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[Gilligan]

We booked a cabin at Yellowstone late August.  This will be the first time we've gone and not camped. We'll end with a couple nights camping in Bridger Natl Forest. Yay for the cabin, warmth, hot showers, internet...  but I already miss the camping experience.

[Joy]

What was the comment about the "silly" rules?

You have to have a kid with you to get entry into Lego Discovery Center; they have adult-only nights once or twice a month where that rule is suspended, but for the most part, if you're an adult, you gotta have a kid with you to go there.

[Swoosh]

What was the comment about the "silly" rules?

You have to have a kid with you to get entry into Lego Discovery Center; they have adult-only nights once or twice a month where that rule is suspended, but for the most part, if you're an adult, you gotta have a kid with you to go there.

Kid must be 12 or under as well.  I mean I get the rule, because of their target demographic but it's also a pain for us adults that enjoy Legos that don't have kids.  For me I'm more interested in the Mini-Land and the rides, Theatre and model builder school than the little kid stuff.  Oh well.  I've done it before with a media pass

[Joy]

Yeah, I understand their reasoning. Thankfully, I've got four niblings under age 12, so I should be able to go at some point. I really wanna see the Mini-Land most of all. Someday I wanna be able to go to an actual Legoland, too.

[sanddunerider]

You have to have a kid with you to get entry into Lego Discovery Center; they have adult-only nights once or twice a month where that rule is suspended, but for the most part, if you're an adult, you gotta have a kid with you to go there.

Kid must be 12 or under as well.  I mean I get the rule, because of their target demographic but it's also a pain for us adults that enjoy Legos that don't have kids.  For me I'm more interested in the Mini-Land and the rides, Theatre and model builder school than the little kid stuff.  Oh well.  I've done it before with a media pass
[/quote]

Yes, I figured as much..  does make sense, in a off balance sort of way.   LOL

[Swoosh]

Yeah, I understand their reasoning. Thankfully, I've got four niblings under age 12, so I should be able to go at some point. I really wanna see the Mini-Land most of all. Someday I wanna be able to go to an actual Legoland, too.

It's really well done.  I'll see if I can't fund an old PTR of it.  It wasn't any problem for me getting in when it first opened because the Master Model Builder was a fraternity brother of mine and I'd get to go up and watch/help him build in the lab.  Unfortunately he left a couple years ago to go back into teaching (much less stressful)

[chittlins]

Well, somee things have come up since my last post on my planned Euro trip. Life has a plenty of obstacles for even the best laid plans. Our Son was diagnosed with ITP which is basically a very low blood platelet count. We were extremely worried that it was Lukemia at first, he had a bone marrow biospy and that did not show anything. They started hin on Prednisone steriods and he had an initial positive response but his numbers have fallen again. So, we are to start Rituxan IV treatment this coming week. 4 treatments spaced out over 4 weeks. Hopefully this will do it otherwise we are looking at removing his spleen and getting refered to Arkansas Childrens. Needless to say, it was a good thing I took out insurance on this thing. We are still operating under the assumption this will still happen. The Dr.  Seems to think we can work around this. There have been some tweeks.

Sat-XNA-ORD-LHT. Booked! We have a very long layover 8am to 9:30 pm. We'll hit up a pizza place in Chicago for lunch go up one of the towers and catch the Cubs/Reds game at Wrigley at 1:05pm before getting back to ORD at 6 to 6:30pm.

Sun- We touch down at 11:30am. There is an arrival lounge we can take in and grab a snack and a drink before we head to the Heathrow Express to Paddington. There it is a very short walk/taxi ride to our 2br apt rental. We have nothing planned. We don't know how we'll feel or how much sleep we'll get on the redeye. If we are overcome by excitement, we'll head out into London to do something.

Mon and Tues- objectives are the same, Changing if the Guards, Tower of London, Churchill War Rooms, V&A , British Museum. Anything else is extra.

Wed, we don't know what we'll do just yet. It will either be a theme park between London and Salisbury/Bath or touring the country side and stay in and around Salisbury/Bath or we will book it to Alton Towers for the day and come back toward Salisbury and hit up a B&B in the Cotswolds for the night. Either way, we'll be leaving London.

Thur- Salisbury/Bath area a mid afternoon visit to the Stonehenge Visitor Center leave for Dinner and be back before 8PM for our Inner Circle tour. Stayong at a very nearby Holiday Inn so we can get to bed afterwards.

Friday will be busy as we'll end up at Efteling that night. We'll get up eay grab some Breakfast and head toward London. We'll have time for a couple of things. I'm thinking maybe Legoland Windsor before we have to be at St. Pancreas station for our Eurostar Chunnel train trip to Brussels. We might hit up the RAF museum. It depends on what we do on Wed. It would be much cheaper to fly but the Wife and Kids are facinated with the Chunnel train.

(The thought is to get a Merlin UK pass that allows us to visit any Merlin attraction in the UK. That includes the London Eye, Sealife and The Dungeon there in London,. On Wed and Fri, we can choose Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Legoland, Windsor Castle, ect, ect ect, going to and leaving Stonehenge.

Fri, Sat, Sun- staying at Efteling. We'll do the park either Sat or Sun depending on weather, the other day will be an Amsterdam day trip with the objectives on Anne Frank House, Rijksmuseum and a canal cruise.

Mon-Leave Efteling pretty early and head to Phantasialand. We'll do Phantasialand on Monday and stay on site at Hotel Matamba that night.

Tues- either stay at Phantasialand for the day before heading back to Brussels or explore Aachen and Colonge before heading to Brussels. I would like to hit up the Bastonge area, we'll see. Only thing set i  stone is a hotel stay in Brussels.

Wed- flight to Barcelona, Tibidabo Amusement park in late afternoon to Sunseta, Tapas late night.

Thurs- Our Guadi Day, visits to major Guadi places like La Familia Segura, Parc Guell, Casa Batlo. More tapas that evening.

Fri- leave early for PortAventura, drop off our bags at the new Hotel Colorado River. They'll take them to the room when it is ready. Room comes with tickets to PortAventura/Ferrari Land with express pass wristbands and breakfast buffet. It consists of a double bed and two twins. So a new room in a deluxe hotel, 4 tickets to the themeparks with express passes, four buffets breakfast meals for a hair under $400. We we able to book it with my Chase Points so it also basically had a 25% discount.  Compare to a night on resort at Disneyland Paris with tickets, this is a steal.

Sat- Cruise departure day, we'll check out and hit up the Roman Ruins in Tarragona, there is a great section of an aquaduct and amp in the area. We'll drive along the coast to Barcelona, I'll drop off the others and luggage at the port and then drop off the car nearby and take the metro to meet back up. We'll board around 2pm. I'm not one of those must get on as soon as you can types.

Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur,- cruise days and port excursions.

Visit Eze, Cinque Terre, Pisa/Lucca or other Tuscan village and Pompeii.

Fri off at Rome. Have an apt rental near the Vatican , either a night visit to the Sistine and St. Peters or early Sat morning for a more involved tour.

Sat- Rome sites like Trevi, Spainish Steps, Borghese

Sun- Florence day trip by high speed, late night tour of Colosseum

Mon- early train to Venice, night tour of St Marks.

Tues, early visit to Doge Palace and then an early afternoon train to Munich. Stay near the Central station and hit up Hofbrau for the night.

Wed, either take the early train to Strasbourg or rent a car and drive to Fussen to see the Snow White Castle and back and then train to Strasbourg. Either way we'll be staying at the new Rulantica hotel at Europa till Sat.  So sad the water park will not be done, it looks awesome.

It has crossed our mind to cancel the first night a Europa and stay along the way after Fussen and get there in Thurs. I found the one way car rentals from Italy to Germany astronomically high but point to point in Germany is much more manageable. However, cross over to Strasbourg and it becomes much more expensive again though nothin like the Italy to German charge.(nearly  1k for the one way fee alone)

If we skip the Fussen day trip from Munich, we'll daytrip one day to Rhine Falls and some nearby Castles.

On Sat, we'll train to Nantes and wind up at Puy du Fou that night for the big show This would a high speed/direct train, about 6hr.

Sun- Puy du Fou

Mon- Puy to Mont St. Michel to Bayeux

Tue- D-Day sites

Wed- Bayuex Tapistry to Giverny(Monet's Garden) to Paris (Disneyland)


Thur- Disneyland w/Studios with the add on fast pass tickets

Fri- Paris proper, Louvre, d'Orsay, Catacombs

Sat- More Paris am. Afternoon at Versailles with the night fireworks show.

Mon- here is where this trip currently ends. We'll hold off and see how my Son responds to his treatment before going farther but the ideal is to to go to Copenhagen and then to Stockholm or back to Spain to hit Madrid instead, or Dublin/Ireland. It will depend on award flight availibilty as well. If that is the case, we may come back to the States and do Boston/ NY but this will be the week of the 4th so it will be slamed.

That is pretry much the final rough draft. Most hotel stays and tours have been booked, even the Versailles fireworks show.
We decided to train as much as possible on high speed lines so as to not worry so much about baggages fees over flights.

That said, sometimes the flights are srupid cheap, we are flying Brussels to Barcelona for 20 per person but it'll be 200 by the time we add a couple of check ins and seat assignments. We may change the plan and stay in Venice all day of that Tue and take the night train to Munich but I think a train ride through the Alps  in daylight might be nice.

[sanddunerider]

WOW!!!   Thats a schedule!!  Hope all goes well for you, with no problems.....

[chittlins]

WOW!!!   Thats a schedule!!  Hope all goes well for you, with no problems.....

That is me going slow.

Son's first of 4 treatments start this Tues. Hoping for the best.

[sirwillow]

Looks like an incredible trip.  Wishing you guys the best and lifting up prayers for your son and his treatments.
We just got back from the first WDW trip of the year and starting to work on videos of it now.  First one (the actual trip there and arrival) should be posted up tomorrow.  Then over the next 3-4 weeks I'll have the rest of the trip getting posted up.  Only about 3000 photos and video clips to sort through.  lol
May we're still hoping for Kentucky and the ark/ creation museum, but the snow and ice keeps adding snow days to my wife's school calendar, so really hoping we're done with that or it may affect that trip.

[Swoosh]

2019
JANUARY
1 - Silver Dollar City - New Year's Celebration
15 - Sea Life Kansas City

FEBRUARY
23 - Wonders of Wildlife National Museum
23 - Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium

MARCH
2 - St. Louis Zoo
17 - Silver Dollar City's Spring Ride Days
20 - Anakeesta
20 - Rail Runner at Anakeesta
20 - Rowdy Bear Mountain Coaster
20 - Mountain Glider at Rowdy Bear
21 - Dollywood - Festival of Nations
22 - Dollywood - Festival of Nations
23 - Rocky Top Mountain Coaster
23 - Smoky Mountain Park
23 - Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
31 - Six Flags St. Louis

APRIL
12 - Worlds of Fun Opening Day
TBD - Silver Dollar City - Festival of Wonder

JUNE
24 - Six Flags Great America
25 - Toronto
26 - Canada's Wonderland
27 - Niagara Falls
27 - Darien Lake
28 - Kennywood
29 - Cedar Point

NOVEMBER
24 - Universal Studios Florida
25 - Islands of Adventure
26 - Daytona Beach
27 - Magic Kingdom
28 - Disney's Hollywood Studios
29 - Animal Kingdom

Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium



Wonders of Wildlife National Museum

[Swoosh]

2019
JANUARY
1 - Silver Dollar City - New Year's Celebration
15 - Sea Life Kansas City

FEBRUARY
23 - Wonders of Wildlife National Museum
23 - Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium

MARCH
2 - St. Louis Zoo
17 - Silver Dollar City's Spring Ride Days
20 - Rowdy Bear Mountain Coaster
20 - Mountain Glider at Rowdy Bear
20 - Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
21 - Dollywood - Festival of Nations
22 - Dollywood
22 - Rocky Top Mountain Coaster
23 - Smoky Mountain National Park
23 - Anakeesta
23 - Rail Runner at Anakeesta
31 - Six Flags St. Louis

APRIL
12 - Worlds of Fun Opening Day
TBD - Silver Dollar City - Festival of Wonder

JUNE
24 - Six Flags Great America
25 - Toronto
26 - Canada's Wonderland
27 - Niagara Falls
27 - Darien Lake
28 - Kennywood
29 - Cedar Point

NOVEMBER
24 - Universal Studios Florida
25 - Islands of Adventure
26 - Daytona Beach
27 - Magic Kingdom
28 - Disney's Hollywood Studios
29 - Animal Kingdom

St. Louis Zoo

[Swoosh]

2019
JANUARY
1 - Silver Dollar City - New Year's Celebration
15 - Sea Life Kansas City

FEBRUARY
23 - Wonders of Wildlife National Museum
23 - Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium

MARCH
2 - St. Louis Zoo
17 - Silver Dollar City's Spring Ride Days
20 - Rowdy Bear Gravity Coaster
20 - Rowdy Bear Mountain Glider
20 - Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
21 - Dollywood - Festival of Nations
22 - Dollywood
22 - Rocky Top Mountain Coaster
23 - Smoky Mountain National Park
23 - Anakeesta
23 - Rail Runner at Anakeesta
31 - Six Flags St. Louis

APRIL
12 - Worlds of Fun Opening Day
TBD - Silver Dollar City - Festival of Wonder

JUNE
24 - Six Flags Great America
25 - Toronto
26 - Canada's Wonderland
27 - Niagara Falls
27 - Darien Lake
28 - Kennywood
29 - Cedar Point

NOVEMBER
24 - Universal Studios Florida
25 - Islands of Adventure
26 - Daytona Beach
27 - Magic Kingdom
28 - Disney's Hollywood Studios
29 - Animal Kingdom

SDC Spring Ride Days

[Swoosh]

2019
JANUARY
1 - Silver Dollar City - New Year's Celebration
15 - Sea Life Kansas City

FEBRUARY
23 - Wonders of Wildlife National Museum
23 - Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium

MARCH
2 - St. Louis Zoo
17 - Silver Dollar City's Spring Ride Days
20 - Rowdy Bear Gravity Coaster
20 - Rowdy Bear Mountain Glider
20 - Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
21 - Dollywood - Festival of Nations
22 - Dollywood
22 - Rocky Top Mountain Coaster
23 - Smoky Mountain National Park
23 - Anakeesta
23 - Rail Runner at Anakeesta
31 - Six Flags St. Louis

APRIL
12 - Worlds of Fun Opening Day
TBD - Silver Dollar City - Festival of Wonder

JUNE
24 - Six Flags Great America
25 - Toronto
26 - Canada's Wonderland
27 - Niagara Falls
27 - Darien Lake
28 - Kennywood
29 - Cedar Point

NOVEMBER
24 - Universal Studios Florida
25 - Islands of Adventure
26 - Daytona Beach
27 - Magic Kingdom
28 - Disney's Hollywood Studios
29 - Animal Kingdom

ROWDY BEAR MOUNTAIN GRAVITY COASTER


ROWDY BEAR MOUNTAIN GLIDER

[Swoosh]

2019
JANUARY
1 - Silver Dollar City - New Year's Celebration
15 - Sea Life Kansas City

FEBRUARY
23 - Wonders of Wildlife National Museum
23 - Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium

MARCH
2 - St. Louis Zoo
17 - Silver Dollar City's Spring Ride Days
20 - Rowdy Bear Gravity Coaster
20 - Rowdy Bear Mountain Glider
20 - Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
21 - Dollywood - Festival of Nations
22 - Dollywood
22 - Rocky Top Mountain Coaster
23 - Smoky Mountain National Park
23 - Anakeesta
23 - Rail Runner at Anakeesta

APRIL
6 - Six Flags St. Louis - Spring Break Days
12 - Worlds of Fun Opening Day
19 - Silver Dollar City - Festival of Wonder

MAY
12 - Silver Dollar City - Bluegrass & BBQ

JUNE
24 - Six Flags Great America
25 - Toronto
26 - Canada's Wonderland
27 - Niagara Falls
27 - Darien Lake
28 - Kennywood
29 - Cedar Point

NOVEMBER
24 - Universal Studios Florida
25 - Islands of Adventure
26 - Daytona Beach
27 - Magic Kingdom
28 - Disney's Hollywood Studios
29 - Animal Kingdom

WORLDS OF FUN - OPENING DAY

Additional Update Photos from WOF can be found on MIG

SIX FLAGS ST. LOUIS - SPRING BREAK DAYS

Additional Update Photos from SFSTL can be found on MIG