Photo TR : Copenhagen, Bakken, Tivoli Gardens, Bon Bon Land

[Groteslurf]

Another update. Last spring we visited Phantasialand. It was only 10 degrees C, but no wind at all. This was one of the first nice days of the year, not only for the weather. I combined this TR with the pics of our visit to Tomorrowland last year. That was one of the most perfect days of my life. On to the pics.

Our first ride on Maus au Chocolat. It's a type of Toy Story shooting ride, which is of course great

My best friend and her daughter

My daughter and me

Gotta love Kong

Black Mamba : maybe not the best ride, but the theming is so awesome

Meuh tower

Good China

I don't know why, but I love Phantasialand China

Just can't get enough ....

Africa in the sun

One more ride on Maus au chocolate

Tomorrowland 2012 : it was my first time at Tomorrowland. The festival sells out in seconds, if their server would hold the pressure. 2 million people trying to order tickets at the same time. 110000 tickets DID sell out in 1 (one) second 2 weeks later, but on March 24, 70000 tickets were put on sale for Belgians only. I was sitting in front of my screen at 11 am but the server crashed completely. I didn't sit the whole day in front of my computer, but I managed to buy 2 tickets that day, at ...... 130 am the next morning. This was already one of the happiest moments of my life. I had tickets for Tomorrowland !!!!!!!!

First, lunch at a 2 Michelin star chef restaurant

My friend and i, we're in

On the day itself ...... we were almost in

Tomorrowland is really at the perfect place. It's amazingly beautiful

View from the ferriswheel

Cloud rider, excellent name for a ferriswheel

me

my friend

It would fit perfectly in a TPR trip

Yeah, I will

The event site is themed like cray. Like Disney/Universal style, although the whole thing reminds me more of the Efteling.

Perfect weather

Even the restrooms are awesome. Free deo included

Baccardi house

What ?

I want candy !!!

And beer

Morph peeps

Book of wisdom

MainStage

Cloud rider

If you find your perfect girl at the festival and can't wait till you get home, here's the place you have to be. Free condoms included.

Hidden forrest

Selfie (word of the year in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands

My brother, t-shirt wise at least

We were there on the second day. I'm sure this guy was there also on the first day

View on MainStage from the vip area

Absolutely amazing vide

View from the balcony ....

So true

Baccardi time

More people at the techno stage now

Time for dessert

With 1 Michelin star chef Roger Vandamme

We want more

Hope you enjoyed. Next updates will be about our visit to Orlando 1 year ago

Helicopters throwing down rose leafs

Stage on fire

The vibe at MainStage was something I have never felt before

Madness

These pics can't describe the amazing day we had at Tomorrowland. One of the best days of my life

[kidcoaster 2]

Awesome photos! I would love to make my way to Tomorrowland some day. I just love a good party!

[Groteslurf]

^Thanks. If you can, just do it and make it to Tomorrowland next year. It'll be 2 weekends next year. 360000 tickets which will sell out in seconds. Hope I will be able to get my hand on tickets again. It's the 10th edition next year.

[eddytheviper]

Long time lurker on your threads but, I just want to say how fantastic it is to see all these events from your eyes going to them all.

 

Tomorrowland is THE festival I've want to go to for years but never got the chance, good job getting tickets! Someday, someday it will happen!

Keep up the good work buddy, I love reading your threads. Party on

[noyzz]

So jealous of those festivals!!!! One day!!!

[Jon Sabo]

great photos!

Love the outfits on the chicks by the Church of Love...

[Groteslurf]

Thanks for the comments.

Now back to the themepark reports. Last year Octobre, together with 4 friends, we booked a holiday in Orlando to visit all the parks.

Arrived at Orlando airport waiting for 1 friend who decided to join months after we booked our flights so he was on another flight arriving a bit later.

Our fridge, shortly after arrival at our villa

Waking up early because of the jetlag and seeing this. Excellent view to wake up

First park of the trip : IOA. Since my first visit in 2004, I hadn't been in Orlando so I was pretty excited to see all the changes in the park.

First coaster of the trip : Hulk. I remembered it to be a very goed ride, but this time I preferred the waiting area over the ride itself.

Spiderman : since 2004 the best darkride I ever did. I still liked the ride very much, but I wasn't blown away this time.

My 4 friends were Orlando newbies so they didn't know what to expect

IOA is still my favorite park in Orlando

More Hulk

We didn't eat at Mythos in 2004 so this was for sure on our to do list.

While waiting for our table, time for some pics or the area

Shot in IOA (EB's tshirt)

Thanks Universal for a great day

At Mythos

Me and Mike

Hans & EB

Love the theming inside Mythos

Because I was still jetlagged, I wanted to eat light so I ordered sushi. I was so surprised to see my fried sushi. I never could imagine somebody serve fried sushi. The taste was great, but it wasn't light . I love the US

Lunch was great. Time to go into the park again.

Waiting times were quite ok.

Harry Potter area

I'm not a fan of HP, I saw the first movie long time ago.

This is a great moment in the waiting area. The ride itself left me a bit confused. I'm still not sure whether I liked it or not. Most of the time, I didn't know what was happening. At least, I didn't get sick

Loved these buildings though

My favorite park area ever

Discovery area

I was a bit confused about these 2 guys. Are the 'characters' ? Or just employees ? They had a lot to discuss in any case

After doing the boatride, we went back to ...

Harry Potter world.

The holding area before HNN starts is really great

Time for the best event on earth .... that's what I expected and remembered from my last visit.

Thanks

On to the Studios

Awesome ride

Good Mummy

haaaaaa ...... smoke

Don't get me wrong. HHN is still awesome. However, it's not THAT good anymore. Some mazes in Europe are coming very close to Universal quality I must say. Except for the sound at Universal. The audio is still top notch. Europe is still way beyond reaching the same quality.

My friend Michael

Love this area

but .... where are the scare actors in the park ??

In 2004, it was the year that HHN was in both IOA and USO at the same time, both parks were filled with scare actors all over the place.

Ghosts & stuff

Alice Cooper maze

There were some great actors walking around later in the evening

But I expected much more to be honest

Yup, still at Universal

Love this brand

I see you .....

Although I wasn't blown away as during my previous visit, we still had an awesome day.

[Groteslurf]

Day 2 Universal Studious

It's such a great park

Love the Minions

Love the big beer cans

What's this ?

Fisherman's wharf

Eaten by a shark

ET

Excellent place to hide for a thunderstorm

Hardrock dinner

Alice

End of day 2

[kidcoaster 2]

Great photos! Both parks are among my favorite parks I have been to. Great look back at the 2012 HHN as well!

[KBrylczyk]

Nice TR. What stuck out to me the most, though, was how you mentioned and made fun of (slightly) the Sushi Tempura at Mythos, but then wrote how you love Bubba Gump, where 99.9% of the menu is deep-fried. It made me giggle, haha.

[Groteslurf]

^ha, I've never eaten at Bubba Shrimp. I only love the brand name, because it's fascinating to me how the chain was inspired by the movie. To me it's just a strong brand, but I've never actually eaten there

[Groteslurf]

Day 3 : Seaworld

Kraken, still one of my favorite floorless

I love the combination of a zoo and rollercoasters

Manta

Quite an intense pretzel loop I must say

EB and Hans ready to go

Yeah baby !!!!!!

Love the close encounters

When I show this pics to non theme park lovers, they really go crazy. In a positive way. They just can't believe you can touch a dolphin at Seaworld

Manta love

Hans !!

I was getting a bit dizzy, so had time to take some pics

Great 3D show though

Feed me

FEED ME !!!!

FEEEEEED ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, like I would spend 10 dollars and feed you....... everybody on the net is supporting you

Stonefish or something like that

Shamu Shamu Shamu .....

Had to take a pic of this

In Celcius, but gotta love it

Still feel like a Rockstar .....

Our villa pool

[Groteslurf]

Animal Kingdom, my favorite park during my 2004 stay in Orlando. And also my favorite during this stay if Epcot, with which I fell in love during my last visit, wouldn't exist.

First, we purchased our park hopper passes on beforehand.

We also bought our Universal/Busch/Seaworld passes on beforehand. We had to exchange the voucher in real passes at guest relations. At Universal it took us more than an hour to get our passes. At Disney, it took us ..... I didn't time it, but it must have been less than 2 minutes. Amazing how smooth and fast we were settled.

Secondly, I love the zoo/themepark combi as said earlier and AK is just like the perfect park to me.

The park is simply amazingly beautiful

Look at this. I would live here, forever.

Dinosaur area

I was blown away by Dinosaur the ride back in 2004, not so this time. I guess I was spoiled by other more amazing rides in the last few years

This was still under contraction during my previous visit. To be honest, I didn't really like the ride. Going backwards isn't really my kind of ride I guess.

It should be one of the seven wonders of the world

The Himalaya theming is great though

Batman

F*ck you bloody tourists

Hans' laundry

Where's the elektro music ?

Taking the train to the other part of the park.

Love this game

Oh, be quiet, surgery going on

Waiting for the train

Probably my favorite attraction in Orlando

Words cannot describe how much I love this ride.

What can I say, it's just stunning

I don't know how the views from the AK lodge are, but if they are similar to these, I WILL stay at the lodge the next time I visit Orlando

Yeah baby !!!!!!

Once again, I love this park because of it's beauty

Adam Ant

Because the parks closes early, we combined it with a visit to Disney Downtown

For a visit to Disney Quest which was included in our hopper passes

While DQ is a bit aging, we had a fun couple of hours

It was a while ago since I was able to play this arcade game

EB is full concentration

Guitar heroes

Getting dressed for the virtual reality experience

I quit after a few minutes. This was feeling so old. They really should get current technology in this place.

It was fun to watch though

The virtual rafting ride also didn't feel quite right but rather outdated.

Mike skipped the raft ride and got a nap outside

Waky waky

We had dinner here. It was ok but we prefer Hard Rock Café.

Planet Hollywood dinner

And Mike was awake again after a visit to the supermarket

[A.J.]

Seriously - all that I did during my last visit to DisneyQuest was play the arcade games. I think that I probably played Mario Kart Arcade GP for several hours, at least.

[jray21]

Another great update! Gotta love the 'retro' Disney Quest.

[Groteslurf]

Legoland Florida. I never made it Cypress Gardens so this was an all new park to me.

Of course, we arrived before park opening time

The evening before, our good friend Roxanne flew in from Texas and of course she joined us in all the fun.

Love this type of rides

Mike eaten by a Lego shark

Lego car

First woodie on our trip

We liked it

I can watch for hours at those Lego miniatures

Vegas baby !!!!

The Cypress gardens are really stunning

We all loved walking around in the gardens

Erwin's new girlfriend

Bye bye Legoland

On to HHN, but first another dinner at the Hard Rock Café

And some relaxing at the lake before going in the park

We're back

We entered the park through the normal entrance this time and now we encountered a lot of scare actors

i think she likes me

EB's t-shirt

Roxanne getting in the right mood

Walking Dead waiting row

I'd never heard of the Walking Dead series before. Roxanne told some things about the hype and after getting back home, I saw the first 2 seasons in a few days time and currently I'm waiting for the second part of this season

Time for a drink

We had another great evening at Universal and another great day in Orlando

[milst1]

Great report, Benny! Looks like a lot of fun!

[Double0Kevin]

Awesome report! Make me want to get back to Orlando so bad.

[Woodie Warrior]

Great photos of Orlando! I'm hoping to eventually get to visit Orlando around Halloween.

[Groteslurf]

Thanks for all the comments.

 

Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow, I remember loving the park during my previous visit because of Test Track and the food and wine festival. We knew Test Track would be closed during our visit this year, but we also knew the food and wine festival would take place again.

Right after waking up, EB found this insect at our pool. I swear, if the BBQ would have still been hot, he would have eaten it

EPCOT

This addition to the Spaceship Earth ride is pretty neat

Walking around the lake in all the differente countries is just awesome

We rode Ellen too. We wanted to escape the room after 5 minutes because it was just boring but we didn't find the exit. Went back to this room just in time to move to the next room and sit down in the 'cars'. Man, I was so surprised when the 'cars' started moving.

Smash Mouth live at EPCOT

It will be weird forever when I see people taking pics with their iPad

This will be weird forever too

Food !!!!!!

Feels like being in Japan for real

Yep, traveling to Japan ..... check

Let's travel to Italy

To feel home again

Really strange map of the country I live in. Most major cities have been replaced by some random small cities.

Help, I shrunk myself

I don't remember exactly but maybe I fell and kept on taking pictures from there

Time for some Moet et Chandon .... on ice. To be honest, I was quite shocked when they put ice in my glass of champagne. But it tasted really great I must admit

Soarin'

Nemo

Hans doing ... i don't know what

We had an absolutely amazing day at EPCOT

[thrillrider]

Epcot is one of my favorite parks that we HAVE to visit every year. Great pictures. Thank's for sharing.

[Groteslurf]

^thanks.

 

Busch Gardens Tampa : This was also my first visit to Busch Gardens since we didn't make it up there in 2004.

Since we were going to stay late for Howl O Scream, we didn't arrive by opening time.

i didn't dare to stick my finger in ...

I again love the combination of themepark and zoo

Amazingly fast

Sheikra is awesome but Griffon is just that little bit better

Splash zone

What's up doc ?

Our group

Not that rough as expected

Crazy advertising

Best coaster in the park

Such a great ride

OM NOM NOM NOM. Best meat there is

Better than this

and this

and this

Or course we had these passes. And we were very lucky we had because this was a Saturday and the lines for the mazes were very long. 2 hours and more if I remember well

Also included in our passes, were some tickets to play games. Nice intermezzo

We didn't win anything though

We found the mazes here SO much better than the mazes at HHN

3D maze

This one almost gave me an heart attack

Every maze at Howl O Scream was simply better than the ones at HHN. The event in a all was just better IMO. Better vibe, better scare actors, better mazes, more surprises in the mazes, ...

The clown room was just the best. You know there's an actor between the dummies but you just can't which one is alive

How YOU doin' ?

Not that good obviously

Hello there !

Love the lights on Cheeta Hunt

End of yet another amazing day

[Mrlittle]

Looks like HOS was great again last year. Ugh, looking at all these photos just makes me wish it was Halloween time again. Just curious, what filter setting are you using on some of the photos?

[Groteslurf]

^thanks. I'm using the instagram filters. I know a lot of people hate it, but I personally like the filters very much.

[Groteslurf]

2 small parks which were first timers for me. My expectations were quite low, but we a lot of fun at the 2 parks

Old town

Well chosen name as it looks old

Let's try this before riding the coasters

Let's dew it. Wind Storm if I'm not mistaken

i believe this was the Wacky Worm at Old Town

Hi Mr Muffler

Kiddie coaster at Fun Spot

We were very nervous

And this must be the Rockstar Coaster

Little bench

Great place to spend an hour or two.