For anyone interested, a few photos of our honeymoon were uploaded to:

http://sanosandy.smugmug.com/Amusement-Parks

These are pics from LaQua, Hanayashiki Amusement Park, and Cosmo World in Japan. I will be putting up the gigs on non-park photos soon :).

Adam

Nice pics....made me think of something...regarding your pics at a German park and thinking of BGE, do parks in other countries have American themed areas? If so, are they as over the top as our representations of them?

Adam can expand on this, but from I have seen at the parks in Europe that I have visited, most of the "American" theming is normally tied to the "Wild Frontier" like Frontierland at Disney's Magic Kingdom parks, Cedar Point's Frontier Town area, or the general rustic feel of Dollywood and Silver Dollar City.

For some reason, Heide Park in Germany has a downsized replica of the statue of liberty and the capitol, which houses a restaurant. Other than that it is mostly the "wild west".

> Adam can expand on this, but from I have seen at the parks
> in Europe that I have visited, most of the
> "American" theming is normally tied to the
> "Wild Frontier" like Frontierland at Disney's
> Magic Kingdom parks, Cedar Point's Frontier Town area, or
> the general rustic feel of Dollywood and Silver Dollar
> City.

>

That is correct. The only exceptions I can think of were the "Main Street" section built by Six Flags at Six Flags Holland, the ex Gotham City area at the ex Warner Brothers Movie Park germany and the Gotham City and Metropolis areas of Parque Warner Madrid.

Phantasialand even goes as far as avoiding the USA all together, using China and Mexico sections.

> For anyone interested, a few photos of our honeymoon were
> uploaded to:

> These are pics from LaQua, Hanayashiki Amusement Park,
> and Cosmo World in Japan.

Nice pics and congrats on your wedding! :)

> I will be putting up the gigs on
> non-park photos soon :).

Did you get any pictures of the Harajuku kids?

But doesn't Phantasialand have a Vekoma Mine Train named "Colorado Adventure" (otherwise known as the Michael Jackson Thrill Ride which no one has been able to explain why to me)?

It does, but in typical Phantasialand fashion, the placement and theming make no sense whatoever! The entrance is in the chinese section, the ride is in between a few sections and the covered sections got no theming whatsoever. I guess I spoke too quickly, as the final helix is around an indian camp and you got an old time cavalry log fort. Amazing ride, but the theming make no sense.

Nice photos, Adam.

As to that other little matter (um, the marriage?)...Congrats to you and Tomoko!

I believe I have her name correct...?
I know I've met her...at PPP, I think.

Mike B.

Thanks Mike. Yup, you got the name right and yup, she was at PPP in '06 (the last time I was there).

Mark pretty much answered the other question as I would have. I have not seen America represented any way but "the old west/cowboy" outside of the U.S. I guess I can partially understand it. For example, in America we think of Oktoberfest as a German festival when it is Bavarian. Even with a lot of the world watching American movies as much as they do I think it is hard for the average person, especially someone not fluent in English, to pick out the stereotypes that go with a certain region (i.e., the differences in southern vs. Texan or the California differences of LA vs San Franciscan). The "American" cowboy, wurst-eating "German" at Oktoberfest, the cockney "Englishman", or the submarine with a screen door inventing Pollack :), are all easy representations a lot of people can pick up worldwide.

Adam

@sparky
That´s quite easy to explain: Michael Jackson was a big fan of Phantasialand and used to visit it several times (the park would open just for him during the off-season!)

The park asked him to come to the opening of "Colorado Adventure" and be it´s "patron saint", or something. The management was quite surprised when he actually did show up, causing a massive media event. To commemorate (and cash in on) this, the park decided to add "The Michael Jackson Thrillride" to the original name.