Photo TR: Dons Epic Europe Trip

[Jeezus Juice]

We actually had a really good time at Gardaland but then there was no need for us to deal with guest services so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

As a whole Italy didn't leave a lasting impression on me. That is probably in part due to coming out of the spectacular alps and into the rebirth of the mullet.

 

BTY I just edited in more pictures of Movie Park. I accidently hit send before I was finished.

 

 

Gardaland is actually going to be next. I'll have that up this afternoon. I actually have some work to do today.

 

I like your comments. please leave me some more while i work on the next installment.

 

-Don

[Yeah 7]

Whooo, i finally apear in one of your photos (I'm on the front of X-speed, with Yngve)

 

Keep em' coming Don

[coasterking]

Yeah those are crazier than plain alpine slides, they look awesome.

[Jeezus Juice]

Yeah Phil I thought that was you. I'll try and see if I can find some more.

 

Gardaland-

It seems that this has been a troubleing park for some people this year. I thought the park was absolutely fantastic, but even I noticed that there seemed to be some problems with our group leaders and the ticket booth.

 

It seems that the guest relation problems seem to be centered around the point of purchace areas because park operations and ride ops were as friendly as can be.

 

I knew zero about this park other than the Screamin Squirrel so it was fun spending the day at a brand new to me park. The Darkrides here were amazing, the gardens were very elaborate, and about the only thing lacking were some of the coasters. The park was so awesome otherwise that I didn't even notice.

 

I'll get to the pictures in a second but I just want to gush some more. I actually really enjoyed Sequoia Adventure. While I absoluely agree it's not a traditonal coaster experence I had a couple of reallg good rides. The themeing was well done and the ride is quite fun. S&S seems to have found out how to design 2 part restraints so they don't suck. SeqAdv doesn't really have any laterals either which I believe helps.

 

onto the pics!

The Pirate attack scene, complete with crumbling spanish fort.

The VERY creepy Man/Serpent anamatronic. It actally rides up from the water to look at your boat. (It's also hard to photograph)

No problems with pirates chaseing wenches here!

This was the enterence to their very elaborate Pirates dark ride, the best POTC ripoff I've ever seen!

This was actually a cute little ride. Imagine a Big Apple coaster about 1500 feet long with 6 little lift sections.

The park is also home to "Magic Mountain" The coasters only go down from here.

What a fun little ride

It really isn't that painful, honest.

Oh crap...

The lift hill is really fast.

Here is the themed enterence

Oh yes, it is ERT time

The dumb bucktooth dragon again, and Tony the tiger.

Gardalands guilded Hippo/dragon

Hotel accommidations provided by the hotel Ibis, 1 Industrial crap parkway with no food

Verona, Italy

[Jeezus Juice]

Heres more pictures (I took alot)

The enterance to the ancient egypt darkride. Think the haunted mansion meets the mummy.

I was very suprised at how fun this park was today. It's unfortunate that they have some guest service issues because I think that this bark is better than 80% of the ones in the states. (coasters notwithstanding)

In addition to selling cleaving instruments they also had crossbows for sale. Disneyland doesn't even have fake guns in their fort anymore!

Theres not really much to see in there unfortunately.

Here is their mushroom capped Intamin drop. It's one of the shorter ones that don't brake untill way late. I love these.

Another shot of the beautiful blue tornado. If only it didn't shuffle.

Yay! Another flying island credit!

Weather you count it or not it is a very elaborate ride that would not be out of place at IOA. (Intamin at IOA, OMG that would be sweet!)

That my friends is Intamin tri-track. the exact same track on S:ROS and Millennium Force. If Journey to Atlantis is a coaster, than this one definately is to, come on rcdb!

Fuga de atlantide, their Intamin water coaster. Awesome ride with a cable lift like Millennium force and two drops.

Too bad it has to suck because Blue Tornado sure looks beautiful. It's the extended version with the helix at the end. The helix was actually quite good.

Holy $#!7 is that KONG?!?

Heres trader sam, hes head salesman of the jungle. Buissness has been shrinking lately so hes offering a two for one deal. I arraived late for dinner and all I got was a cold shoulder.....

"Can you feel the love tonight..."

This park had a little jungle cruise ride too!

Monica managed to fit her village people costume into her luggage

Monica and Ken enjoy the little mine cart dark ride.

The ride exits into a head shop.

This was a very cool stargate lazer fog effect.

Again, very elaborate show scenes.

[SharkTums]

 

Dude! That guy was a lot of fun on the 2002 ECO trip. We nicknamed him 'Ron Jermey' cause we thought he looked like him!

 

Enjoying your TR's...went to Universal Hollywood today and it made me miss Movie Studios Italy!!!

 

BTW, there is one of those master blaster/watercoaster slides from Aqua Paradise at Delgrossos. Dallas and I stopped right at the top and I had to push us over. (We just made the weight limit!)

Edited June 22, 2020 by SharkTums

[Wes]

Man Serpent is super creepy. :shock:

 

Awesome pics, keep em' coming.

[Jeezus Juice]

HA at Ron Jeremy!! OMG I didn't really notice until now...thats funny. Yeah, he was alot of fun to hang out with on this trip too. It's sad he had to leave us in florence...I hope he had fun in Rome though.

 

I just updated my post above with more pictures. For some reason I keep hitting send to early. Mirabilandia is next but work is getting kind of crazy today. I'll try to have it up tonight though.

 

I love all the comments! Please leave more!!

 

Heres another Flying island photo!

Bestest ride ever, screw sky towers!

[CoasterEricHP]

Great TR!! I like when people post about everything, not just coasters. I'm really jealous!

 

Eric

[Jeezus Juice]

Mirabilandia

 

This was the last park on the ECC trip which was kinda sad since we were having so much fun with everybody. Today was pretty cool though anyway.

 

We started off with a Katun ERT (B&M Invert) that went really well. I rode about 5 times in different seats and every one was really good. It's weird because it look just like a really big verson of Batman but it's so much better. The Helix ending is really good too. Awesome ride.

 

After that we just toured the park leaving room for their awesome car stunt show and we even tried their little waterpark.

 

I was even able to try that Taiko drum rythem game (japenese version) and it is really fun and pretty easy to pick up.

 

Pics...

We filled the sadness void the best way we know how.

Leaving the last park on a trip is always kinda sad.

Has anyone been on one of these before? It rises up and then just spins and twirls and has interior light and sound effects. What a great little ride!

While not as elaborate as Moteurs: Action it had a MUCH better pacing which more than made up for it.

I think it was called "Monosaur" or "Dinorail" I can't remember

They had this weird Dinosaur Egg monorail ride.

Theres almost enough food here to have a No-Coaster Con!

(j/k ACErs)

Norwegians eat hot dogs without buns, how strange.

Another shot of the rumble drop

The waterpark here was an extra 3 euro charge but it was actually really fun. They even had a master blaster in their other slide complex.

Park overview. Gardaland gets the edge over this park because of their darkrides and themeing, but Katun is soooo much better than Blue Tornado.

It looks cool, I really wish I could recommend it.

1983 called....

Tonante must mean retrack me please. I believe these are morgan trains but the car were trailered and the lapbars were seperate for front and back rows. Much better than the Giant Dippers' or Grizzly's trains.

Pakal's brakes were on quite hard today. It gave a good shot in the abdomen at the end of the ride.

Katun also has this really cool Olmec temple area to explore around the ride.

Katun has a great finishing helix.

KATUN!!

I guess if your going to copy a style for your park, it might as well be a good one.

Last park on the trip (sad face). At least the mascots are better than the bucktoothed dragon.

[Jeezus Juice]

We were flying out of Pisa Italy the next day but there was just enough time to check out Florence before we had to head to the airport. For some reason my camera battery didn't charge the night before but I still had enough charge for a few pictures.

 

*warning* no coasters ahead!!

The last pictture I took before my battery totally died. I got a snarling Italian woman, Monicas ear, and the Hotel Miracosta in the background.

We stumbled upon what we would later discover was the most famous bridge in Italy, the Ponte Vecchio. Apperently the thing to do is but a lock on this little fence with the names of yourself and your partner. Somekind of love thing.

Dude check out these doors! God himself could fit through.

Oh Gelato, I miss you so much!

This is a Smartcar Fourtwo. Please start exporting these! There only about $7000. We passed a dealership on the highway that had these in a glass tower. It looked like a giant vending machine!

Another really old church. It hard to imagine that someone actually carved all this out of stone. nowaday we'd just pour a form and staple it up.

[ebl]

Yeah, those cars are cool, but would you want to be in a collision with an SUV in one? No...

 

Glad you're enjoying your trip. Someday for me...

 

Eric

[BiCoastal Kid]

^They also get 50+ mpg.

[Jeezus Juice]

I only saw 2 suvs while we were in europe. One was a Land Rover, and the other one had Texas plates!

[robbalvey]

Dude, I LOVE the Smart Cars!!!! In fact, it looks like they ARE trying to bring them to the US:

 

http://www.smartcar-usa.com/

 

--Robb

[Wes]

I actually saw one in L.A. in February. They were from Alaska.

 

 

I kind of wanted to run it over...in my Corolla.

 

EDIT-PS: $2.19! Wouldn't it be nice if gas was that cheap now?!

[Jeezus Juice]

Alright, with the ECC trip over we flew back to the UK, took a bus to Heathrow and from there Phil (Yeah 7) was kind enough to drop us off at our hotel by Luton airport for our flight to Paris the next morning.

 

We landed in Paris Monday morning and found the Disney bus stop at Charles De Gaulle airport with out any difficulty. We stayed at the Sequoia at DLP which seemed to be the best looking hotel on property (Disneyland Hotel not included $$$$$).

 

The Sequoia was very close to the parks and themed really nice, I'm glad we stayed there. Here are the pictures from our first day at Disneyland Paris.

This is about the only similarity to the other mansions.

Yeah, the graveyard scene is only slightly different in this version.

I was completely unprepared for this.

Definately the best of the 3 I've ridden. I couldn't believe how fast you get going on the last tunnel under the river. This thing really hauls near the end.

Probably the best themed coaster anywhere in the world.

For Mission 2 the train now launches from the base of the cannon

I can't bear the though that I have to live across the world from this ride.

Chernabog is here terrorizing some small town. Thats what you get for living by a demon mountain.

OMG their Casey jr. is actually a coaster! Bonus cred!

Pre DCA I thought that this was a rather strange ride for a disney park. Too bad it's been closed for years, I really would've liked to ride it.

The hub is currently done up for the Wishes firework show.

Hows this for an entryway?!

One thing we noticed right away is how much awesome landscaping the Paris park has. This is the entryway to the DL turnstyles.

The Newport Bay hotel is one of the nicer looking ones but ours was still closer!

The Hotel New York takes and interesting interpretation on a NYC skyline.

First thing you see once you leave the hotel is the large Panoramagique balloon, and McDonalds.

[Jeezus Juice]

Paris day two. We did so much today.

Guess where we went today!

It was weird seeing one that wasn't bright blue.

We knew what this was at least. We have seen 3 others so we felt we should see the origional.

Heres monica by some building, you know we really should pick up a guidebook when we go to places like this. Does anyone know what this place is?

Since we had to change trains anyway we figured we'd take an hour to see the sights. heres the Louvre.

The park wasn't too bad when we were there. We got there right at opening and had all the coasters done except Vol D'Icarus (It was down) and the darkride, boat, and rope/rock in two hours. We then left and took the train park to paris.

I found the rock on a rope ride by the hidden kiddie coaster.

We rode the little charecter boat ride. I wish I had paid more attention to the cartoon when I was a kid.

Unfortunatly this was the only picture i got of it.

Trace was a really long, really good bobsled.

Goudurix has some messed up elements. It was awesomely bad, but it didn't suck.

It was! we both really liked it.

We were told that this was a really good darkride.

I finally got to stick my hand in this thing!

We got up way too early and decided to hop the train out to Parc Asterix

[Jeezus Juice]

Same day, a bit later.

We ended our day with some Fireworks. I have a ton more pictures but they'll have to wait. I really want to finish this massive TR now.

The Indy coaster was pretty fun. I didn't get a chance to ride in the front but I really liked the ride. I am glad they turned it back around, I don't like going in reverse.

ummm...who put all the show scenes in reverse order? Don't think I didn't notice!

Into the Gaufre bin with ye!

Monica and her chocolate Gaufre. It wasn't very good.

The dragon walkthrough under the castle was really cool. I actually like all the walkthroughs in this park.

Monica woke up and decided to join me for an evening at DLP.

Can you believe they actually have Fastpass for this?

I wasn't even going to see these shows but they were really good. I'm glad I made time for them.

I decided to wait by the tour bus for some autographs.

I don't usually hope for clones but PLEASE put this in DCA. This version is awesome. I think the lighting package works much better than the "Superstar limo" effects in FL.

I wonder why they went with Millionaire in DCA instead of this. I thought it was pretty good.

OK their parade is slightly bizzare

Monica was worn out after out theme park cammando morning so she went for a nap and I poped in for some RnRC action

[Jeezus Juice]

Our last day in the UK was spent at Chessington. I was told it was a small park but I actually found alot to do there. I'm so glad we went.

Monica says, "I'm the last picture, I'm going to our Holiday Inn now. Thanks for reading!"

I found some more funny signs in London.

This little guys says "Thanks for reading the TR! It took Don all weekend but he hopes you all enjoyed it!"

I can't believe this is the only picture of Vampire I took. Anyway, this is my favorite suspended. The floorless trains add so much to this ride. Imagine if Big Bad Wolf had these!

I thought this was funny for some reason.

heres the drop.

Their log flume had a far east theme. You go right into this dragons mouth.

My 500, and actually a really good coaster to boot.

[Jeezus Juice]

OK guys, it took me all weekend but I finished my massive Photo TR. I hope you guys liked it. Now I have just under 7 hours of video to sort through for this years DVD set.

Keep posting your comments though, they're fun to read. And thanks to everyone on the boards who helped me out when I was planning this trip. The only coaster on the entire trip was the one at Parc Asterix and that was a bonus park anyway.

 

I'm tired, Yay!!

 

-Don

[robbalvey]

Holy crap that was awesome! Some really, really good stuff in there!

 

I'm also glad to see that you liked the DSP version of RnR. I like it so much better than the Florida (so poo on all you who say I'm Florida biased!).

 

Now you guys have to do a Japan trip!

 

--Robb "I gotta get back from Hong Kong so I can put together our Europe photos!" Alvey

[DenDen]

<<

 

(applause!)(applause!)(applause!)

BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I just read this entire report! Very entertaining! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

[viking86]

Great tripreport, although there were some not-so-great pictures of me Btw, did you get my e-mail??

 

Yngve "misses riding rollercoasters already" Oestbye

[Meteornotes]

Excellent job. Parc Asterix rules!

 

dt