Carnaval Break
Wow, for once I had a fun Carnaval holiday. I didn't go out to party, but I didn't stay home all four days.
I stayed home on Saturday and Sunday, avoiding the horrible everything on TV during this time of the year. I actually didn't do much. I just obsessed over Aidan Turner.
On Monday though I went to an amusement park, Hopi Hari. I just went because I won two entries for free so I asked my sister to come with me. She took Gabriel, a friend of hers with her daughter who is about the same age as my nephew. I had been there a few times before but I'd heard about how bad the park's been doing, it's even been on TV and I had no interest going for the price they charge to enter the park but since it's been a while since I've done something like this, I thought what the hell.
The for free bit is a bit of a stretch because we spend ethanol for the car (had to fill it up and it's not cheap lately), the tolls (getting more and more expensive by the day), parking (SERIOUSLY IT COSTS AN ARM AND A LEG!) and lunch (which is not cheap in the park and we are not allowed to enter with so much as a bottle of water). All and all, used a bit of my savings... Gabriel had to pay as an adult to enter the park, even though he is six and can't go to most of the attractions. I wouldn't mind if some of those attractions were, you know, actually working.
Speaking of attractions, half of the rides weren't open. They said it was for technical reasons but I didn't see ONE technician working on any one ride. Being a Monday of a four-day national holiday, the park was full and with so many attractions closed, the lines were looooong. It was a 4 hour line just to go on the wooden roller coaster, 4 hours to go to the rapids water attraction, a total joke. Needless to say we didn't go on those. The other two roller coasters were closed. We spent the whole day there and only went in like five rides.
The only attraction that started the day closed but opened later was the 3d movie simulator (which was worth it) but then other rides that started up open, closed later. There wasn't one pleased customer in that entire park. Everywhere, all we heard were complaints. Of course, being all Brazilians, we all know what to expect when we go there, but the pity is that there were a lot of foreign tourists. The poor guys.
The park is very poorly admnistrated, high prices that are not worth the product, bad service (my sister was actually responded to by a clerk!) and it just got worse and worse over the years, culminating with the death of a girl a couple of years ago because of negligence. The belt of one of the seats of the tower didn't work and ever since I remember that seat was never used until one day some employee sat a girl there and she fell from the top of the ride. We all thought that would be the wake up call, but nothing happened. The person was fired and I guess that was it. The park didn't change one bit.
That is such a pity because I remember going there as a teenager, during it's glory years, and it was so beautiful, well taken care of, and most important of all, FUN! We would go on the same ride over and over and go back home exhausted instead of even more stressed. The bad thing is that we have no other option in the whole state. The only park good enough to be a competition is closed for a few years and God knows when it will re-open. The only other good park in the country is two states over and it's so far superior that can't even be compared to this. Funny thing is that the tickets cost exactly the same.
At least the kids loved it. Of course, the rides they did go were just normal ones present in every park in the world. Why pay so much to take the kids to a merry-go-round? Ugh.
I took just a few pics which I can't post because I'm at work and the camera is back home. But I will. Meanwhile, stay with the pics we posted on FB.
On Tuesday I went out for lunch with re_nan to catch up. We spent the rest of the day getting him caught up with Arrow and then he had to go back 'cause he wanted to go out to party at night. I didn't go.
At night, I went out with my mom and my sister to watch Pompeii in 3D. We loved it. They both spent the whole movie drooling over Kit Harington and now my mom wants to borrow my GoT DVDs, lol. It was half past midnight, and we were texting each other in bed like teenagers, she was wanting to know the details of Game of Thrones, what it was about, and I was trying to contain my squee as I was telling her, lol.
I stayed home on Saturday and Sunday, avoiding the horrible everything on TV during this time of the year. I actually didn't do much. I just obsessed over Aidan Turner.
On Monday though I went to an amusement park, Hopi Hari. I just went because I won two entries for free so I asked my sister to come with me. She took Gabriel, a friend of hers with her daughter who is about the same age as my nephew. I had been there a few times before but I'd heard about how bad the park's been doing, it's even been on TV and I had no interest going for the price they charge to enter the park but since it's been a while since I've done something like this, I thought what the hell.
The for free bit is a bit of a stretch because we spend ethanol for the car (had to fill it up and it's not cheap lately), the tolls (getting more and more expensive by the day), parking (SERIOUSLY IT COSTS AN ARM AND A LEG!) and lunch (which is not cheap in the park and we are not allowed to enter with so much as a bottle of water). All and all, used a bit of my savings... Gabriel had to pay as an adult to enter the park, even though he is six and can't go to most of the attractions. I wouldn't mind if some of those attractions were, you know, actually working.
Speaking of attractions, half of the rides weren't open. They said it was for technical reasons but I didn't see ONE technician working on any one ride. Being a Monday of a four-day national holiday, the park was full and with so many attractions closed, the lines were looooong. It was a 4 hour line just to go on the wooden roller coaster, 4 hours to go to the rapids water attraction, a total joke. Needless to say we didn't go on those. The other two roller coasters were closed. We spent the whole day there and only went in like five rides.
The only attraction that started the day closed but opened later was the 3d movie simulator (which was worth it) but then other rides that started up open, closed later. There wasn't one pleased customer in that entire park. Everywhere, all we heard were complaints. Of course, being all Brazilians, we all know what to expect when we go there, but the pity is that there were a lot of foreign tourists. The poor guys.
The park is very poorly admnistrated, high prices that are not worth the product, bad service (my sister was actually responded to by a clerk!) and it just got worse and worse over the years, culminating with the death of a girl a couple of years ago because of negligence. The belt of one of the seats of the tower didn't work and ever since I remember that seat was never used until one day some employee sat a girl there and she fell from the top of the ride. We all thought that would be the wake up call, but nothing happened. The person was fired and I guess that was it. The park didn't change one bit.
That is such a pity because I remember going there as a teenager, during it's glory years, and it was so beautiful, well taken care of, and most important of all, FUN! We would go on the same ride over and over and go back home exhausted instead of even more stressed. The bad thing is that we have no other option in the whole state. The only park good enough to be a competition is closed for a few years and God knows when it will re-open. The only other good park in the country is two states over and it's so far superior that can't even be compared to this. Funny thing is that the tickets cost exactly the same.
At least the kids loved it. Of course, the rides they did go were just normal ones present in every park in the world. Why pay so much to take the kids to a merry-go-round? Ugh.
I took just a few pics which I can't post because I'm at work and the camera is back home. But I will. Meanwhile, stay with the pics we posted on FB.
On Tuesday I went out for lunch with re_nan to catch up. We spent the rest of the day getting him caught up with Arrow and then he had to go back 'cause he wanted to go out to party at night. I didn't go.
At night, I went out with my mom and my sister to watch Pompeii in 3D. We loved it. They both spent the whole movie drooling over Kit Harington and now my mom wants to borrow my GoT DVDs, lol. It was half past midnight, and we were texting each other in bed like teenagers, she was wanting to know the details of Game of Thrones, what it was about, and I was trying to contain my squee as I was telling her, lol.