soon: we fly to Shanghai, for the second half of the China trip. The next day is all culture -- with one bonus coaster credit high up in a tower. The culture fans should enjoy the next few updates, since Shanghai is a gorgeous city, with a spectacular skyline. And we got to admire it from two different tall towers (day and night views) and a wonderful night river cruise. Plus, some ancient temples, a Korean Fun House (in China!), a urinal with a view, a major touristy shopping street, a walk along the river's bund and so much more! And some credit whoring, too, for the coaster fans. And believe it or not, a really good Vekoma Deja Vu clone! Plus another mega-lite! And a coaster so rough that riders had to wear rubber boxing/wrestling helmets! And the awesome Gravity Group Fireball woodie. Then we visit the park with all (VERY well done) the World of Warcraft ripoff theming (and an AMAZING B&M flying coaster!), Dinoconda! (an S&S 4D), and Knight Valley's amazing GCI Wood Coaster on the side of a mountain at a park with spectacular views. Disaster strikes as our last flight of the day gets cancelled and we find later ourselves on a spooky farm in the middle of nowhere at night! But we survive and eventually cross the border into Hong Kong, where the amazing Ocean Park and the city's Disneyland awaits us, along with spectacular views from Victoria Peak, a sampan ride on the water and the city's laser night show. From there, the TPR China trip is over, but I'm not done. I stay in Hong Kong an extra couple of days and take the cable car up to the world's tallest outdoor Bhudda, go back to Ocean Park for its awesome world class Halloween event, and jump off a huge tower in Macau, home to casinos even more grand and lavish than those in Vegas. Then it's on to Taiwan, where I see a bunch of temples and crazy night markets, ride the Vekoma Tilt Coaster that everyone's now talking about and visit some very well themed parks. And disaster strikes again, as I miss the last train of the night, with my hotel hundreds of miles away and my phone's battery almost empty, in a city where almost no one speaks English! Finally, I save the best for last, going back to Japan. I visit Osaka's awesome Aquarium and Universal's first full Halloween Horror Nights, which is the busiest I've ever seen any park in my life (3-4 hour queues!) Then it's on to one of my very favorite coasters, the powerful B&M inverted Pyrenees, and a quick stop at Nagashima Spaland to finally get rides on Steel Dragon 2000. But I saved the VERY best for last, with Tokyo Disney's two amazing parks -- during their Halloween celebration! And of course, there will be toilet stories! And an absolutely hilarious run-in between three gay guys and a middle aged hooker! So, there's plenty still to come! Stick with me for this epic journey!

The FACV was a really weird, but neat place. Part traditional amusement park, part outdoor museum, part cable car to a gorgeous lake. The more modern section to the front center and right (including the building) seemed really out of place, especially with all of the anime theming there. But outside of the front middle and right section, the rest is supposed to be about the aboriginal peoples. It's not just the Taiwanese ones, either. It's all sorts of aboriginals, including displays of Native Americans and many others. It's also why the SLC is themed to the Mayan native people. That SLC had some of the nicest theming I've seen on a coaster, with the lift and station enclosed by a mock Mayan pyramid and temple. There was also a small waterfall that the train almost runs into. And restaurants inside the temple complex, so you can watch the coaster going around you. Of course, it's still an SLC! On that long trek down, there were all sorts of outdoor displays of native peoples doing everything from getting married to hunting to playing games. There were also several shows and dance routines and the like that they held in that section of the park, though I didn't try to catch any of them. I found the setup of the cable cars really interesting. The first one was completely within the park, and was mainly there to get you up and down the long mountain path to the top. But the second one is outside park property and is jointly run by the park and the city/lake. If you are coming from the park, it's free. But you can also pay to come from the lake side, and will have to turn around at the park's station. There is a park entrance in that cable car station. I imagine that it's kind of how they'll run the new train between the parks at Universal Florida. Was the log flume open? It was closed on my visit, but looked like it had really extensive theming.

If this park does open, it will make for a nice add-on with Seoul, since it's just outside the city. This will make Seoul even more of a coaster destination city, combined with Everland and Lotte World (plus some smaller parks.)

I haven't been on Outlaw Run yet, but of all the woodies I've been on, I'd have to go with El Toro, especially in the back seat.

I tried to avoid public toilets in China whenever possible, especially in the smaller parks. In the bigger parks, one big trick many of us (particularly the women) learned was to look for handicapped bathrooms. They almost always had regular toilets, rather than the dreaded squat toilets. After all, can you imagine a person in a wheelchair trying to use a squat toilet? This may sound odd, but I actually find discussions like this to be really interesting. Travel is so much more than just the coasters you ride or the touristy sites you see. It's these weird little things that make it all so interesting -- if occasionally disgusting. But they give us great stories to tell when we get back! The subject of bathrooms will come up again in this PTR several times! I have a particularly funny story to tell when we get to Fisherman Wharf in two trip days. For some reason, I'm now trying to imagine what it would be like trying to toilet train a small child on a squat toilet....

^ Time shouldn't be a problem at all. There really isn't much you can do about hurricanes. One will either happen or it won't. There's really no point in worrying about it. Most likely you'll be fine. I've never seen any park in central Florida completely close for the whole day for a buyout. The worst case would be them closing an hour or so early, but even that probably wouldn't happen. Check the park's schedule online.

Great TR so far! I'm glad to see them running Kawasemi without a full train. I wonder if they were mainly doing it because you guys and/or the Intamin rep were there? On my visit last Fall, they wouldn't run it without a full train. Since the park was very slow, that often meant waiting for 10-20 minutes. Luckily, there was one period where there were a bunch of people riding a few times each, so I got a bunch of rides during that time, plus a few other scattered rides. But I'd have definitely ridden a bunch more times, if it hadn't meant sitting there for so much longer. Luckily, there were still two more Mega-Lites on that trip with TPR in China, with filming sessions on each, so we could get a bunch of rides!