Photo TR: TPR Behemoth/Flyer Mini-Trip

[printersdevil78]

So here it is, the 15th or so Behemoth/Flyer Mini-Trip report to be posted this week. But hopefully there will be a few things in here that aren't in the others--and vice versa.

 

I'm not being anywhere near hyperbolic when I say this trip represented the five and a half absolute best days (and nights and early, early mornings) of my life. For the past two years, TPR has been a lifeline for me. The forums, the TRs... they're what get me through the day. To actually meet a good majority of these people who have been staring back at me so long through the monitor--Jahan, Dan, All About Brian, and of course Robb, Elissa and KidTums--well, I can now imagine how a 3-year-old meeting Big Bird would feel.

 

The whole thing didn't become "real" for me (if it ever became "real" for me) until I happened to glimpse a TPR wristband on the first day's bus ride... and realized it was on MY wrist! I've spent the four days since it ended tugging at imaginary wristbands and laughing spontaneously when I remember a particularly great moment or quote from the trip (and drawing some fairly odd stares in the process, I must say). And for the record, ERT has spoiled me for life.

 

By our last night at the hotel, several of us were seriously discussing personal possessions we could sell to bankroll a full trip in 2009. Anybody need a kidney?

And we close with a random Alfred E. Neuman credit! Thanks, Seabreeze!

As are the Flyers and kiddie train.

And it's still there today.

Apparently the log flume has a long history at Seabreeze.

...as well as an actual piece of Seabreeze's old natatorium (AKA saltwater pool), which closed in 1931.

The museum also included vintage park tickets and brochures...

The museum and carousel were housed in this fantastic-looking carousel building.

And for those who want to watch while the kiddies ride... rocking chairs!

The centerpiece of the museum was Seabreeze's hand-carved carousel, built in the 1990s but designed to look much, much older.

Like the Jack Rabbit, the Bobselds are enshrined in the park's museum.

After my first ride, I called the Bobselds, "The Matterhorn if Six Flags had built it instead of Disney." Turns out I wasn't far off.

And what bobsled-themed ride would be complete without representation from the mighty Jamaican bobsled team?

OK, maybe it's a nerd shot, but on how many coasters are you going to find a brake like this? The car stopped at the end of the conveyor belt, which then carried the vehicle back to the load station for disembarking.

A few track images so those who have never been can get an idea of the random layout.

Now, the Bobselds (that's the official TPR spelling, according to the checklist we received) were more like it! I loved this unique little ride and rode it eight times throughout the day--six during ERT.

Fortunately, I rode Jack Rabbit before Whirlwind or else I still may be forming finger crosses, anti-vampire-style, at the sight of narrow-gauge tracks! This thing was like a Tilt-a-Whirl with random drops. It was one of the only two spinning coasters I tried on the trip.

And why wouldn't they? After all, Jack Rabbit has been around long enough to have been photographed in black and white, as this image from the park museum attests.

I love that they still used the wooden levers to start and stop most of the old woodies on this trip.

OK, confession time. Until this trip, I was assuredly not a coaster enthusiast. Amusement parks, yes. Rickety wood-and-steel death traps plummeting hundreds of feet in mere seconds, no. Had you asked me on the bus ride to Seabreeze if I had any intention of riding a single coaster during this trip, I would have told you, you were crazy. But the Jack Rabbit is... old. And I love old amusement park rides (Caterpillar, anyone?). So after about an hour of internal conflict, I decided to give it a try. And it was awesome! By the time it was all over, I nearly tripled my lifetime coaster count on this trip.

First stop: Jack Rabbit!

After our six-hour drive, we finally arrived at Seabreeze.

After pie and a near miss at getting my "Elissa Eats at McDonald's" square marked off for Elissa Bingo, I ducked into an "Everything's $1.00" store, where I was handsomely rewarded for my adventurousness with this bobble-head Jesus! What didn't make the photo TR was the cardboard display with the sign, "Assorted Medications Half-Price"--in other words, 50 cents for Gas-X. (Photo stolen from Robb--who actually made me look pretty good with his magic camera).

Was there anyone who didn't get a picture of one of the "Rob's Meat Sale" signs at the strip mall?

Most everyone else went to McDonald's, which had a sign saluting its soon-to-be employees. To be fair, a smattering also drifted over to Subway, Dunkin' Donuts and the Strip Mall Italian Restaurant of Death. Absolutely no one went to Arby's.

...for blueberry pie!

On the way from Philly to Rochester, we stopped for sustenance with plenty of options to choose from. Still full from my 10 a.m. cheesesteak breakfast, I risked my life running across the street to this place...

Robbie, upon passing another bus on the highway: "Oh, look, they're on a bus, too. What kind of food does their bus have on it? They don't have any food? They suck. We got grapes!"

Plus Rocky stood there. How can you not order your cheesesteak where Rocky stood?

I mean, Pat's actually has directions on how to order! And even more impressive, they found someone with the unlikely name of "I.M. Hungry" to write them!

As if that was a hard decision to make!

...or Geno's?

Of course, a morning in Philly just isn't complete without a traditional Philadelphia cheesesteak breakfast. The only question: Pat's...

We commenced the goodie exchange at the bar. For my money, the best stuff there (besides the Tim Tams) was this tray of multi-flavored pecans provided by Roxanne.

We tried to dine at this Denny's next door the night before. Unfortunately, a power outage left us Moons Over My-Hammy-less. After trying a sandwich shop down the street only to watch its power go out too as the waitress took the second or third drink order, we settled for the hotel bar.

They hadn't even bothered to change the parking passes over yet.

Day One: Philadelphia to Seabreeze Amusement Park, Rochester, NY. Our hotel in Philly was a Quality Inn, but apparently it hadn't been one for long....

[thecoasterkid]

Great update! The more trip reports from this trip the better!

 

Seabreeze seems like a cool little park. I haven't been there yet but I've got friends in Rochester, so it's only a matter of time before I head there to catch the credits.

 

You should definitely sell your kidney if that's what it takes to do a TPR trip! You'll need the fun and excitement from the trip more than you will your kidney!

[printersdevil78]

Day Two: Darien Lake Amusement Resort, Darien Center, NY, and Martin's Fantasy Island, Grand Island, NY.

Day Two began at Darien Lake, which has a reputation for being photo-unfriendly. Only today it wasn't.

Finally, back at the hotel, Neil needed to soak his foot for medical reasons. Which is why he has his foot in the trash can. I think.

 

Stay tuned for images from Behemoth Bash tomorrow!

The ride op and PR guy really got into it, high-fiving each trainful of TPRers as they went through. I spoke briefly with the PR guy afterward about his job with the park. I've worked in PR for five years, and I've never gotten to high-five anyone.

As you can see, we were all very excited to be there!

The one thing I can't figure out is why it's called the "Silver" Comet. The track and supports are brown wood. The cars are purple. Does brown + purple = silver on the Fantasy Island color wheel?

Some gratuitous track shots for those who like that sort of thing (which I imagine is most of you).

And then there was the one, the only Silver Comet. Which was my favorite coaster of the trip. For two days.

Of course, coasters were really the reason we were here. I braved this spinning mouse and liked it a lot better than the spinning coaster the day before. I heard a lot of people say it didn't spin that much for them. We must have worn it out because, using Natalie's patented "three people on the left" technique, we had our little pink mouse whirling like so many dervishes.

The park's currency exchange booth doubled as a beer stand!

Some of us enjoyed the star flyer more than others....

Eventually I decided to catch a ride on the star flyer. The views were spectacular, and we could just about make out Niagara Falls.

 

The best part, however, was when the kid in the seat in front of me kicked off his shoe at 100 feet. I have no clue where it landed, but I didn't see anyone walking around with a backwards "Nike" logo on their forehead, so maybe like the Viper incident years before, this ended happily.

We all had fun with the balloons Fantasy Island's PR guy gave us at dinner... well, at least most of us did. According to Rich the next morning at breakfast, Jahan emotionally killed the PR guy by leaving his free balloons, postcard and purple Silver Comet fact sheet behind in the pavilion like common garbage.

 

For the record, Jahan didn't seem all that concerned... and maybe even a little proud.

Carrot sticks and celery on the buffet? This is one park that clearly knows the difference between TPR and ACE! (Full disclosure: I'm not entirely convinced any of the TPR crew actually touched the carrot sticks or celery, either.)

TPR wristband + Darien Lake wristband + Martin's Fantasy Island dinner wristband + Martin's Fantasy Island hand stamp + Darien Lake exit stamp on the other hand = my personal one-day record for wrist-and-hand paraphernalia.

Did I mention I never got tired of seeing our name on the picnic pavilions?

Having already tried fried dough at Darien Lake, I passed this time in favor of a well-rounded Italian sausage dinner.

Personally, I would have gone for the cheese grater.

...a cleaning set! You laugh, but this really came in handy as the funk on the bus started to grow.

Eventually, we did a TPR takeover and won...

You can see for yourself just how high-tech it really is.

"I Got It" is 100 percent ghetto Fascination. Instead of rolling big rubber balls down a board into holes, you throw little rubber balls into a grid that looks something like an empty Christmas ornament box. The first one with five balls in a row yells, "I Got It!" Because "Bingo" apparently is too difficult to remember.

Right after the petting zoo, I stumbled onto the "I Got It" building. It was pretty empty when I played my first games.

This park apparently has a fetish for sleeping giants.

Pinocchio lives in here. As much as a puppet can live without becoming a real boy, that is.

I mean, really, what would a TPR trip be without a donkey?

For a place called "Fantasy Island," there certainly wasn't much fairy tale theming... or many little people in white tuxes making a big deal about airplanes. The closest to both was Humpty Dumpty, who stood guard in front of the petting zoo.

...some canoeists... and not much else.

...a sleeping giant...

First ride I caught was the kiddie train, which led us past...

Fantasy Island almost made it seem like we were back in Philly....

After lunch, we found out that in an effort to make up for our late ERT on Ride of Steel, the park would give each TPR participant an exit pass for one more ride. Several people nearly missed the bus getting theirs in!

 

On the short bus ride to Martin's Fantasy Island (seen here), Robb had another surprise announcement: in an effort to further make up for lost ERT, Darien Lake had given us multiple copies of all the on-ride photos taken during ERT! It truly was a generous gesture and one surpassed on this trip only by the amazing treatment we later received at Idlewild Park.

You know, anyone can get their "Elissa Skins a Hot Dog" square marked off on Elissa Photo Bingo--but I was the only one artistic (read "slow") enough to capture the moment from behind!

I never got tired of seeing TPR's name on pavilions. This one was probably the most ornate.

Any park with themed manhole covers is OK in my book!

I didn't do too bad at it, either! During the special game, I got two extra tickets just for crowing like a rooster when I won (it wasn't by choice, really--the game host made me do it as a condition for receiving my tickets).

Next up: Fascination! I've been intrigued (fascinated, if you will) by this game ever since I saw it in the Midwest Trip reports last year.

Intrigued by the fried dough I had seen at Seabreeze the night before, I decided to try some at Darien Lake. It was everything you'd expect fried dough to be: fried and doughy.

And the Silver Bullet.

As was this slightly different Paratrooper (I think they called it the Haymaker).

This park had some really great flat rides. The Lasso was awesome!

And speaking of water, here's a nice photo of the water slide. Because I like it. And it's my TR. Any more questions? Good.

The flume was fairly well themed.

1964 carousel. Check!

This is the observation wheel from the 1959 World's Fair. How cool is that? If you're a World's Fair buff like me, very!

OK, story time. My first editor worked at Darien Lake in high school, and one of his favorite stories was about the day he was working at Lost and Found, and received a call from the maintenance department that if anyone brought in a wheel, tell them it came from a stroller. He later found out that Viper had actually thrown a wheel in mid-run, and no one could find it. Park administrators were just praying it hadn't knocked someone unconscious. They found it later that evening in some landscaping, and all was right with the world again.

Boomerang. Next.

The rear restraints that come up and whack you in the back can be kind of uncomfortable if you're not expecting them.

"Cute" was the universal adjective used to describe MotoCoaster. Not really bad, not really good, not really... anything. Had it been about three times larger, it could have been a really great ride.

Of course, this is what we all really came to see....

Most people didn't think Predator was running that rough, but I did! So did the ride ops, apparently. When I came back later in the hour to ride with a group, the op checking restraints paused at my car and said, "Oh, you're riding AGAIN!?"

I wasn't quite brave enough to try Ride of Steel, so I opted for ERT on Predator... REALLY ERT! I was the only one on the train during its first lap of the day.

That's its name... don't wear it out.

It was the not-so-little coaster that could!

Eventually the mechanics got everything running, which was just, um... Super.

The morning allegedly began with ERT on Ride of Steel, but someone must have brought along some Kryptonite because we ended up with some EWT (Extra Wait Time) due to mechanical difficulties before ERT actually began.

Thanks for the reminder!

[tnguy]

I'm loving all these TRs. Its cool to read one from the perspective of someone who isn't a big coaster enthusiast. (or at least wasn't.)

[ms13]

Holy crap, I look depressed to be there in that silver comet shot!

I photograph very badly, I really liked that ride and was excited, I swear!

Great seeing a TR that went more for the feel of the park, than the rides!

[Meteornotes]

Awesome PTR. I'm especially enjoying all the Elissa Bingo references. Looking foward to the next installment!

 

dt

[televisedconfession]

GREAT UPDATE! haha. My toe hurt so badly!

 

I still can't believe the nurse told me to go soak it in the water park water. GROSS!

 

Oh well. Good times!

[printersdevil78]

So THAT'S why you rode the log flume!

[sfne2005]

We all had fun with the balloons Fantasy Island's PR guy gave us at dinner... well, at least most of us did. According to Rich the next morning at breakfast, Jahan emotionally killed the PR guy by leaving his free balloons, postcard and purple Silver Comet fact sheet behind in the pavilion like common garbage.

 

For the record, Jahan didn't seem all that concerned... and maybe even a little proud.

 

LOL! So true. That bastard Jahan didn't care. But we have sorted things out since then....not sure about the MFI PR guy though

[ms13]

I wonder how much we killed the DelGrosso's guy's life by not buying pasta and listening to his second speech about sauce!

[All Clear]

I've felt like something has been missing from my life ever since I didn't buy a jar of DelGrosso's sauce.

 

I love reading these updates. It's a little like reliving the whole thing.

[natatomic]

I'm loving your TRs so far. But, jeez, where in the world was I at Martin's Fantasy Island, because I didn't see ANY of those giants. And they're GIANTS.

[Wood Dragon 1988]

I wonder how much we killed the DelGrosso's guy's life by not buying pasta and listening to his second speech about sauce!

 

Don't worry, they feed 150,000 people every spegetti night without us.

 

 

 

This TR rocks by the way. Jason, you seemed to do a bit different stuff most people did at the parks. At least I know I didn't go into any carousel museums, or study the 1959 world's fair. It's really cool that you are posting this stuff, because I had no idea about a lot of these things, even after going to all these parks!

[printersdevil78]

Day 3: Canada's Wonderland, Toronto, Canada.

 

Behemoth Bash, baby! This day was great! I got to meet 50 or so TPR members who WEREN'T on the bus and spend Canadian money instead of those boring old U.S. dollars! (Seriously, a two-dollar coin? What will they think of next?) If there was any downside at all, it was that the day wore on a little long.

 

Robbie at the end of the trip: "We spent half a day at Seabreeze, half a day at Darien Lake and Martin's, seven years at Canada's Wonderland...."

 

Anyway, on to the photos!

As we rode next door, a maintenance worker on the Mighty Canadian Minebuster diligently walked the track to make sure it was in just the right state of "OMFG" roughness for that evening's ERT.

Does anyone else see what I think I see, Rorschach-style, in that peeling paint? The graffiti next to it made it even better! (I blotted out the phone number with my mad Photoshop skills.)

This is where I spent the majority of my ERT. The effects weren't turned on until the last 15 minutes or so before the park opened, so when the cars stopped at the "stunt" portion of the ride, they just sat there. Nothing happened for about 10 seconds (Neil called this the "moment of silence"). Then the car rapidly accelerated. Neat!

Yay, Psyclone!

Due to the Time Warp delay, they also gave us ERT on Psyclone.

We were supposed to have ERT on Time Warp, too... and we did for about 10 minutes once they got the mechanical bugs worked out. I rode it. Once. Moving on....

Happy, smiling faces. And a big "MOTH."

MUCH better!

Um, Robb, when you said we had an ERT coaster, this wasn't exactly what we had in mind....

Elissa: "Canada's Wonderland is different than any other Paramount park you've been to. Instead of the Eiffel Tower, they have the best fake-looking mountain ever."

Um, excuse me... you've got a little TPR on your shoe....

The weird thing is, we didn't even coordinate the shirts in advance....

But who cares about that? It's time for Behemoth Bash at Canada's Wonderland!

For a Canadian hotel, the decorations in the breakfast room were very European!

...and Spinovator.

...and The Bat. I, on the other hand, spent some time on the flat rides, like Klockwerks (seen in the foreground)...

...Dragon Fire...

...SkyRider and Vortex...

Others spent their mornings on Flight Deck...

Next up: Thunder Run. Which is a powered coaster. Which Robb says isn't a coaster. Except it is. Credit, please!

A sprinkling of cinnamon, powdered sugar, cocoa powder or cinnamon-apple sugar (I chose cinnamon) and voila! Tiny Tom doughnuts.

The doughnut artist scoops the doughnuts from the conveyor belt into a little paper bag.

Then each fully fried doughnut drops out of this chute onto a conveyor belt.

First the doughnuts drop out of the hopper and spiral around in oil for about a minute.

This was our doughnut artist.

Well, if you insist....

After standing around to see the crappy diving show, I decided it was time for some Tiny Tom doughnuts, a Canadian tradition since 1960.

"Since the dawn of civilization, there HAVE. BEEN. DIVERS!" That's how the show started, and it just built up from there, complete with inspirational symphony music and a self-serious spiel that put Spaceship Earth to shame. Then three people jumped off the waterfall. And the show was over. Fifteen minutes of fanfare. Thirty seconds of diving.

Another World's Fair remnant, though I don't remember which year this was from.

Fish burger!

"World Dryer Canada--Made in USA"

Much to our chagrin, they don't have bathrooms in Canada! But we found the washroom, which was very similar.

Theming!

And it was awesome!

Through these gates awaited our second breakfast of the day. Is that Shaggy I see in the foreground?

So while everyone else was getting in their last rides on Behemoth, I chatted briefly with some of the CW PR staff. My theory is, if I can prove I did enough professional networking, I can write the whole trip off as a business expense!

 

Marineland is next!

I spent most of the ERT on Minebuster. We allegedly had ERT on that, Vortex and Behemoth until 10:15. However, at 10 p.m., I was informed Minebuster would be shutting down early. Oh well.

This ride was awesome! Even Jahan said so....

Er... THIS Vortex!

Finally it was time for ERT on Vortex!

I had been waiting the whole trip for this! This is a Canadian delicacy called poutine. Natalie told me about it months before the trip, and I'm not sure I entirely believed her until I saw it for myself: French fries, cheese curds and gravy, together at last! It's the "Three's Company" of heart-attack-inducing junk food!

Does anyone really buy the on-ride photos anymore?

From the arcade, I ran into Adam, Matt and Matt, and we made our way over to The Fly.

I found this great shooting gallery game in the arcade. After firing a light-beam gun at several moving and non-moving targets, you get to shoot the coffee mug in the middle... and it actually blows up!

Trampolines are always entertaining!

And then there was this. I apologize for the slight blurriness, but it has to be seen to be believed. That would be Yogi Bear. And those would be ice skating s'mores. Yeah.

By that time of the day, it started to get a little hot, and I had been walking for awhile, so I decided to cool down at the "Endless Summer" ice skating show. It seemed like a normal community college-level production-- until Scooby Doo came on stage doing the Arsenio Hall fist pump....

Nerds!

The CW PR folks took us back in small groups. At one point, a park employee called out to us and asked what we were doing in a restricted area (I guess he thought dozens of us decided to dress alike and go look for a missing hat or something). I told him the PR office was giving us a photo tour, and he apologized for the misunderstanding. The power of TPR!

And then came the photo walk-back of Behemoth. This was just... awesome. There's really no other word to describe it.

Next up: TPR trivia! That's where we learned that if Behemoth was a teenage subculture, it would be emo.

Remember that lunchtime Q&A I mentioned a few photos ago? This would be it! They totally dodged the question, "How do you come up with the names for your rides" (which was the polite way of saying, "Flight Deck? Really? Come on, what were you smoking?"). Their answer: "Market research. And then we called the roller coaster 'Behemoth' because it's big. And 'behemoth' means 'big.'"

Did I mention we all got these really cool T-shirts? And those of us on the bus trip got TWO!

Moose burger!

Another TPR pavilion sign credit!

But enough jocularity. Lunch awaited!

However, Riptide did have its share of insane TPR riders. And as soon as they got off the Riptide, soaking wet... they ran over and gave Dan a great big hug! Thanks to the black shirt, you can't really see the unacceptable amount of wetness... but trust me, it's there!

Elissa warned us early that Riptide was the most insane topspin ever. She was right! People got wetter on this thing than they did at the water park! I'm glad I abstained.

I tried to ride this thing three times throughout the day, and the line NEVER MOVED! I stood there for about 20 minutes in the morning when I had to leave to make the TPR lunch on time. Then I tried again in the afternoon and it broke down. Then I tried again in the early evening and the line was up to 90 minutes. I finally got on just before the park closed... and ALMOST set the high score for the day!

Yeah, yeah, we know. Scooby Everything.

Hi, Rich!

Because dead birds on the kiddie coaster sign are ALWAYS fun!

When I saw them on the map, I was really hoping Jokey's Jalopies were some random flat ride named after Jokey Smurf, what with the H-B theming. Unfortunately, they were just antique-themed cars. According to the CW officials at the lunchtime Q&A (but I'm getting ahead of myself), this is the most difficult attraction in the park to operate because each car runs independently, and kids have a tendency to like bumping.

...and these very, very odd helicopter things.

This place had some nice pedal-powered attractions, including the swan boats...

Not to be confused with Redd Rocket's Pizza Port.

Snagglepuss credit!

With Kings Dominion having de-Hanna-Barbara-ized most of its park (with the exception of Scooby Everything and a few flats), it was nice to see all was still right with the world at Canada's Wonderland.

Of course, I did take a flat ride break for Scooby's Gasping Ghoster Coaster.

[dammie16@vt.edu]

That steak sandwich looked friggin delicious and I want one now!

 

Great photos!

[307]

Gasp! Nikki, shame on you for vandalizing Wonderland!!!

 

Also, your captions/pictures for the last few pics are a bit screwy Dragon Fire is captioned with "The Bat", which is the next picture down... and it continues until the end of the TR.

 

Good TR though!!! I love seeing all the pics from people who are experiencing Wonderland for the first time. And definitely nice to get perspective from someone who is a self-professed non-coaster enthusiast [well, until the trip was over!]

[printersdevil78]

^Yeah, I figured that out after I got back to work. I have them all numbered at home; I must have skipped one. Consider it fixed as soon as I get back there in a few hours....

[larrygator]

FYI - DelGrosso's Vodka Sauce kicks butt. I almost had Erik Johnson buy me a couple of jars.

 

Natalie - The giants were on the kiddie side of the park at MFI. A lot of people never ventured to the right of the entrance gate after entering the park.

[niiicolaaah]

Oh yeah well I can buy DelGrosso's sauce at my local supermarket. Nyah nyah!

 

Great pictures, it's nice to see CW finally get some love!

[ms13]

Ahh, I was looking for the doughnut maker all day, and still missed it

 

Great update, and yes, at least to me, that coaster it is a credit!!

[Wood Dragon 1988]

Oh yeah well I can buy DelGrosso's sauce at my local supermarket. Nyah nyah!

 

 

Wow, you must feel privileged. Most of our mere gnome supermarkets aren't so lucky!

[printersdevil78]

The giants were on the kiddie side of the park at MFI. A lot of people never ventured to the right of the entrance gate after entering the park.

 

Well, now I look a little creepy. Thanks, Larry!

[printersdevil78]

Next up: Marineland, Ontario, Canada!

With the two-hour bus ride to Erie, PA, ahead of us, perhaps the sauce aux prunes wasn't the best lunch decision....

 

Waldameer is next!

With just 10 minutes left before departure time, I checked out the arcade. It seemed like every arcade we went to had at least one quirky game. This coin-operated Coke bottle ring toss didn't disappoint (plus I won 40 tickets from it).

It's all about presentation! (That's $8.16 American, by the way--plus tax.)

Marineland's PR person told us that this bin is sold out and completely refilled every single day. At $8 a pop, I would expect they're the park's largest profit center!

A flat ride! Now how did that get there...?

Though to be honest, some of that vast empty space IS quite beautiful.

So THIS is what Marineland is planning to do with all that vast empty space!

"Beluga, Jamaica, oooh I wanna take ya...."

It's Shamu's Canadian cousin... Shampu!

"Blood on the saddle...."

"Aw geez, it's my day off...."

"Perhaps you know my cousin, Teddy Ruxpin?"

A lot of us stopped to take photos of the bears in the distance on our way to Dragon Mountain ERT. However, Elissa told us to wait until later in the day because the bears would be so close, it would be almost frightening. She was correct!

Yeah, so since I included three shots of the entrance to the deer park, I suppose I should also throw in some actual deer....

Yeah, this is just the BACK of the entryway for the deer park. I'll say this for Marineland: There aren't as many attractions as one might expect, but what's there is extraordinarily well themed.

That's good water!

In the U.S., both Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella have their own castles. In Canada, they build them exclusively for deer.

By the time I got back to Marineland, the rest of the crew was up on this thing for ERT. I found out later that they put it in "elevator mode" for awhile so people could get good aerial shots of the falls. If only I had known, I would have tried to make it back sooner instead of wasting time taking pictures of the Tim Horton's sign!

You know, I'm no expert, but looking at Marineland's re-entry hand stamp, I can't help but wonder if Diablo might have the makings of a copyright infringement suit....

Eh?

Yep, we're definitely in Canada!

Incline railway for all our resident rail fans.

...and Skylon Tower.

Of course, I also took the opportunity to photograph a few other landmarks in the area, like Konica Minolta Tower Centre...

From this angle, as well.

Very pretty.

Apparently even Canada has idiots (or maybe this sign was just for the U.S. tourists)....

Others of us, however, chose to eschew ERT in exchange for realizing our life-long dream of seeing Niagara Falls (and no, I wasn't the one who asked if we could take the bus there).

Is it a house... or a dragon? We had all of ERT to decide. At least, most of us did...

We had EWT (Extra Walking Time) to get to Dragon Mountain. Seriously, it would take less time to walk from park to park at Walt Disney World than it does from attraction to attraction at Marineland.

I'm not even sure what this building was... but it was cool looking and by the Marineland entrance gates, so here you go.

This is how our bus driver knew where to stop.

Hi Jahan!

One more look at the European statuary at the hotel before we depart for the border. You know, if American hotels had more naked statues, maybe the economy would be a little better. Just saying.

[Calaway Park]

AUGH!! Poutine! So good! Must. Have. Now...

 

Awesome TR!

 

-Sean

[dandaman]

It's Shamu's Canadian cousin... Shampu!

 

Nope, it's Shamuu... extra 'U' and all.

 

Glad you got some Deerschwitz photos!