USRoadTripper

I collect Mold-a-rama figurines and if anyone would like to give me any, I'd be more than willing to pay you for the shipping costs! PM me if you have any that are of no use to you anymore!

I think Tibidabo has the best location...on top of a mountain in Barcelona, overlooking the Mediterranean! But for this poll, I voted for Cedar Point, with Kennywood being a close second! -Julie Beautiful...if only I had a few more hours in Spain, I'd go there

I will speak up for poor Top Thrill Dragster! I liked it head and shoulders above all the other rides in the park, especially Millenium Force! I'd guess Gemini was my second favorite, with honorable mentions going to Magnum, Disaster Transport and Blue Streak. -Julie

So I am flying to Spain in May on US Airways. I was hoping to get some reactions from people about what the food is like on these long flights. And I'd really like specifics about what was served, not just if you liked it or not. I am sort of concerned that I'll get on the plane for my 9 hour flight and will be served something I won't eat, and will be uncomforably hungry when I get there. Elissa, being a fellow picky eater, how do you deal with this? Do you order veggie meals? Kosher meals? Do you just take your own food so as not to risk going without a meal? -Julie

I'd completely disagree that Epcot is a half day park. I can spend an entire day in Epcot and still not see everything. And I'd never recommend that you go to Epcot and not see World Showcase...it is tremendously well done and a geat place to hang out for an evening. Epcot should definitely not be short changed. Also, why avoid the Safari at Animal Kingdom??? It is one of the park's star attractions, the largest attraction at WDW, and can be very beautiful and entertaining. Not sure why anyone would want to avoid it! My suggestion would be to get the three day park hoppers, and go between the parks. You could spend half a day each at Animal Kingdom and the Studios, and a full day each at Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Since you say you are not into thrill rides much, Animal Kingdom and Studios could be easily done together in one day. I stayed at Coronado Springs once and really enjoyed it. It was a very pretty resort, though the food seemed overpriced, and it can be a terribly long walk to the front if you are in one of the farther buildings. I stayed at Pop Century this past December and really loved it! I thought it was a great value for the price, and would probably pick it again over a moderate. But I think that if you pick Coronado, you will probably be very pleased with it. -Julie

Dude...I love the video! That night was so much fun! Can't wait to see what other video clips will come out of that weekend! -Julie

Currently, the closest is the SBNO King Coaster at Nashville Valley Amusement Park (how sad and pathetic is that?). Aside from that one, the next closest would be either Kentucky Rumbler or Wild Mouse at Beech Bend, since I'm not sure which way the park is oriented north/south. If Opryland was still around, the closest would be Screamin' Delta Demon. -Julie

At this second, Kevin on a Stick is on my parents dining room table! Tomorrow he's moving home with me, where is permanent location is as of yet unknown. And of course he can come with us to Spain. He's flat...he'll fit well in the carry on luggage! The beotch ride op on Hulk made me either stick him in my pocket or throw him away, so his arm got a bit smushed when I had to stick him in my pocket during the ride. After that, he spent a lot of time hanging out in lockers! But he did get to ride Everest four times, as well as Tower of Terror and a bunch of others. -Julie

Star Flyer and Old Town pics! Alas, it was time for me to leave. But not before getting the "OMG I met the Alveys! They are SOOO awesome! Look, I'm touching them, so I am cool by association!!!" picture. I'm already looking forward to the next TPR meet I can attend! We also find two things that remind us all of Barry! Tom tries to turn Elissa into Baby Spice. I think the Americans who were with him were much more entertained by this than Tom was! Next, Elissa and Tom rode the G-Force drag racers. These things go insanely fast...109 mph was the speed on one of their runs, I believe. And what would a sky coaster ride be without a little random violence and chin bludgeoning? After a brief stop in the arcade to win some vampire teeth, we headed over to Old Town. Here is Tom getting suited up for his first sky coaster ride! Here is a close up of the chains that hold you. Seriously, it's like chain you'd chain up your chihuahua with, not chain you should trust your life to 200 feet in the air! When we were done at Universal, we went to ride the Star Flyer at Magical Midway. Only four or five of us rode, but the ride was really fun! These are the seats...not the most sturdy looking seats ever!

IOA and Universal pics! Elissa attributes the devastating loss to shrinkage. And there they go. The other team caught three octopi, where Elissa's partner only caught two And here she is, rancid octopus in hand, while the stagehand behind her says "I give Elissa's butt in a harness a thumbs up!" For the next stunt, she had to toss "rancid octopus" to her partner, and he would catch it in a bucket. Here she is selecting three octopi. In the next stunt, her partner had to fish bean bags out of an eel tank, and she had to catch them in this bucket while dangling in the air. After easily winning the first stunt, Elissa contributes her win to the fact that she has a large penis. Next, we all went to watch Elissa compete in the Fear Factor show! Flattering shot, huh? After lunch, we went to Universal Studios. Tom and Joe wanted to get the Woody credit, so we all waited for them. But check out the dude in front of them...they're not the only credit whores in the train! Robb also proceeded to collect up all the palm tree swords from the drinks and torture us all with them the rest of the day. Next, it was off to Margaritaville, where Tom enjoyed Robb's cherry. I also ended up with five huge pickle slices! While they rode, the rest of us climbed up into Me Ship the Olive for pictures. Erik, how you ever managed to squeeze yourself into that tiny little box, I will never know! Evasive maneuvers! Right! Left! Neither of them got very wet, surprisingly. Robb finds a unique way of keeping his shoes dry when he and Tom ride Bilge Rat Barges. Everyone appeared to really enjoy it! At IOA, we started with Hulk, then did Dueling Dragons, and eventually everyone ended up on Jurassic Park. I waited through 14 empty boats during a breakdown to get this shot!

More pics To end out the night, I got a ride on Haunted Mansion with two hot pieces of man meat. I think Soren has a better version of this pic! This is the best pic I have seen thus far of the ultra crazy Big Thunder ride! We all got a good laugh out of the fact that Sorens first US coaster credit was Goofy's Barnstormer! Soren is very pleased to meet Kevin. He also attempted to do the coconut race, but what denied since all the coconuts were already taken. Then he went all Incredible Hulk on his broom. This was my view while Robb was learning to hula. Sexy? You be the judge. Then it was off to dinner at Ohana, where Robb took the opportunity to get leid and learn the hula. We all split up for a while before dinner, so a group of us went to Magic Kingdom. Erik and Derek got Dole Whips, which were awesome until Dereks brain nearly exploded because of it. I have no clue what the hell this hat is supposed to be, but Kevin loved it! Here, I told the guys to look like macho men and I was gonna take their picture. Hmm...well, thanks for at least giving it your best try! Maybe we will try again later! Everyone riding Tower of Terror (except me!) Robb also takes a moment to play with his man boobs. Robb gives Kevin a close encounter of the Beaker kind in the Tower of Terror queue. Once we were all done, we packed up and headed over to Disney/MGM Studios.

So I'm back home after my awesome weekend It was just what I needed though...a few days to just get away and have fun! But I am so sore...OMG it will take my calves a week to get over all the walking I did! Well here are my pics! I am only posting unique ones that others haven't posted yet. -Julie Everyone shares in an Elissa friendly snack, including Kevin. Derek goes for a tasty dung ball snack in the Tough to be a Bug queue. I think this photo fills the quota for "WTF is up with Robb's forehead???" pics for this trip. Dave and Erik have a good time on Triceratops Spin. After the ride, both Kevin and Elissa agree that these rides spin way too much! Kevin is VERY excited to be riding Primeval Whirl! Next, it was off to Primeval Whirl so a few people could get their credits (only the right side was open, so it was only one credit for Tom!) After the ride, Joe encounters some odd merchandise in the gift shop, and is quick to point out that yes, the ride *is* made by Vekoma! It's Erik! Erik appears to love Everest. A group shot in the Everest queue. Most of us were still creditless at this point! The next morning, we were all wide awake and ready to conquer Everest. Let the antics begin! Beforehand, I decided to take Soren a little "welcome to the States" gift, so what's better that White Castles? Boy's gotta have some good, healthy American food right?

Nice update...so nice in fact, that it made me alter my avatar just a bit. <--- -Julie

Those are inside Wonders of Life, so they are there but not used anymore. One was Disneyland, one was "giant world" or something where you are tiny and huge stuff is all around you, and I don't remember what the third one was. They were called Wondercycles. -Julie

What are your top 10 favorite fruits? Mine are: 1 - Strawberries 2 - Mango 3 - Grapes 4 - Kiwi 5 - Plums 6 - Peaches 7 - Apricots 8 - Pears 9 - Star Fruit 10 - Apples -Julie

I tend to read most, if not all of the TRs posted here, and I find most of them quite enjoyable. I just don't tend to reply to very many because one can only say "Nice TR!" so many times before it gets a little old! I read your latest one and thought that you had a lot of great Goliath pics, but it seemed more like a "Goliath update" than a real TR since there were very few pics from other places in the park. When I write TRs, I write them for myself, and I put into them the stuff that I want to remember about my day. I tell where I went, where I ate, what I ate, if I bought anything, if anything funny happened...and that's the kind of stuff I like to read about. I like knowing what hotel someone stayed in, or what they ordered for lunch, or if they hit traffic on the way home. It makes it a little more interesting to me. That's just the way I see it...your mileage may vary, of course! All the pictures I take, and any TRs I write, I do them for myself. If others wanna enjoy it too, great! If not, that's ok too! -Julie

OMG...I translated my website on the dialectizer into "Swedish Chef" dialect, and it is absolutely hilarious! Flergee flergee bork bork! -Julie

What I think I hate the most about the GP is how they think that rules apply to everyone except them. And this isn't just in amusement parks because I see it every night at my hotel! There is a sign that clearly says that we lock our front doors at night, and to use you key to get in. But every night, some idiot decides that that that rule doesn't apply to him, and that he needs to pry open or break down the doors to get in. They walk into our cordoned off restraurants and make themselves at home, they break open our locked ice cream freezer in the gift shop...the list goes on and on. I am not sure why people think that they can just go anywhere they like despite the fact that they are clearly being told they can't. In December, I saw an entire family jump over the rails at Spaceship Earth so they didn't have to wait. When a friend asked what they were doing, the father was like "I'm getting in line!!!" Oh, so I guess you and you alone are exempt from waiting in line like everyone else. Of course. I didn't realize who I was speaking to I also can't stand when the GP insists on what they are saying is true, when they realy have no clue what they are talking about. Like how you will hear people say "Yeah, I rode the roller coaster inside the big ball at Epcot and it was awesome! It flipped me upside down 10 times!" Get real hahaha I have no tolerance for flaunting your ignorance, and that is ignorance, plain and simple. -Julie

Those pics make me very sad, and I never even went to Astroworld. I'm glad I never saw pics like that of Opryland. -Julie

I've pretty much always liked flat rides. Since I was about 6 or 7, I'd ride everything at Opryland, including the Shoot the Chutes, the Log Flume and all. But it took some friends from church literally dragging me onto Rockin' Roller Coaster before I would ride the coasters. But then once I rode them, I loved all the ones there! Anything really big (mainly Hangman, Chang and everything at SFGAm in 1996 except Whizzer!) I wouldn't ride until I was 20. On my 20th birthday, I rode Rock N Roller Coaster at MGM Studios, and that sealed in the love of coasters. There have really only been two since then that I have been scared of...S:RoS SFNE and Top Thrill Dragster. But after riding Top Thrill Dragster, I don't think I will ever be scared of a coaster again! -Julie (500th post! Woohoo!!!)

Thought I would share his website that I found with everyone. I have no affiliation with this woman whatsoever, but I think her work is just beautiful! She paints rides, concessions stands, signs, pretty much anything having to do with amusement parks. Some are carnivals, and some are from places like Knoebels, Kennywood, Cedar Point, Trimpers and Conneaut Lake. She sells some of the original paintings, and prints, notecards, etc. If any of you are interested, check it out! http://www.5centride.com/carnival.php?start=0&num_per_page=10 -Julie Knoebels bumper cars (www.5centride.com)

One of my very favorite memories of Disney was when I was on my College Program. I had an evening off, so I went to Epcot, got a bite to eat, then sat on the bridge between China and the Outpost to watch Tapestry of Nations and IllumiNations. There was a mom and dad with a little girl who was maybe 5 or 6 years old sitting on the other side of the bridge, and we were the only people in the area. So as Tapestry started, all the puppets kept walking straight by them, without a single one stopping to interact with the little girl. She kept jumping up, waving at them, yelling to them, but no one stopped. Finally, the very last puppet of the parade was coming across the bridge, and it stopped to let the little girl touch it's hand! The litle girl absolutely lit up, and was so, so excited to have gotten attention from one of them finally. It was a beautiful moment to see! Then, as the puppet passed me...I saw that it was one of my friends in the costume! Of course I got all weepy since I am such a girl like that. She had made my day by making the little girl's day! Later, when I told her the story, she said that she had no idea just how much impact that one little thing had had on the four people in the area! She had no idea that no other puppets had interacted with her, she had no idea just how happy the girl acted afterwards, and she had no clue that it had brightened my day so much. Since that happened, that has always been the best example I have seen of Disney Magic. It made me proud to be a part of a company that can provide such lasting memories for it's patrons, and provide so much joy even years later. -Julie

Mine is horrible...so is my mom's! I appear to have a huge dimple on my right cheek, I look buck-toothed and my head appears to taper up to a point! And they caught my mom off guard so she looks very annoyed or tired or something equally unpleasant! My Sams Club card is pretty bad too. It squished my head, so my head is very thin and I appear to have a huge gap between my front teeth! -Julie

I completely agree with Joe, that Lake Winnie and Lake Compounce are my two favorite too. I've never been on a more relaxing ride than the Compounce Mountain Sky Ride! -Julie

We get Faygo. but I know lots of places don't. We also get RC, Sundrop, Squirt and Jones Soda. And we used to get Cheerwine but we don't anymore! -Julie