Robb & Elissa in Japan - 2015!

[KBrylczyk]

^ Journey is totally worth it by itself. The hype is real.

[robbalvey]

I can't help but wonder that the experience on this ride really needs to be done in person, because even after all the videos I've seen, the ride seems more like a lot of slow crawl through the very detailed animatronic scenes for a good length of time, with only about 20 seconds of speed and thrills. While I do think the theming on this ride and in the entire park is fantastic, it just seems like there should be more to this ride.

Right. Which is pretty much what Test Track is also and that seems to still be insanely popular after 20 years...

 

I get what you're saying though. If you're going into Journey thinking it's going to be an OMFG THRILL RIDE, then your expectations are set incorrectly, but it is by far the most detailed, impressive themed ride that Disney has ever made, with an awesome thrill at the end.

 

It's just also "very Japanese" and I know that's hard to translate in video form. But every bit of the ride works on crazy levels.

[tororific]

I can't help but wonder that the experience on this ride really needs to be done in person, because even after all the videos I've seen, the ride seems more like a lot of slow crawl through the very detailed animatronic scenes for a good length of time, with only about 20 seconds of speed and thrills. While I do think the theming on this ride and in the entire park is fantastic, it just seems like there should be more to this ride.

Right. Which is pretty much what Test Track is also and that seems to still be insanely popular after 20 years...

 

I get what you're saying though. If you're going into Journey thinking it's going to be an OMFG THRILL RIDE, then your expectations are set incorrectly, but it is by far the most detailed, impressive themed ride that Disney has ever made, with an awesome thrill at the end.

 

It's just also "very Japanese" and I know that's hard to translate in video form. But every bit of the ride works on crazy levels.

 

I agree. Actually, in some ways, Test Track is more thrilling because it has more abrupt movements and action during its "slow" periods before the acceleration, but somehow Journey just has a very magical, bizarre, "other worldly" feel that works well. The entire context of the ride, including its amazing outdoor and indoor theming, make it totally unique.

That said, it didn't quite live up to my expectations -- but that's MY fault, not the ride's fault (I spent too many years obsessing about the ride - nothing could have lived up to my ridiculous internal hype).

[cimmic]

Sorry if you mentioned this already, but did you see the updates to Dreamlights while at TDL?

[gerstlaueringvar]

Journey is not something you go for when you're looking for extreme thrill. The final drop has some floater air but that's pretty much it. Journey is all about the huge amount of details they put into it. I do think the ride is a little bit short but it still blew me away and became my NO.1 ride (Sorry Outlaw Run).

 

"Pleasure is born here, this is unusual. It's something, please understand this difference. I feel more refreshed than anyone, I'll challenge to the limits."

[robbalvey]

Sorry if you mentioned this already, but did you see the updates to Dreamlights while at TDL?

No, that happened about two weeks after we were there.

[cimmic]

^Oh, I see

[KBrylczyk]

"Pleasure is born here, this is unusual. It's something, please understand this difference. I feel more refreshed than anyone, I'll challenge to the limits."

 

I think you're confusing Journey with White Cyclone, haha.

[gerstlaueringvar]

"Pleasure is born here, this is unusual. It's something, please understand this difference. I feel more refreshed than anyone, I'll challenge to the limits."

 

I think you're confusing Journey with White Cyclone, haha.

But I don't understand the difference!

[KBrylczyk]

"Pleasure is born here, this is unusual. It's something, please understand this difference. I feel more refreshed than anyone, I'll challenge to the limits."

 

I think you're confusing Journey with White Cyclone, haha.

But I don't understand the difference!

 

[gerstlaueringvar]

^I thought those White Cyclone quotes kind of work in this situation. Never mind then...

[cfc]

"Pleasure is born here, this is unusual. It's something, please understand this difference. I feel more refreshed than anyone, I'll challenge to the limits."

 

I think you're confusing Journey with White Cyclone, haha.

But I don't understand the difference!

 

Does anybody? And does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?

 

Getting back to Journey to the Center of the Earth, I think it's one of Disney's greatest creations--perfect dark ride with a few thrills thrown in. Plus, it has Lava Monster.

Edited August 1, 2015 by cfc

[robbalvey]

I forgot to post that since I did the Nasu Highland update, I posted the video from their SLC. As you can see form the video, this version is...um.... "not good." But it made for some funny commentary at least!

 

[cfc]

Well, nice color scheme, at least.

[Nrthwnd]

Such a gay coloured coaster it is.

Holger, with Fright Flight, behind him. TPR 2011 Japan Tour.

[WickedC99]

I saw Baymax and died!

 

"Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

[gerstlaueringvar]

Second roughest steel coaster I've been on, but that color scheme is very nice.

[Barge84]

What an awful ride.

[robbalvey]

Next Stop! Nagashima Spaland! I will warn you that there are a lot of roller coaster and ride pics in this update because Nagashima is one of those parks that likes us a lot and allows us to film everything, so we filmed a LOT of stuff!

 

Overall, I really like this park a lot. Many people consider it the "Cedar Point of Japan" and a few years ago that might have been more true than it is today, but the similarities are still there. The park is kind of out on the water, if you look at the line-up of coasters & rides from both parks, you can draw more than a few coincidental similarities, etc.

 

It also has to do with the fact that the park has a lot of coasters. Twelve at the moment, which is quite a few for a Japanese park! Compared to the other big "coaster park" in Japan, Fuji-Q, Nagashima wins when it comes to quality of staff, efficiency, etc. It's a coin toss for me as far as rides go. But between the two, I far prefer Nagashima.

 

Anyway, on to some photos and I'll add more videos into this report as we get them posted on YouTube!

We are all ready for the big bad roller coaster park!

There were taxis here to meet us! Well, there was at least one....

But we made it! Hooray!

And what better way to start our day at a Japanese theme park but on a German made shuttle loop?

The people in the train are happy...

And the ride goes and does stuff. It was good.

Next up, we rode some woodie flavored roller coaster.

It tasted like wood.

Everyone in the train the licked the track gave it a thumbs up.

Some people made silly faces.

And giants rode together. Because they are cute.

Yes, there are lots of pictures of people sitting in the station. Why? I'm not sure. Why did you click to read this report? Why are there bees in the sky?

This next coaster is still the longest in the world, and it's tall, but it's not the tallest anymore.

These guys licked the track.

It's tall and stuff.

More pictures of people sitting in the train pretending to have a good time even though sitting in the train in the station is actually quite boring.

This part of the ride is not boring.

These two dudes have had a nice bromance together. They share beer and ear wax.

Bumps of fun on Steel Dragon 2000.

None of these people would survive being attacked by a bear.

There is some airtime on Steel Dragon.

The track is like 8 thousand million feet long.

Oh, we rode this too.

It's cool because the tracks are in the middle and stuff.

A very small kid rode this and liked it apparently.

It does this a lot and we like this.

More sitting people. Hello sitting people. How are you sitting people?

Track and stuff.

Bumpy bumps in the bumpy rode.

The ride is called "Bobkart" but it doesn't belong to a guy named "bob."

No one here in the station is named Bob.

This is a ride and it was called "Cork Screw" we know this because that's what the sign said.

The roller coaster did loopy things.

The ride goes straight down.

KERCHUNK!

"See, we are real men because we have a beer."

"I don't know what this is, but it has a smiley face on it!"

It was kind of were seeing a Manta clone sitting at Nagashima Spaland.

No orcas or baboons were injured in the making of this Manta clone.

Here is a picture of it.

This was not taking at SeaWorld and then put an Acrobat logo over it.

This haunted house had Jesus' head fly across the room. It seriously did. There's a video of it on our Facebook page.

They had tons of tables with grills that you could char meat on. Or humans. Or meat.

This is a very big Ferris Wheel.

This is Jack.

Jack no like the Ferris Wheel.

Jack died on the Ferris Wheel. Poor Jack.

From the Ferris Wheel you can see the Space Shuttle! Is that a real Space Shuttle? I think it is a real space shuttle because it says the words "Space Shuttle" and why would you call something a Space Shuttle if it wasn't a Space Shuttle?

From the Ferris Wheel you can get a view of Cedar Point.

Rides and things.

Stuff.

More stuffs.

Manta that's not Manta.

Big white mess of wood.

There is a train down there somewhere.

The water park is massive.

Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy.

This pirate ship is giant. Like REALLY REALLY giant.

They also had a swingy thingy.

Yay! Looping ride through the trees!

Hello Japanese people riding German things.

Dan got wet and melted. Nobody noticed.

This ride is at Legoland but it also here at the same time. Weird, huh?

Yay! They had a sign for my 50th Anniversary for when it will be my 50th Anniversary in the future! How nice of them!

I don't know what this shirt means, but it makes me nervous.

They had lots of roller coasters and rides that you could eat.

This is a puzzle, but you could probably still eat it if you wanted it to.

You could eat this.

And you could eat this.

You could eat all of these things.

More stuff to eat.

They still had funny shirts. Not as funny as before, but still funny.

After the park we stumbled across some truly screwed up Japanese thing. Not one of those "fake, touristy" Japanese screwed up things like Robot Restaurant that is designed to make American tourists go "wow, isn't Japan weird? Look at these pictures on my Facebook page!", but this was legit.

It was sort sort of haunted themed "jail restaurant" and it was very screwed up.

You entered the place and sat in the demon chair.

A doll appeared and was creepy for no reason.

Then there was a skull. None of this made any sense. But it looked cool.

A police lady came out and arrested me. She asked me "What bad thing did you do?" I said "RAAAAPE!!!!" And she took me away!

We were led into the cell block in which there was a "lockdown" currently in progress.

Police people were walking around shouting.

Electric guy came out screaming.

Right in front of me electric guy was tazed and shot to death. I think he did bad stuff worse than RAAAAAPE!

This was our cell, number 59, I was hoping for 69, but this was ok, too.

We are now locked up.

This is the menu full of weird shit.

Thankfully some of it was in English, but not all of it.

We decided that we needed to try everything because we were in jail.

Lots more weird stuff.

And more...

We need stuff like this in America.

I ate the devil's brain and it was good.

People sitting in their cells. We are all in jail for RAAAAPE!!!!

We had a bizarre mixture of drinks.

And food that looked like human hands.

We were given lots of things to add to our drinks to make us feel funny.

Derek ate an eyeball.

John just had beer. What the hell John, we are in some freaked out weird ass place and you have a beer. Ok, fine at least it looks like pee.

I have no idea what any of this is. We can only read the titles!

Oh, it's french fries served in a death bag.

The girls liked me because I was funny looking.

Derek decided we should all get the pills.

We had one pill each.

We had no idea what was in them, they didn't tell us, and it made a burning feeling going down. I think this is exactly what leads to RAAAPE!!!!

There was a skull in here. We did not have sex with it.

Derek had a very large beer that was made to look like a very large pee glass. We think this might have actually been a lot of pee.

John had a little bit of pee. But it's frothy. Just like mine! Har har, John! You think you drank beer pee? You did not! You drank Robb pee! Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!

And then weirder stuff happened. The inmates escaped and there was another lock down! They attacked us!

They tried to break into our cell!

Some of them made it in, but they just wanted pills and beer.

They were all creepy faced.

It was all really screwed up and we couldn't understand what was going on...but it didn't matter!

This dude just came in and hung out with us.

And then a giant panda showed up!!! WTF IS GOING ON?!?!?!? IS THIS BECAUSE OF THE PILLS!?!?!

This guy was holding up a severed hand of someone he just killed.

I don't even know what to make of this, but it was all really messed up.

Scary guy climbing into our cell.

The police shot and killed everyone and the prison was calm again.

We said goodbye to our prison guards.

Dan wanted to have hot sex with them, but they politely said "no thank you, Dan."

The Lockup was really screwed up! There are many of these in Japan. Try it. It's really bizarre but awesome!

Edited August 7, 2015 by robbalvey

[SharkTums]

You should write all of your updates after surgery while on Percocet.

[Mr Stratosphere]

Seriously it was a totally screwed up fun time!!

Those pills though, I wish we caught the reactions on video, it was a unanimous ahhh give me a chaser!

[Mrlittle]

I just laughed a lot, great update. My favorite caption was "Manta that's not manta"

[Garet]

You should write all of your updates after surgery while on Percocet.

 

This update was 90% easier for youtube/facebook commenters to read.

[gerstlaueringvar]

Lock up looks...interesting.

 

Nagashima Spaland was great! Their two Schwarzkopfs and Intamin Gen1 free fall are classic and intense. Steel Dragon 2000 is a big surprise, definitely better than the B&M hyper intensity I was expecting. By the way, have they always been running their flats on a lame mode. Even though they were constructing the loading platform of Giant Frisbee and dusts are flying into riders' face.

[cfc]

Seeing the photos from the haunted-jail restaurant makes me doubly sad that I had to back out of the Japan trip--unless those were just some Percocet-fueled illusions Robb cooked up.