Photo TR: TPR UK Trip

Day 9: Farewell Dinner & Windsor Castle
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Re: Photo TR: TPR UK Trip

Postby snoflake15 » Mon Sep 20, 2010 7:45 am

^ I was there in 2006 and was really disappointed with the state of the park. I went last month and I saw a massive improvement.

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Re: Photo TR: TPR UK Trip

Postby printersdevil78 » Sun Sep 26, 2010 12:08 pm

We started Day 4 with a little surprise. Because of the hotel mix-up on Day 2, Robb was able to strike a deal with the park for ERT on Th13teen the next morning! Thus, TPR became one of the first groups ever to have ERT on this brand new coaster. Enjoy!
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While we were waiting to get into the cue, a LOT of members of the GP came up and wanted to know how they could get ERT, too. Robb told them to join TPR and pay a couple grand for access to the trip. A couple of them seemed like they were seriously considering it!
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If you go into the gift shop today... you better not go alone.
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I love tormenting my treats!
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And now for some history. I spent most of our final morning at Alton Towers at... Alton Towers, the original country house of the Earls of Shrewsbury. The namesake 1800s castle-like building sits in the middle of the park, half destroyed, open for anyone who wants to nose around inside. Let's see *that* happen in the U.S.!
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First, a look at the well-manicured gardens. No real topiary here, but a smattering of nude and nearly nude statues...
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...and a few with clothes, too.
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Behold the building up close!
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Let's go inside, shall we?
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They bite.
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The main section of the building is a seemingly neverending maze of ballrooms, dining halls and living quarters.
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Not much use for this fireplace anymore!
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It's lonely at the top... but the view is killer!
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This place was literally falling apart. There must have been a dozen ways to kill or injure oneself in every room!
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This was the cold game room. Basically, they would shoot an animal, hang it up in here to cure and then eat it when it was ready. Just like the back of the grocery section at Walmart!
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Lots of steps up to the turrets!
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The steps lead to this view.
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There's something very wrong with this sign in 2010....
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Wanna know what the world's first vertical drop coaster looks like? Here you go!
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Going doooooooown!
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And what better way to end our time at Alton than with a picture of the Donkey Derby?

Up next: Drayton Manor.
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Re: Photo TR: TPR UK Trip

Postby packfanlv » Sun Sep 26, 2010 1:34 pm

Jason,

Thanks for continuing this awesome trip report! I absolutely fell in love with Alton Towers. It is just an amazing park. I agree with you about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I thought it to be cheap looking and disappointing, but Duel makes up for it!!! Once again, I am really enjoying seeing the trip through your eyes!

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Re: Photo TR: TPR UK Trip

Postby walibi owner » Sun Sep 26, 2010 3:09 pm

printersdevil78 wrote:And it was sponsored by a car company I had never heard of.


haha, Lol +1

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Re: Photo TR: TPR UK Trip

Postby printersdevil78 » Thu Dec 23, 2010 12:28 am

So... three months between updates isn't that bad, is it? With the next week and a half off for the holidays, my hope is to finish this up before the new year. Wish me luck!

Day 5 began with a stop at Drayton Manor... and a visit from Mike's mom and sister! Unfortunately, I didn't get photos of them... and I got so caught up in taking Thomas Town photos that I lost them (and Mike) shortly after they arrived. But the important thing is, we all had fun! Enjoy!
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Good thing all these parks had signs. They tend to run together after awhile!
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Faster than a burrito supreme! More powerful than 1,000 plungers! Able to drain large amounts of fecal matter in a single flush! Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... Super Loo!
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Not to be confused with super Lou! (Photo stolen from Cameron.)
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Apocalypse is three, three, yes, three drop tower rides in one! And if you act now (and you're a guy), we can have you singing soprano with just one ride on our "floorless" model. But wait, there's more! (OK, actually, there's not.)
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Ja, wie wir die Drunken Barrels!
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If only those barrels were really full of sweet, sweet beer....
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I was disappointed the shooting dark ride was closed... especially after Mike informed me it was named after a cereal! I haven't ridden a cereal-themed ride since Opryland closed!
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"Happy Feet 4-D" was awesomely bad! Basically, they condensed the movie to 10 minutes and sprayed water on you at wholly inappropriate times. Somehow, on a TPR trip, moments like this are the best things ever!
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The Haunting was pretty cool and really well themed. Basically, some paranormal investigators were scoping the place out when they disappeared... and now we're being sent in to search for them. The first part was a sort of miniature walk-through haunted house with a couple neat effects, followed by a ride on a haunted swing. I was really pleasantly surprised.
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I ain't afraid of no ghost!
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A pirate ship over water. So simple, yet so effective. Six Flags, Cedar Fair--are you paying attention?
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Not the Lady Gay.
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The Buffalo Mountain Coaster wins points for having absolutely nothing to do with a mountain...
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...and being 100 percent non-PC!
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It was fun to see that several of the UK carousels still carried traditional marquee panels. I can't think of a single carousel in the U.S. that still has them (though I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong).
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If Arizona had a proper amusement park, it probably would look something like this. Only, you know, with a real cactus.
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This seems a lot differnt than the Maelstrom in Epcot....
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Can't do this at Six Flags anymore!
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This was, by far, the best Thomas Town (er, Land) I've ever seen. And they even have the Fat Controller!
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OMG! OMG! It's Thomas! OMG!
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Now that's the Harold ride done right!
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Cranky is cranky... mostly because people keep yanking his crank.
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This is the Rocking Bulstrode. What exactly is a Bulstrode, anyway?
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These are the Troublesome Trucks. They can jump up to 500 feet.
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Don't be shy, Percy! Come on out and take a bow!
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"I'm Craaaaazy Bertie Bus! Gimme some candy!"
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Diesel's Locomotion Mayhem is a lot like Ladybug Boogie at Disney's California Adventure... only it works more than 20 percent of the time.
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Lady's Carousel was... well, the picture kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it?
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The plastic sheep in this photo foreshadow a much more deviant picture in the Fantasy Island portion of this TR. You've been warned.
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Looks like Emily lives in a district without a lot of building codes.
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De planes! De planes!
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Real bulldozers are much sadder than this.
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Pan for fossils AND buy ice cream? Talk about your one-stop shop!
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Mike told me Excalibur was not to be missed... so I didn't miss it!
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"It's a knight's world after all... it's a knight's world after all...."
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Cool! Maybe we'll get to meet Simon Belmont! Oh wait....
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His spear went limp!
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Tell me how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, you bastard!
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Ba-dum-ching!
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And so our tour begins.
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Knight hole!
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This is where the boats hang out on their day off.
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"Victory is mine!"
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I've got a bad feeling about this....
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Book No. 8: "Harry Potter and the Chair That was Too Big."
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*spoiler alert* Holy crap! The ride narrator was a dragon the whole time!
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Fun fact: Elissa spent the rest of the day searching for a cashpoint that distributed groats.
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Those can't be real. We're not even at Universal Orlando!
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Oh, the puns! The horrible, horrible puns!
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Ever wonder what Pirates of the Caribbean would be like had it been built with 1/100th of its original budget? Then Pirate Adventure is the ride for you!
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"Yo ho, yo ho, a jerky, limited-motion life for me!"
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Sky rides are always fun.
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Hey, I've ridden your overseas cousin at Six Flags America!
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More fun: Sombrero or unattended golf cart? You decide!
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It seemed like in most parts of England, amusement parks weren't allowed to be built unless there was a building on site that once belonged to a now-dead noble.
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This was Drayton Manor's.
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Taters and beans! Mmm mmm good!
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Without my trusty English-to-English translator, Mike, by my side, I mispronounced "pasty" when I tried to order this, and it took the girl at the register a moment to figure out what I was saying. Fortunately, she was charmed by my American accent and asked me to take her to Miami. I think we may be engaged.
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Score one for themed trash cans.
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Fun fact No. 1: Anyone in England caught running an amusement park of 20 acres or more without a zoo on site will be sentenced to death by llama.
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Fun fact No. 2: All zoos in England must contain meerkats...
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...and penguins.
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It was a Drayton Manor that I finally broke down and bought a soft-serve Cornetto. Just watching them make it was a treat. Basically, they take a cup of ice cream, put it in something that looks like an industrial juicer, pull down on the lever, and it ends up looking like this. And it tasted good, too! Do we have this ice cream technology in the U.S.? I've never seen it. Maybe the portions are too small ?
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And now for the moment you've all been waiting for... a tour of Dinosaurland!
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Dinosaurland contains at least one 2-D generic caveman. That's how you know it's going to be awesome!
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What!? Oh noes!
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Not to fear! Dino Trail may not have been located inside a dank, dark cave, but it still had plenty of the giant cheesy fiberglass reptiles we've all come to love and expect from such attractions.
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"Whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop!"
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"Hey kids! Catch my new movie on Syfy this March!"
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One of these things is not like the other....
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His name is Earl. (Yay, two obsolete TV show references in the same four-word caption!)
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You know, if Walt Disney hadn't been so into trains, I wonder how many parks would actually have them?
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Ladies and gentlemen, the back side of water!
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When I was a kid, all we had were horses.
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Stormforce-10 was the best looking ride in the park!
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By this point, I had rejoined my translator, Mike, who informed me that "splash mac" was British for "poncho."
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Time for a TPR takeover of Shockwave...
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...and G-Force!
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Had I not ridden the train, I likely never would have noticed Black Revolver. That was one fortuitous train ride!
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It was an indoor Waltzer with lighting effects and music! I've been a big fan of these types of rides ever since the epic takeover of DelGrosso's Space Odyssey during my inaugural TPR trip (and I still crank "Tainted Love" whenever I hear it on my car radio because of that, too).
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Personally, I would have given him the death penalty.
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An old noble's home, a zoo AND a mini golf course? It's like the British amusement park trifecta!
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Thanks, Drayton Manor! But we're not going home; we're going to Blackpool. Coming up next!
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Re: Photo TR: TPR UK Trip

Postby larrygator » Thu Dec 23, 2010 7:56 am

Good to see you starting this up again. Agreed, I remember on the 2006 TPR Trip a lot of people missed Black Revolver, it is a little hard to find.
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Re: Photo TR: TPR UK Trip

Postby cfc » Thu Dec 23, 2010 10:06 am

^I was one those who missed Black Revolver in 2006--not that I would have ridden it, anyway, especially after that less-than-special "chicken burger" I had for lunch.
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Re: Photo TR: TPR UK Trip

Postby printersdevil78 » Thu Dec 23, 2010 10:28 am

^^Thanks, Larry!

^Chicken burger? Eww.... See, that's why I stuck to the pasty with a side of flirtations!

Moving right along, our second stop of Day 5 was the Blackpool area, which served as our base camp for a few days. There definitely was a feeling of excitement in the air as we explored the area around the park, even though it would be another two days before we actually rode anything there. Unlike the seaside resorts in the U.S., Blackpool was virtually dead after about 6 p.m. Mike said a lot of it (as well as many of the empty storefronts) had to do with the sagging economy. I guess when it comes down to buying bangers and mash or going on vacation, the bangers are going to win.

Anyway, we enjoyed it. Onward!
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It kind of seemed like Blackpool made it to the 1970s... then stopped. There was a lot of retro signage, and the whole place gave off sort of a vague seediness reminiscent of Coney Island before automatic weapons were easily accessible.
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It's big... it's blue... it must be our hotel!
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You'd think the Big Blue Hotel would have a big blue sign. Alas....
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I love Matt Frewer!
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Not a bad view at all from our hotel!
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"Hey! Get off the hotel property and go explore Blackpool before I call the cops!"
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These lights were everywhere! Mike said they had to do with a special event held in the fall. This particular string sparked an intense "Dr. Who" conversation.
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It would have been neat to have seen all these lit up. But then, I never thought I'd get to go to Blackpool in my lifetime at all, so "disappointment" really wasn't in the vocabulary!
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Now that's my kind of restaurant!
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With a carousel bar to boot!
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Too bad they were closed :(
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Oooh, scary!
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Yuk yuk yuk!
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These puns were likely scarier than anything inside!
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This is what happens when the restraint fails on Pepsi Max Big One!
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Another haunted house!?
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If there's a theme park in England, there must be a miniature golf course within 20 feet.
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This one looked nicely maintained (if closed for the evening).
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Indoor water park! Alton's was better because we got ERT there....
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Geez, another haunted house? That makes three of them in a two-block stretch... and that doesn't even include what's inside the park!
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This one looked neat enough that a few of us actually talked about meeting up to check it out on our Blackpool park day. Unfortunately, there was so much to do at the park that we (or at least I) never made it.
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Lady, it's nothing to lose your head over!
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Unlike the other haunted houses, Carnesky's went for "old scary" rather than "funny scary" or "terrifying scary." For us, I think that's what gave it its edge. At least on the outside.
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Another beach resort casino/arcade... and this one had "American pool!" Is American pool different than British pool?
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Man, this place was like an acid trip come to life!
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Flava Flav T-Rex says it's time for dinner!
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I don't remember if I felt this way at the time, but looking back at the trip from the six-month point, the Big Blue Hotel meal was definitely the best of the trip. They even let Elissa serve as hostess!
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Ladies and gentlemen, this is black pudding, AKA blood sausage. It's exactly what it sounds like. And it was delicious! I was pleasantly surprised.
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This chicken was amazing! Stuffed with blue cheese, wrapped in bacon, grilled and gravy-fied!
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But neither of those items had anything on the treacle pudding with custard! This may well be the best dessert I've ever tasted (and I've tasted a LOT of desserts)!
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They actually have streetcorner stands for rock in the UK? Somehow, I suspect there's a translation issue.... (And there was. Apparently "rock" in the UK isn't slang for cocaine, but is a type of hard/chewy candy sold at seashore locations much in the same way as saltwater taffy in the U.S. And yes, it's pretty darned tasty.)
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I spy Blackpool Tower!
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Whale tail!
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So, this was cool. The waves rushed into these holes...
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...making sounds similar to air passing over the mouth of a Coke bottle, which were then amplified by this harmonium, creating the Blackpool High Tide Organ! I'd never seen (or heard) anything like it.
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You'd think some of these TPRers had never seen an ocean before!
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In the distance, a closed pleasure pier loomed.
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Meanwhile, Pepsi Max Big One stood tall, having ceased operation for the evening. It was tough for a bunch of amusement park enthusiasts to see all those closed rides!
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Oh well. We may not have had theme parks, and the roller coasters were closed for the night, but we still had...
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There are two very funny things about this sign. Can you spot them?
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This makes one of those two things even funnier!
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I can only imagine this is what the Alveys' home looks like on Christmas!
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Fun fact: By 9 p.m. in Blackpool, the only thing open is McDonald's!
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Two things McDonald's in the U.S. needs to bring over: Mars milkshakes and whatever those cheese bite things were called. They were awesome, and the sweet red sauce (raspberry?) made them even better!
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This was where I unleashed my best British impressions. Mike informed me that the only American allowed to use "me" as a pronoun in place of "I" and get away with it is Popeye.
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Hey, there's always room for dessert! I'll take some ummies, a few do-nuts and a naughty rock novelty, please.
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That's it for our first night in Blackpool. Keep your eyes peeled for the next installment, when TPR invades Camelot!
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Last edited by printersdevil78 on Thu Dec 23, 2010 10:43 am.
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Re: Photo TR: TPR UK Trip

Postby SharkTums » Thu Dec 23, 2010 10:40 am

I have not seen Cornetto's in the US, but I agree they're very cool and I think they would do well. KT would always love to get one just to watch them make it!

Fun fact: Later on in the Europe Trip we spent roughly $11 on one in Switzerland!

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Re: Photo TR: TPR UK Trip

Postby mwm1444 » Thu Dec 23, 2010 12:21 pm

I miss the 'Fugde' shop so much, sometimes, that it's actually a little fugde up.

I really enjoyed our time in Blackpool, even though nothing was open. I love it when TPR spends a few nights somewhere, particularly if it's a place where you can go for a wander after dinner. Pigeon Forge (on the IntimidaTour) was the same, and only narrowly beat out Blackpool due to the fact that stuff was open - and I didn't have to put on a jumper to avoid getting chilly from the Irish wind.

Looking forward to your eventual 'Beyond Belief' review - that was one of my favourite ever TPR nights.
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