standbyme

I can't believe that you saw a need to apologize...those are some very nice photos...the first photo of the lights especially! Also, thanks for all the tips.

Thanks SO much for finding it for me! I enjoyed re-reading it again. (I fixed the formatting issues...and I learned that the soldiers "name" was not Johnny but Bobby!)

I just dug up the photos that I took that year...they have been posted here in the past...but hopefully the "newbies" will find them interesting. This is before I went digital...so I didn't take a lot of shots when I went.

I looked for my trip report for that years Winterfest but it has disappeared into the mists of time. (Too bad, I would have liked to relive it now.) As for the train ride: You boarded it in the station. The station was decked out to look like it was back in the late 30's/early 40's during wartime. There was a cool looking baggage cart with old bags (obviously) stacked on it. The train personel were also dressed nostalgically. There were christmas decorations set up along side the tracks to look at. The "main event" though was that as you road the train you listened as a soldier named "Johnny" told you how he was on his way home for Christmas. The actor on our train was very good. (He even led everyone on the train in a couple of sing-alongs!) Eventually the trained stopped in front of a mock house that the park had set up and "Johnny" got off the train and waved goodbye to us all as the train departed. I only went once (unfortunately) but I was lucky enough to have gone when not only was there already snow on the ground, but it started to snow while we were there. As Gator said, good times!

You did have me curious about this...but I don't think I have ever seen the photo that you are talking about...I think I would remember it if I did. I look forward to the answer!

^Sorry that you didn't enjoy it. My family had a great time in 2005...we all liked the train ride.

VERY nice pictures! (It's kind of depressing looking at all of you in short sleeve shirts when it's so cold out right now!) Thanks again for sharing.

Paul, As always, great photos...I think my favorite of this batch is ""Beast station que rails".

Those trees look amazing...I have always wanted to see them in person...maybe someday. Thanks for sharing!

I'm wore out just reading your itinerary! Seriously though...i'm looking forward to seeing your photos!

Thanks for part 2! I don't have a lot to comment on this part...my family and I have never enjoyed Animal Kingdom. (We are lucky to spend a half a day there.) I guess it's because of when we usually go, early February. There is usually hardly an animal to be seen. (Just birds mostly.) Last year was SO bad that I thought Disney did a disservice to it's customers by not posting a sign outside warning everyone how few of the animals would be out and about due to the weather. (I know that if I specifically purchased a one day ticket to visit Animal Kingdom that day I would have been severely upset by the lack of animals.)

^Good one Gator!

If that's winning i'm happy to be a loser! (Skyline Chili [At least at the park] YUCK!)

A very sad (but true) statement.

I feel like this one-upmanship should eventually end with "Mary Ellen Moffat. She broke my heart."

Due to the fact that we are losing even more trees in the park and they are installing pavers...the song that keeps popping in my head is Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi"..."They paved paradise and put up a parking lot". (Yes I love the pavers...but I always miss the shade trees.)

tycoonrebel...I second it, thanks for the info...that will be an interesting fact to annoy my family with!

Jesse, As always your trip reports are amazing. I can see why you wanted the beach group photo...it turned out VERY nice and I am sure it will always be one of your family's favorite photo. (The group shot at the dolphin swim also turned out very good!) You are a lot like me in the respect that I always try and get a group shot of my family wherever I go. (Minus me of course! ) I am here at work at the moment...and on this computer there are quite a few of your photos that are not showing up...hopefully when I get home I will be able to see them all. (We are running IE XP here.) Thanks again for taking the time to write up this report and I look forward to seeing the next part! See ya, J.D.

Jesse/Avatar, Thanks for the very interesting/enlightening post. I always enjoy reading your thoughts on Disney. (I must say, you have me paranoid of the quality of my families upcoming WDW trip though.) As for Universal, my family and I made our first trek back to it this past summer. It was our first visit to it in over 10 years, what got us down there...certainly Harry Potter was a drawing card...but another BIG plus was that they still had Spongebob!

^Over on the official Kings Island Facebook page they had a feature where they would answer 5 questions a day at 5PM that people had submitted...although they usually ran a little late...it was a lot of fun!

But, are there any plans to open it in 2011...just kidding, just kidding. This is good news because my nephew was finally tall enough to ride in the motion seats late this year and enjoyed it a lot...it was new to him!

This IS good news...thanks for the info Kyle!

That's good to know...it really was odd when we were there...I am used to some full trays sitting around...we stood there until a girl came in with a messily half filled tray. Maybe someone was sick that day! I STILL miss that so much...but let's face it, we still may not have got a straight answer.

Conspiracy theory here but last summer the park seemed to hardly have any of the glasses for Action Theater when I was there...we had to wait for a girl to bring a half filled tray of them. Thats not what I am used to...and it wasn't even a busy day. Why didn't the park order more glasses if they knew they needed them AND Action Theater was still a concern? When they announced WindSeeker why didn't they say near the entrance of Action Theater instead of Vortex's exit? I am wondering if they are just going to close Action Theater and leave Urgent Scare in it and possibly build a special entrance to it like they did around Viking Fury.

Just think how sweet a lock shop could have been though! Notice the sign says "Padlocks And Locks From Around The World"...ewww pinch me I must be dreaming! I have always found it amazing that somewhere out in the world there is at least one person who collects anything that you can think of no matter how dumb you may think it is. (For me, I have always thought that the people who collect bricks are they themselves a few bricks short if they think a brick collection is interesting.)