SharkTums Posted May 2, 2014 Share Posted May 2, 2014 I am so glad you're posting this TR. It reminds me of all the parks we will NOT go back to on the next big TPR China Tour! Sticking to major parks only!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philrad71 Posted May 2, 2014 Share Posted May 2, 2014 That looping toboggan is wrong on so many levels...wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcjp Posted May 2, 2014 Share Posted May 2, 2014 That looping toboggan is wrong on so many levels...wow. Yeah. But I bet it's one of the most unique credits around! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rctneil Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 I am so glad you're posting this TR. It reminds me of all the parks we will NOT go back to on the next big TPR China Tour! Sticking to major parks only!!!! This sounds like a most excellent idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerstlaueringvar Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 I am so glad you're posting this TR. It reminds me of all the parks we will NOT go back to on the next big TPR China Tour! Sticking to major parks only!!!! Good choice! Safety is the most important thing, even more important than credit whoring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divv3k Posted May 3, 2014 Author Share Posted May 3, 2014 You're gonna love this, Elissa. --- Our next day was a whistlestop credit run tour around some small Shanghai area parks. Gongqing Forest Park entrance photo! Double ring Giant Frisbee. Larry was very excited by this. Credit! And another credit. Looks fun, right? Everything seems to be in working order. Anyone fancy taking a dip in the lake? Woohoo – Bobkart! Bobkart is awesome in any country! Bill’s always good at making friends with the locals. Larry’s getting very WACKY! One park down! Peace Park at Heping Park entrance photo! (Apparently that's what this place is called!) The pool of peace looks very peaceful. Here’s the entrance to the rides section at Peace Park. Credit! This might be the scariest dark ride entrance I’ve ever seen. Behold the terror! Jon can’t quite believe the horror he's just witnessed. Another one down. Where to next? Luxun Park entrance photo! Levels of theming here were off the scale. Attractions include – dancing class! Completely appropriate footwear for a ride operator. And we’re on the move again! Last park of the day! Century Park entrance photo! Ah, my first Golden Horse spinner experience! Everyone should get on one of these. Or three of four. Or twelve. Alright, credit whoring day is done! Happy Valley Shanghai is next! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcjp Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 I have to say I didn't figure out this was a lake immediately (just looked like some green painted concrete) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 UGH!!! So many terrible kiddie credits!!!!! And delicious water! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerstlaueringvar Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 Wow that small lake is where Incredible Hulk came from! So you guys actually spend a whole days on parks like this? That's...well... Unfortunate. I've heard that locals got insane about those dancing classes at the parks in Shanghai because they got too annoying at night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 UGH!!! So many terrible kiddie credits!!!!! And delicious water! I have never ridden so many powered Dragon Wagons in my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatle11 Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 That looping toboggan is wrong on so many levels...wow. And I though a standard Chance toboggan was wrong to begin with. This report is awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nrthwnd Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 ...So you guys actually spend a whole days on parks like this? Robb and Elissa got us to sometimes three parks in one day, which was basically - Get into the park, find the credits. Do the credits. Leave for the next park. They did give us extra time in some of the more interesting parks, that had other (working) attractions to ride. A few. But not all of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 find the credits. With sometimes meant. "Larry go run in that direction for 10 minutes as far as you can and report back when you find the coaster." Ah good times! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 I realized the other day that I still have TONS of footage of coasters from this trip I never posted, but this update has reminded me why I haven't. I'm not even sure I can tell some of this China crap apart! I had to do a double take as to what some of these parks and rides even were! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snoflake15 Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 The lines in DLP was the one big negative when we visited. Didn't get on TOT at all and Rock and Roller kept breaking down. Main reason I got on as many rides as I did was getting on a few close to the end of the night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divv3k Posted May 4, 2014 Author Share Posted May 4, 2014 Happy Valley Shanghai was the first “big” park of the trip. These are the parks that you’ve seen photos of for years and been impressed by the ride line ups and the level of theming involved. The ride line ups pretty much live up to what you expect. I don’t know if the theming holds up upon closer inspection at these Chinese parks. It looks good on the surface but kind of feels like it might not be the most durable of product (I guess we'll see how these parks look in 10-20 years). But still these are decent parks and China are lucky to have them. Here’s some photos... Happy Valley Shanghai entrance photo! Bumblebee welcomes you through the door. Wooden Coaster Fireball! Woohoo! Gotta love a bit of morning ERT on a TPR trip! This Gravity Group designed woodie was pretty good! I liked this one more than the US Gravity Group rides I’ve been on. I really hope the Chinese take care of this, I have a feeling these might deteriorate quickly. I hope I’m wrong! Hi Larry. Stacey was obviously up a bit late last night. Passing no judgement here. There was some scary type walkthrough set up between these mountains. Larry shows off our transportation between rides during the “filming sessions”. This is Chinese for “Intamin Hotness”. I love these things. Seriously, more parks need to get themselves a Mega Lite. Next credit! That’s some awesome photobombing skills from Chuck. Boo to horrible spinning coasters. I don’t care where in the world they are! Oh yes! I’ve been excited about this! Yup, it’s the dark ride where you shoot Santa and his elves to score points! Kill the Christmas trees! Desperados. You can never get enough of this ride. Unless you’re Larry and get your arse kicked. Next up we took flight on the flying island for a better look round the park. Mine train hotness. Intamin super hotness. There’s the woodie and some other assorted stuff. Oh yeah, this place has a SheiKra clone too! The Splash Down boat thing was closed. I don’t think anyone was too upset about this. China doesn’t limit itself to Small World rip offs like most countries. This full fledged Soarin’ rip off made you appreciate the effort Disney put into theirs even more! The park also had a haunted walkthrough. This is where it was. So now you know. Alright, back to that Sheikra clone! The imaginatively named “Diving Coaster” ticked all the boxes you’d expect a B&M like this to tick. That’s a good thing! You see these awesome coasters and think that they would be the best rides in the park. But you would be wrong. They're good, but post apocalyptic Fire Brigade trumps everything else in this park! Larry’s special. So special! Shame he couldn’t save the passengers though. I’m special too! Happy Valley Shanghai was a good park with plenty to do. If these are "Six Flags of China" then that's gotta be a good thing in comparison. Giant Wheel Park is next! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 Based on us having stickers, I'm assuming that this is where we combined forces to defeat the evil Chinese teams in the Fire Brigade battle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 You're probably now on some Chinese military list to be destroyed first when they decide to take over America due to your Fire Brigade prowess! If anyone is old enough to remember the movie 'Clueless' I describe the nice Chinese parks like a 'Monet'. Amazing and beautiful from far away, but as you get closer you can see all of the cracks and imperfections. Still prefer the Happy Valley's to a bunch of Six Flags parks though. They had good merchandise, Pizza Hut and/or McDonalds, and other Elissa friendly stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nrthwnd Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 ^ And QFT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The49er Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 For some odd reason, I now want to find a bunch of ghetto parks and get sketchy credits. Especially the Looping Toboggan of Death. By the way, Fire Brigade and some of those other ridiculous rides at Happy Valley Shanghai look really awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blatch Posted May 5, 2014 Share Posted May 5, 2014 Looping Tobaggan for the loss, post apocalyptic Fire Brigade for the win. I love seeing TRs of parks I know I'll never visit, but probably wouldn't want to anyway. Also, I'm suprised nobody's mentioned how big that Mine Train was. It's one of the biggest I've ever seen, and certainly one of the most badass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted May 5, 2014 Share Posted May 5, 2014 (edited) ^It's an Intamin Mine Train, and a good one. Too bad there aren't more of them. Edited May 5, 2014 by cfc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted May 5, 2014 Share Posted May 5, 2014 The Happy Valley parks do know how to theme a mine train. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rctneil Posted May 5, 2014 Share Posted May 5, 2014 The Mine Train here was actually really good and looks great flying through that rock structure. It was weird seeing how the other Happy Valley parks all had Vekoma Mine Trains, this one had the new Intamin Mine Train and Wuhan had a knockoff Golden Horse clone of the Vekoma version. Oh well. It's China... I really liked this Happy Valley, as an awesome woodie, Dive coaster and a Mega Lite all in one park has got to be good doesn't it? The Mega Lite was running very well too. Was this the park with the really poor Spiderman knockoff that was (I think) themed around a rescue from a tropical island or something? All the theming was in pitch black so I think all I can remember are a couple of silhouetted palm trees! I think the only annoying part of that day was the silly Pizza Hut failing to notice the same song on repeat in the background all day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kailisun98 Posted May 5, 2014 Share Posted May 5, 2014 I really hope the Chinese take care of this, I have a feeling these might deteriorate quickly. I hope I’m wrong! Actually, they are taking care of it. Fireball was retracked last fall if I remember correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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