robbalvey Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 Hey everyone, You know what happens in just three weeks right? No, no, it's not some silly holiday where an ACEr sized old man runs rampant around the neighborhood in a red jump suit, it's.... Theme Park Review returns to ASIA!!!!! Starting right around Christmas we'll have daily updates from our two week trip in Hong Kong and Japan. We plan on visitng the following parks/coasters: Hong Kong Disneyland Ocean Park Tokyo Disneyland DisneySea Galaxy 999 Kijima Wonder Rakutenchi Harmonyland Mitsui Greenland Space World Central Park Kobe Portopialand Nasu Highland Hanayashiki That scary new Half-Pipe on top of a shopping center :shock: And more "smaller parks" if time/weather permits. So if you end up with coal in your stocking, you'll have something to look forward to this holiday season everyday from Theme Park Review! As a little teaser, here is a short video of one of the crazy Japanese coasters we hope to ride during the trip: Nasu Highland's Spin Turn Coaster! --Robb "We'll post more about the trip closer to when we leave!" Alvey
Nrthwnd Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 :shock: That's quite the little coaster there. The trip list looks great, Robb. Hope you don't get too exhausted, ho ho ho.
Hattuchili Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 Robb, that is a great list! I am sure you´ll have a wonderfull xmas time and a great new year in asia! I am so curious to see some pictures from Hong Kong Disneyland! Oh, and your daily updates! --Sören
CoasterCrazy Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 Don't get caught up in the [url=http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://glutter.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/protest5&imgrefurl=http://glutter.typepad.com/glutter/awaiting_a_democratic_hk/&h=345&w=216&sz=67&tbnid=-Uu7pHlXUDAJ:&tbnh=116&tbnw=72&hl=en&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3DThousands%2Bmarch%2Bfor%2BHong%2BKong%2Bdemocracy%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DNhttp://protest! I'm looking forward to reading the daily updates!
Scaparri Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 Sounds like an awesome trip! Hope you guys have a blast over there. Can't wait to see the reviews and pics of a lot of these parks.
Ghost Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 We plan on visitng the following parks/coasters: Hong Kong Disneyland You're going to Hong Kong Disneyland, and you didn't invite me... you bastard... I promise you, when you return to Europe, it will be your worst (and wettest) nightmare.... (to avoid hate mail; I am only goofing around - have fun in Asia....)
ebl Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 Not returning to Parque Espana, huh? I guess that escalator ride was too much for you! Eric
SharkTums Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 It was really hard deciding where to go! Originally we were only going to stay in Tokyo for a few days, then stuff kept getting added on! When we go back for the big TPR trip in a couple of years we'll be sure to hit all the big parks, like Parque Espana! I'm still scared to death of this trip, as I don't have my patented 'Elissa Binder' done yet! And they cancelled online train reservations, so we're kind of going with dumb luck at this point to get our seats!!! Oh well, we've always said we just want to go back, I don't care if Japan gets some freak snowstorms and all the coasters are closed, I'm just excited to be returning!
dandaman Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 We plan on visiting the following parks/coasters: Hong Kong Disneyland You're going to Hong Kong Disneyland, and you didn't invite me... you bastard... I promise you, when you return to Europe, it will be your worst (and wettest) nightmare.... That sounds more like a threat to Dan. "Is this an acceptable level of wetness?"
Erik Johnson Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 Whatever happens, I'm sure that you will all have a great time. Plus you will be scouting out other parks for the Japanese TPR trip (which Leanne and I are already saving for )
pianojohn Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 Best of luck to you! When I was in Tokyo in 2003, it was during the holidays, and the Disney parks were PACKED. Not to mention it was friggin cold! But I am sure you will have a blast.
ebl Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 Someday, I will get to Japan. Must get to Japan. Eric
SharkTums Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 Yeah, we've done the research (weather and crowds), and we're ready! (I even bought a dorky hat to keep my head warm!) Like I said, the parks are more a bonus, I just want some Japanese McDonalds!!!!
SonOfBeastSucks Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 Like I said, the parks are more a bonus, I just want some Japanese McDonalds!!!! If I ever go to Japan, that will on the top of the list!
Meteornotes Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 I even bought a dorky hat to keep my head warm! OK, now I'm looking forward to the trip photos... dt
Erik Johnson Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 I wonder if the Hong Kong McDonalds still have those red bean milkshakes....Yuck!
Chrissie Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 Omg, That trip looks amazing! Have a fantastic time, ( I know u will anyway ) Cant wait to see all the Japan Parks at Xmas Time! Chrissie " I swear Im Not Jealous " Stevenson
AznShortBoi8021 Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 This trip already sounds great. I hope you guys have a fantastic time. Make sure you visit North Korea with realistic looking BB guns . And be sure to ride plenty of Togos with pointless OTSR's.
Alexander Nagel Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 Man you guys suck you travel too fricken much... I'll be stuck doing the same thing my family does every year for Christmas...which includes traveling but to no where fun Have fun at least i'll have your updates and i'll just keep dreaming for the day to come where i'm out of college and making a lot of money so I can hopefully go everywhere I can dream of.
robbalvey Posted December 5, 2005 Author Posted December 5, 2005 Where do you get all that money :shock: Well, for we both have full time jobs. Two, we really don't spend any money on ANYTHING else but doing our trips. Seriously, almost all of our 'disposable' income gets put into the savings account and put towards our trips. People think we bathe in money, but really we are your typical average family living off 'middle management' salaries. It's how we spend, or rather don't spend our money that allows us to do these trips. Think about it, we live in a small one bedroom apartment and we don't: - drink - smoke - buy many DVDs - buy many video games - have a home theater system - go to the movies - go to concerts - go to sporting events - have monthly subscriptions to anything - have credit card debt - eat out (in restaurants) much - go over our cell phone minutes - have premium cable/satellite TV channels - don't celebrate holiday's in the traditional fashion (instead of buying b-day, anniversary and xmas gifts for each other, we agree to put that money towards trips) - buy new computers (all our computers were bought used or refurb) - don't have a car payment Elissa doesn't: - get her nails done - get hair done - buy jewelry - buy purses - what else am I leaving out that "normal" people do? As much as we would like to do some of those things, we pick and choose things we want to do and trips almost always win out. Our spending budget is very tight and very limited which allows us to do these crazy trips more often. For example, we haven't seen a movie in the movie theater since Shrek 2 and before that is was the original Spider-Man. We assume the average couple sees one movie per month, which for us would be conservatively around $30 for two tickets, drinks, snacks, gas, parking. Cutting out going to the movies saves us about $400 per year which is about equal to a week's worth of hotel stay on a Florida trip. So we have to figure "would we rather sit in a dark room and watch a movie for a couple hours once a month, or spend a week in Florida?" If you see TWO movies a month, then that's airfare to Japan! The only thing we spend any kind of money on, which ties into our trips, is video equipment and the website which the DVD sales help cover the costs, but they don't ever cover all of it. So really, the answer to "where do you get all that money" is simple - we don't spend it on other things. The trips we do are not THAT expensive, especially when you consider that we usually share hotel & car rental costs with other people, look for the cheapest airfare as possible, and we hardly ever buy any souvenirs. (I think I bought ONE T-shirt on the entire Europe trip!) Our goal with the group trips is to make trips that would normally seem "far fetched" to some people as affordable as possible. It may take some savings to do one our group trips, yes, but not as much as I think some people would expect and we hope people get as much value out of them as we do! --Robb "Wishes he had as much money as people seem to think we do!" Alvey
Luxo Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 I hope you guys have a great time! I can't wait to see more photos of Hong Kong Disneyland and Space World
DATman Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 I too cannot wait for this-I hope you guys have fun!!
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