Jump to content
  TPR Home | Parks | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram 

TPR 2018 Tours - Limited Spots Open - Apply Now!


Recommended Posts

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE POST

 

Once you have read this entire post, and you are SERIOUSLY INTERESTED in a TPR Tour (seriously interested meaning you would be ready to send in a deposit as soon as your application is accepted) then send an email to: robbalvey@themeparkreview.com requesting the application.

 

I cannot stress enough to only email if you are SERIOUSLY INTERESTED in a TPR Tour.

 

That being said...

 

As many of you may know, TPR hosted theme park tours for 10+ years but stopped publicly hosting them a few years ago for a variety of reasons, mainly due to the behavior and attitude of the participants as it was creating stress levels for us and for other trip participants that we no longer could tolerate. If you don't know what we are talking about, this thread will give you an example of some of the stress we want to avoid.

 

While we may have stopped doing public tours, we have not stopped doing tours completely because we actually really enjoy putting on tours, but have done them “private, invite only” for the past few years. In 2017 we quietly opened up about ten spots to new people and that actually worked extremely well! So this year, we are going to try opening that up a little bit more and hope that doesn't end up being a mistake!

 

At the moment, we have 4-6 spots open for our Japan trip in June and 6-8 spots for our USA Trip in late July/early August. As a "test" we are going to allow new people to apply for one of those open spots.

 

We are looking for enthusiastic, well-behaved, appreciative people who can get along well with others, are drama-free, have respect and trust for the tour leaders, and not complain about every little thing that happens on the tour if things don’t happen to fit your own personal preferences. After all, you’re on a theme park tour and not at work, right? Vacations are meant to be fun!

 

If you consider yourself “high maintenance” or a “complainer” you probably would not be a good fit for a TPR trip.

 

(THIS PART IS VERY IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ!)

 

1. Emailing us and submitting the application does NOT immediately mean you are on the invite list. We only have a handful of spots open and we need to fill them with the people we think will be the best fit for the tour. If you are not selected for this tour that does not mean you won’t be considered for a future tour.

 

2. Only email us asking for the application if you are *SERIOUSLY INTERESTED* in the tour. It is expected that if you are selected to be on the invite list, you will immediately send in a deposit for the tour. Tour deposits will be between $200 - $400 depending on the tour. If you fill out the application, and then decide to back out after being selected, you will NOT be invited to fill out the application for future tours.

 

3. We are unable to "part out" any days of the trip or have you "meet-up" if you only want to join for a day or two. This creates a crazy amount of work and hassle for us and it's just not something we will do anymore. Sorry, this is the entire tour or nothing.

 

4. You MUST be over 18 years of age to join a tour on your own. Anyone under 18 MUST be accompanied by an adult on the entire tour.

 

So to summarize:

 

“If you fill out the application, and are selected to be on a tour, you are expected to submit your deposit immediately.

 

DO *NOT* EMAIL US ASKING ABOUT THE APPLICATION IF YOU ARE **NOT SERIOUS** ABOUT JOINING A TOUR!”

 

Tour information - Final prices and itineraries will be available when you request the application. Our tours are in the $2800 - $4000 range.(based on double occupancy in rooms, there is a single supplement option at an additional cost.) Yes, our tours are higher priced than others you may see, but we feel we also offer a higher-end product than anyone else doing theme park/roller coaster trips.

 

For example, we are staying on property at Hotel Breakers next to Cedar Point for three nights during our USA tour. We will get front of the line passes at all parks that offer them. We will rent out rides at certain parks just for our group. We go to higher end restaurants and many meals are included. We are staying on property at both Disney and Universal during our Japan trip, etc. Our tours are limited to only 25-40 people so there is plenty of room on the bus, train, etc. Our prices are very reasonable compared to other higher-end excursions. In short, you get what you pay for and in the case of TPR, a higher-end vacation. Most people come away from our trips saying they had to spend very little money outside the cost of the actual trip.

 

Japan Trip

15 Nights - June 15 - July 1

 

Ground transportation included by bus, trains, and taxis. (You are on your own for airfare to/from the starting and ending points)

14 Day Rail Pass Included.

At least one meal per day.

Base camps in three different cities (Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya) including resort stay at Universal and Disney!

 

Parks included:

- Tokyo Disney

- Fuji Q

- Universal Osaka

- Nagashima Spaland

- Parque Espana

- New Reoma World

- Washuzan Highland

- Misaki Park

- Adventure World

- Benyland

- Lina World

- Hirakata

- Legoland Nagoya

- Hamanako Pal Pal

- Lagunasia

- More parks may be added to the itinerary!

 

Non-Park Activity Options during Free Time: Castles, Shrines, Food, Museums, other parks, Zoo's, Shopping, etc.

 

USA Trip

Late July/Early August

10-12 Nights

Ground Transportation included (You are on your own for airfare to/from the starting and ending points)

 

Parks Included:

- Six Flags Over Georgia

- Carowinds

- Kings Dominion

- Busch Gardens Williamsburg

- Hersheypark

- Knoebels

- Cedar Point (with three night stay ON PROPERY)

- More parks may also be added to the itinerary

 

Two meals per day!

Fastpass options at all parks that offer it!

More perks may include behind the scenes tours and ERT!

 

Once again, if you are SERIOUSLY INTERESTED in one of these trips, and would be ready to send in a deposit between $250 - $400 depending on the trip, then send an email to: robbalvey@themeparkreview.com and request a 2018 TPR Trips Application.

 

Thank you and we hope this test works out! We've had a lot of people ask us about TPR Tours and we feel this the best compromise for satisfying some of those requests while at the same time keeping our sanity!

 

Thank you everyone!

 

--Robb

Edited by robbalvey
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 57
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Glad to hear you guys are back at it. I would definitely consider this as a future option. Both trips seem like solid (re)starts.

Well, to be honest, we never really stopped, we just were more "cautious" on who we invited on our trips. Like I said above, I'm hoping this way of adding new people to the tours doesn't turn out to be a mistake, and if it does, we'll just go back to doing our own tours and only telling the people we want to about them!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robb,

 

First off, I would like to say THANK YOU!! I have been a long time member (another screen name takes me back to at least 2007) and I have LONGED to go on one of the big TPR Tours! My wife knows how bad I've wanted to and she told me I should do it! Now reading this post, I see why I haven't heard anything about the tours! I hate how one can ruin it for many and in this case, a fair amount can ruin it for A LOT!! Now this isn't to say that I can't go on this tour because financially, I can, but taking the days off for me is a problem.

 

Robb & Elissa, you both have done an amazing job with all this and when I see TR from all the tours, I am amazed at what you can do! It's hard to even fathom how people can find something to complain about!! Sure, sometimes there is weather related issues, or maybe a transportation snafu, which ANYONE, would complain about but not much else could be!

 

Please see this post as, hopefully, a pre-approval application. I am the kind of enthusiast that you would love to have around! It kills me to see that there were nasty people there instead of me, and that you had to put up with them. So when the time comes, I hope I can get approved on one of your tours when I apply!

 

Keep doin what you do so well,

Adrian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sure, sometimes there is weather related issues, or maybe a transportation snafu, which ANYONE, would complain about but not much else could be!

We've actually had both of these happen on our trip, and instead of people being PATIENT about whatever the issue is, they actually would come to up with endless bitching and complaining as though it's our fault. I actually said to a person once "I cannot control the weather. Seriously, if you are going to sit here and complain to me that being at a beautiful theme park (We were at Tokyo Disneyland), even in bad weather is still worse than sitting at your day-job, then you shouldn't be on our trip." I think at that point they just stopped talking, turned around and left.

 

I hope I can get approved on one of your tours when I apply!

Send us an email and we'll see how it goes!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've actually had both of these happen on our trip, and instead of people being PATIENT about whatever the issue is, they actually would come to up with endless bitching and complaining as though it's our fault. I actually said to a person once "I cannot control the weather. Seriously, if you are going to sit here and complain to me that being at a beautiful theme park (We were at Tokyo Disneyland), even in bad weather is still worse than sitting at your day-job, then you shouldn't be on our trip." I think at that point they just stopped talking, turned around and left.

I'm sorry... just plain ignorant!! I would (not literally) KILL to be at a park, drenched, than be at my day job! I drive transit for the Bay Area and have to worry about people complaining about things that are out of my control! I 100% understand you when I have to say, "I can't control the traffic!! If I'm late, then I'm LATE!"

 

Send us an email and we'll see how it goes!

Bet!!

 

Forgot to ask, but will these be the only 2 tours for the year?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have limited vacation time and we're saving up for a wedding, so unfortunately a TPR tour isn't in the cards for us right now but we'd love to get on one of these one day. Going on a TPR trip to Japan and then adding a few days before or after the trip for Brit and I to do some cultural stuff and explore on our own sounds like an amazing bucket list trip and hopefully one day we can make it happen.

 

That said, these both sound like great trips. Have fun, and good luck with this "experiment".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Going on a TPR trip to Japan and then adding a few days before or after the trip for Brit and I to do some cultural stuff and explore on our own sounds like an amazing bucket list trip

And this is exactly how we are positioning the trips now. No more "death marches" or "credit whoring" like we used to do. More relaxing trips focusing on better parks with some time during the trip for people to explore when we go places like Japan, and we also encourage people to add on days to a trip, especially to further away destinations to see even more sights outside of theme parks & roller coasters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While this year is not an option, I would love to be able to join for one of your trips one day! Your approach to these trips, compared to the "regular coaster clubs", is much more tempting to me.

It was the poorly organized tours put on by "regular coaster clubs" that prompted us to do our own tours since we knew we could do better! (Let's be honest, it wasn't difficult to do better!)

 

It's a shame that a few bad apples did ruin it for others, but as I said we never stopped doing our tours, we just changed how we went about doing sign-ups! I can already say that since we've made the post only a couple of hours ago, we've already had applications from some people who have been approved! So let's see how this little experiment of ours goes!

Edited by robbalvey
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would love to do the tour in Japan. That is a dream trip for the wife and I. Unfortunately we aren't in a place with how young our kids are to do that right now. I hope everyone has an awesome time and that no entitled assholes slip through the cracks and ruin future trips.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robb it’s really awesome to see you giving this another chance! Although I can’t do it now I do hope to be able to join TPR on one of these trips in the future. I can’t imagine a better organized and fun group to be with. Hope this is successful and that all those getting the opportunity to go appreciate all of the effort you put into them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ugh, I'd love love LOVE to do the tours, but I can't because a- high school, and b- I guarantee you my parents don't want to spend close to three grand for me to go to Japan just to ride coasters.

 

That being said, I think it's awesome that you guys are starting semi-public tours again. Hope everyone that gets to go has a blast, and thanks Robb for the opportunity!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would just like to say HAPPY TRAILS to all of you who do either (or be a piggie, do both!) of these tours, this year.

 

Japan is an awesome country with amazing crazy stuff in it, besides the parks and rides.

And the U.S.A tour has an awesome assortment of parks and coasters itself!

 

And with The Alveys, you cannot go wrong, you'll end up with experiences you'll remember for-ever!

They always gave us the best value for our touring dollars...and then some!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apologies if this is a silly question - but where can we see the total trip cost so we can know if we can afford.

 

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE POST

Our tours are in the $2800 - $4000 range.

Tour information - Final prices and itineraries will be available when you request the application.

Edited by robbalvey
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Understood and apologies i did see the price estimate but wanted to double check which relates to which tour. Bit of chicken or the egg scenario as i wouldn't submit an application if i knew we couldn't afford the price.

 

Cheers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't sadly, have the time but not the money, and though I will probably have the money in a few months wont have the time...the classic dilemma. Though it would be one helluva great experience! Maybe next year.

I know in the past you opened up a couple of the parks to others for a single day thing (I went on the Knoebels day of the East tour a few years ago) any idea if such a thing would happen again?

 

Unrelated, any word on possible WCB again?

 

Good luck and I hope indeed people don't blow the chance. After so many years of griping "TPR doesnt do public tours anymore!" now's a chance, so they better not ruin for themselves again

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/116-terms-of-service-please-read/