Playland (PNE) Vancouver Discussion Thread

[Nrthwnd]

^ Just to let you know, there are COKE Freestyle machines all in the Cineplex movie theatre complexes.

There's one at Metropolis Cineplex, and one at International Village Cineplex, where we see movies.

 

And congrats on getting 'one inch closer' to Beast Nirvana!

[KingOfNynex2003]

good to know, I go to Colossus Langley because it's the closest to my house.

[Nrthwnd]

^ We like most of the COKE mixes, including cherry, lime, orange, vanilla... and cherry-vanilla!

[Nrthwnd]

Okay. Here's what I thought of the PNE's Alien Worlds & Androids Exhibit.....

 

Not much. A mostly static display of information, statues of well known robots

and non-, and the one "movie experience" in it, is really a very dumbed down version

of Soarin' .

 

I really wasn't impressed with it, compared to the past two years' PNE displays

(Game of Thrones '14 and Beatles '15). It just needed more. A lot more. And you could

tell word had gotten around, as there was hardly anybody in the building.

 

And not even a supposed obvious gift shop at the exit, like the past two exhibits.

 

I was very disappointed. But I got a bit of a respite with the exit leading to the

PNE Grounds' Japanese Garden area. Truly quiet and tranquil. A nice stop before leaving.

 

*And sorry, my friend djcoastermark. I did indeed tease you. There were no "HOT BOTS" to be found.

Remember that entry hallway in the Aliens/Android exhibit building?

Here's who you run into, first.

I totally forgot it's name, purpose, and "off switch." (o;

Oooo lit archway with film!

Stuff.

Strike a pose.

R2D2 in there....somewhere. Repping androids of all types and sizes.

Guess who?

OMG they're already HERE on Earth???

Of course it was Him!

Robbie sadly, just stands there.

Alien? Yup. Got a movie named after it.

The Attraction inside.

Brought to you from....California!

One last look.

Out the Exit door and into this.

The Japanese Garden with the building behind it.

Auditorium Trivia: My first and only time I saw PINK FLOYD, was in here! Lemon scented smoke and everything!

A Port of Vancouver display. Um...yeah.

Marketplace. Paper dresses in the front there. Visiting it......later on.

Buh bye again PNE.

Edited August 28, 2016 by Nrthwnd

[djcoastermark]

The gardens look beautiful. Are they open year round? It looks like a place I would like to visit for hours with a good book to read.

[Nrthwnd]

^ Yes the gardens and green space is open, year round. The PNE kind of "wraps around" the green space

with it's fencing, so going into this area and out if it is easy. It's a half-hour+ time for me to walk to The PNE,

and we do have a number of nice little parks close near by, which are just as nice, but not as big.

 

But during the PNE itself, this place is magical, and totally removed from all the "fair noise" in certain spots, too!

I some times buy food and a drink, then wander into the park area and find a nice quiet spot to myself, without

wrecking any of the natural plants growing there. Plenty of benches around, to be found.

 

And right there in front of Bldg #2 (the GARDEN AUDITORIUM), is where my Japanese Garden photos were taken.

Unfortunately, during the PNE's run, the green space becomes part of the grounds, so you can't enter it, until the Fair

is over, after Labor Day weekend. But after that, it's open to enjoy...until the next PNE, heh.

It's a pretty big area when you are actually there, in it. (o: And you can fish there, too! (See #16)

Edited August 28, 2016 by Nrthwnd

[Nrthwnd]

at PNE today and found a Coca Cola Freestyle booth which I've wanted to try for years but have never seen any in Canada, got the collectors cup because I want to try as many combinations as I can, and for lunch I had the Mac & Cheese stuffed burger, it was alright, nothing too spectacular but still good, oh and I tried getting onto The Beast again, didn't get on it but I'm about 1" away from it locking for me, which I can hopefully do by Fright Nights.

 

Wait a sec. Do you mean The Beast Drink Cup? Refillable? In usually three colours availabe?

 

Or one just for COKE only? I know where the stand is, but it never occurred to me, a refillable

cup of their own, was available there.

 

And I forgot about their Mac-stuffed Cheeseburger! Thanks for reminding me.

What I got, and have used this past couple of years.

Edited August 28, 2016 by Nrthwnd

[Nrthwnd]

Rats - accidental Double Post, sorry.

 

In the meantime....

......The RIB FEST is coming up, after Tuesday's visit. Yum.

[KingOfNynex2003]

it's separate from The Beast collector cup, it's only available from the Coca Cola Freestyle booth near the farm exhibit and the Duelling Pianos but you can choose from many types of flavours in this one, I'm just seriously po'd right now, I was looking forward to seeing Foreigner again and they said they wouldn't allow anybody in before 7PM, me and my mom went there around 6:15 and the lineup was outside of the fair grounds and when we eventually got in we find out that they've cordoned off most of the seats and they're all the good seats for watching the concerts, you had to buy advance tickets beforehand, since having double leg surgery I can't stand in one place for too long and it was pretty much standing room only by the time we got in there, my mom tried one of the employees to even get me a seat so I could enjoy the concert but the only thing the guy could say was to sit on the grass, I then went to a Manager and started complaining that they're charging to watch a supposed "free" concert with admission to the park, and he said that they only had 40% of the place for paid seating, which is complete BS, it was at least 70%-80% taken up by paid seating, I get that they charged for the seats near the stage, but when they charge for most of the bleachers it's a complete joke, the only seats available were on the extreme edges of the place, to see the people you'd need to watch the screens for the entire concert, not exactly the best way to watch one of the hottest rock bands on the face of the Earth right now. sorry about this, rant over.

[Nrthwnd]

^ Sorry to read that happening to you. At this time, I have never really taken on any of the

PNE Concert Series concerts, that have been offered in past years. Till this one.

 

I got myself a reserved seat for Culture Club, tomorrow night. I figured with all of those gp

I know who will wait HOURS in their free prime spots for a concert... I just didn't want to deal

with that, So treating this all like a theme park visit, I paid for a closer spot to see the concert.

 

I remember waiting forever in a fairly good seat for their Timber Show, a year or so ago. Not a

big thing, it turned out. So, unless it was something like a Tokyo Disneyland Parade, where they

secure a spot for HOURS on the parade routes, I wasn't going to waste that much time. So I

bought the ticket online.

[KingOfNynex2003]

I hate the fact that they made all the good seats in the bleachers an up charge, who would want to go see a Concert where you have to watch a screen the entire time to see any of the band members right?

[Nrthwnd]

^ I know. Life sucks when they do stuff like that. All for profit, of course. But, what can ya do?

Like I said before, I just treat the PNE visits like I'm going to an out-of-town theme park, and

deal with all that'$ involved, with upcharges and costs, etc.

 

PNE Visit #3 ~ Wed.August 24th ~ More Hot Dogs, More Beer...and some MAGIC!

 

This was my first "reserved seat" show (the other is Culture Club, being seen tonight). It was

labled as the "VIP Experience", and got you a bit of a pre-show backstage, free popcorn, and

of course your reserved seat, which was in one of four rows at the front. The rest of the seats

were all free, for those who didn't want to pay the extra $.

 

But first. Food and more beer! I checked out another corn dog stall at the Fair, and another

hot dog stand: Crazy Dogs. It wasn't too bad, and I would get another one, if i so desired it.

 

Nothing had changed at the Beer Fest, so I tried a couple of new beers, and repeated a fave from

my first visit there.

 

Here's the first set of photos from that day.....

Best - Bus - Ever! I discovered that this bus # made only two stops from my transfer point, to get to The Fair. Awesome!

Heading down Renfrew St. (west side of The Fair) to the Coliseum Entry gate.

Here we are.

I will be back here, later.

And these Angry Guys, I'll be seeing in the coming week.

A new corn dog to try. Couldn't miss this stand if I tried to, LOL!

It was good. And I got my 'dessert' from a Nutella stand!

Won myself a cooler bag, at the BCAA Membership tent.

Little signs are now up, to lead you to The Fest.

Ta daah!

Thety were here last year, and I enjoyed their Citrus WIT. But it's not here this year.

However, what I did try was just as nice, smooth, and certainly worth another drink.

So much space. So few people.

A favourite from last year's Beer Fest is back! Woo hoo!

What The Huck is just as good as it was last year. With yes, Huckleberry in it!

She looked so lonely there. I decided to make her feel better, and got some IPA.

It was good! I thought I could actually taste a bit of the honey in it, too.

Edited August 28, 2016 by Nrthwnd

[KingOfNynex2003]

I went into the Angry Birds Universe Exhibit and it was good, when you go next time get there for opening and go there first, the lineup to do the slingshot when I went yesterday was insane, it took nearly an hour to do it, but it was totally worth the wait time for it, the Lazer Maze was alright, but not my thing, will be back on Friday with some of my magician friends if you'd like to join us, should've got the Gate Season Pass though as this'll be my 3rd visit this year

Here was my lunch I got from Cheese Please, it's a grilled cheese with BC Cheddar, Ham, and Caramelized Onions.

this is called a Neat Seat, I've got some that I bought from Indiegogo called KAISR Original, they're pretty much the same as these ones though and are super comfy, at PNE they're selling them 1 for $70 or 2 for $120 and if you buy 5 you get the 6th free.

the building on the left is mine the one on the right is my friend that we destroyed at the Angry Birds Universe Exhibit.

[Nrthwnd]

^ Good to remember, re: opening time entry. I think that was my original plan,

from what I had seen during the day, during my previous visits to The Fair.

 

And the Angry Birds Exhibit looks great, inside! I look forward to seeing it.

I've had a couple of the cheese sandwiches at the Cheese Please! stall

in Playland. They were good, too.

 

[KingOfNynex2003]

it's a lot of fun in there but I wish they could make a zip line that adults can go on as well, the maximum height for the one in there is 60" and I'm 73" tall a little bit too tall to go on it

[Nrthwnd]

^ Yeah, I already checked about that, at the tickets booth,

at the entrance to it. I'm 68" tall. 8" too tall, darnit.

[KingOfNynex2003]

yeah I know what that's like, as for that Coca Cola Freestyle here's what it looks like.

[Nrthwnd]

^ Oooooooo.

 

I'm such a fool for these things, lol.

For example.... (o; I'm off to The PNE now. And Culture Club! Abientot!

[KingOfNynex2003]

nice, if you're on the PNE Side the Coca Cola Freestyle Collectors Cup is the way to go and you can choose from so many different flavours, before I left the grounds last night I went with a real swamp water mixture, I got all 8 of the Fanta Zero flavours, I don't remember all of them but the ones I do remember were:

Strawberry

Peach

Lime

Grape

Fruit Punch

Cherry

Orange

Raspberry

OK looks like I remember all of them my mom said it tasted like an alcoholic drink she used to have, can't think of it though, you should get that combination when you're down there and let me know what it tastes like.

[Nrthwnd]

^ Been back a couple of hours from the visit, tonight. Got the COKE Cup! And will use it on a couple more visits.

 

But more importantly.... last night's concert with CULTURE CLUB at The Fair....

 

It - Was - Awesome!!!

 

Here's a couple of pix from it. Will "report" more on it, later this week.

Here's George & Co. from my seat, with zoom.

On the Big Screen, in George's "other outfit". (o;

[Nrthwnd]

Another Hot Dog ~ And "Unbelieveable!"

 

The Uubelieveable show was really good. The "VIP Tour" ahead of the main show was 'okay.' It was mainly set up

for the kids, which was fine. One of the magicians did some up close magic with cards, which was fun to see. Up close. (o;

The popcorn was a bit dry, but still for a freebie, okay. And we got easy access to our seats, too.

 

The main show itself was great. A straightjacket act; swords and knives into boxes (with people inside) with another act;

Juliana Chen doing her wild "card trick" which is producing cards. And more cards and more cards and more... It was

exhausting to watch. And wondering where she kept that GInormous stack of cards on her, lol. It was a fun show.

 

After the show was over, it was out of the park and back to home for me.

After the Beer Fest, now to find food!

I hadn't tried this before, so...why not?

I picked this one.

Then into the Plaza Garden, with a cider to enjoy my dog. A messy one, but enjoyable.

Now hold still. And...

Open wide, please? (o;

Dessert.

Probably not "actual" Dole Whip, but still tasty with pineapple bits throughout.

Just a water fountain. But a very good water fountain, it was. No dribbling, here.

Extra dessert! They were giving away samples all day.

I had the "mixed fruit cup" with Nutella on it.

My evening show. The reserved seats got in early for a "pre-show" and free popcorn, before the actual show started. Cool!

Uh, where do we go?

View from the sidelines. My seat is waaaay down in the front row there.

OMG I'm floating!

Posters of bygone magicians and illusionists.

Looking back from my seat. They also put me up on the big screens as: "Santa On His Day Off". Great fun!

Stage view, with moving camera.

Just before showtime.

On the way home from The Fair.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Nrthwnd

[KingOfNynex2003]

glad you liked the magic show, Trevor and Murray are good friends of mine, they're both great magicians but I actually prefer when Trevor is with his wife Lorena, they've got an amazing doubles act that is one of the best in the world, if you check out Trevor & Lorena on YouTube you'll see them performing together.

[Nrthwnd]

^ I believe I will enjoy a tiny bit more, again, when I see it tomorrow night with David i.e."Our Day at The PNE"

The seats we have are much further into the middle, than what I got last Wed. And the guy with the camera won't

be so much in the way of our viewing the stage itself. So that'll be nice.

 

And the free popcorn.

[KingOfNynex2003]

yeah I'm going again to the show on Friday and I've got 5 seats near the middle, I was in Row 1 Seat 1 when I went last Friday.

[Nrthwnd]

^ Ha! The other night, I was in Row 1 Seat 4.

And we had a bit of camera in our way. Tomorrow night's seats are much better.

...And if you put this one and above one (the magician took two of me in mid air) together, it makes for quite a Flicker Page, lol!