george takei's "oh myyy" on disappointing tourist attractions

[orleans]

Link to tweet

OK, folks, what is the most disappointing tourist attraction you've ever been to?



(one of my favorites: "statue of liberty. did not move like in ghostbusters and there was next to no paranormal activity&quot

[rsdsharp]

1. Niagara Falls. Slowly I turned. Step by step. . .

Oh, sorry. Wrong bit. We were on the Canadian side. The falls were nice, if smaller than I thought. The rest was like walking through a fair midway. Bright neon, blaring music, tacky tourist traps. They didn’t even honor the monetary exchange rate.

I disagree about Lombard Street. I turned down Lombard about 4:00 PM on a Wednesday. Not another car in sight. My wife didn’t know we were even near it. I thought she was going to soil herself. I wouldn’t go back, but the drive was a fun 45 seconds or so.

[orleans]

3. could you please tell me what is lombard street, or what's the big attraction about it?

i honestly don't know. lots of hills and curves?

[NowISeetheLight]

10. It's not Normal

I’ve actually been on this road. It is a bit insane. It has multiple curves… and I do mean multiple. It was designed because the original straight hill was over 25 degrees and most vehicles couldn’t drive it. It has its own Wikipedia page (with a picture).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_Street_(San_Francisco)

[orleans]

18. thank you -- not a road i would drive down, that's for sure! nt

[rsdsharp]

12. All curves, narrow and pretty steep.

[Celerity]

15. pics

[mockmonkey]

17. Those are really pretty pictures

Too bad our eyes can't see things the way pictures taken with filters can show them.

[orleans]

19. wow - thank you! nt

[a kennedy]

7. I loved Niagara Falls in Canada......went there on our motorcycle with our best friends...

We left Wisconsin on a Saturday in the rain......for the next 3 days it rained off and on.....we get to Canada, and to our motel, have a blast in the bar of this motel with one of the bar tenders singing “O Canada” and our foursome, “The Cheeseheads” singing, oh damn, I can’t remember the song we sang, but the other patrons loved us. It was the best damn vaca I ever had. When we woke the next morning to drive to the falls.....it was sunny, sunny for the first time on our trip. We get to the falls and the wind was blowing in such a way that we were getting wet AGAIN. Best damn vacation I was EVER on. Sorry this doesn’t even belong here.

[orleans]

21. your vacay story may not be a story of a disappointing tourist attractions

but it's a wonderful story including the heart that is evident in the way you tell it--with such happiness.
thanks for sharing this.

[Lochloosa]

2. Plymouth Rock for sure. It's a rock.

[GP6971]

4. I second that.

And add the Calico Ghost Town in Yermo CA. I was there in the late 70s/early 80s and it was pretty cool. I was in the area in 2015 and stopped in. Totally different...just a commercialized venue.

[llmart]

5. Back in the 80's...

I visited Jim and Tammy Faye Baaker's Heritage USA theme park where on entering there was posted a sign saying "Only Christian bathing attire allowed." The whole place creeped me out.

[TigressDem]

6. Some people can find fault with anything.

But I kinda get it a little bit.

I went to Mexico City and the hotel restaurant was up like 13 floors and there was still street soot floating in the windows. No screens?

Expecting wonderful Mexican food, instead they tried to pass off bright orange chorizo as hot dogs. BUT as I thought about it, that was so funny and they WERE trying to make us feel at home. Things that go wrong on a trip are memories made.

THEN we went to the pyramids and there were a lot of people trying to sell us things, even trade for them. I bought some great stuff for people back home for Christmas. Still striding up all those steps on something that had been built so long ago was mind blowing.

BUT the most exciting part of my trip was trying to cross the street in downtown Mexico near my hotel.

IT WAS LIKE FROGGER.

IF the tour guide hadn't took my arm and walked me through it, between cars one lane at a time, I would have just had to take up residence on the other side of the street and not go home. I couldn't do it. He was tall and had light brown, almost blond curly hair and hazel green eyes and got me from point A to B alive.

Alfonzo? I think. Anyway, the hero of my young life at the time. What a gentleman and he didn't laugh (much) at me.

[nolabear]

24. We had a taxi ride in Rome that curled my hair.

We were going from train to hotel in a tiny taxi so we were already holding luggage in our laps, and the driver tore down a narrow little flagstone alley with literally nowhere a person walking to escape to. We ran up on a poor old lady who just froze as we nearly flattened her, only to have the driver laugh like a maniac and yell “She close-a her eyes! She close-a her eyes!”

I have to admit, though, I loved everything about Italy.

[TigressDem]

27. Yeah, riding a van to the Tropical Rain Forest in Puerto Rico was heart stopping.

I should have known by the huge dent in the passenger side door that this was a guy who drove like he owned the road.

I wanted to kiss the ground when we got back to the hotel.


The ONLY safe way to walk in Puerto Rico was if you were an attractive young girl in a tight skirt or an abuelita.


So I hung on to my Mother In Law's arm and crossed as quickly as she was able.

[Dave says]

8. Key West has changed dramatically

When I was a kid, I slept on blankets with friends on the beaches on the east side, hung out in Earnest Hemingway’s favorite bar (Sloppy Joe’s), and ‘everyone’ - a dozen or so people - hung out on the docks on the west side to watch the “green flash” of the setting sun while mellow jazz flowed out of the cool clubs behind us.

Now it’s unrecognizable. Towering hotels everywhere. After regaling my ex-wife with my Key West adventure stories (there were a lot of them), I took her now decades later so she could experience some for herself. I walked into a bar asking where Sloppy Joe’s was, and the barkeep said we were in it. No way, I said. Way, he said. After a few beers we walked out and, son of a gun, there it was. I could see the outline of the front facade surrounded by luxurious new condos left and right.

The whole place was ruined for me. The green flash? Forget about it. No dock to gather at unless you were paying for an expensive room in the multi-stories hotels.

[Lochloosa]

13. Panama City Beach is the same.

In the 70s you could access the beach. Now try getting to it. But, don't bother. The sugar sand is gone.

[OneGrassRoot]

22. Nooooooo!

That was THE beach of my childhood. I always told people it was as beautiful as some Caribbean beaches (more beautiful than others). That makes me so sad.

[ironflange]

11. The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen

She's little, all right.

[Skittles]

14. I hated Stonehenge

it's a bunch of rocks, if you've seen a picture YOU'VE SEEN IT

[Retrograde]

29. What I found interesting about Stonehenge

was looking around at all the small mounds surrounding it, then realizing that those were all Neolithic graves. And whoever built it used mortice and tenon joints to keep it standing!

There are other Neolithic monuments in the area that don't get the press Stonehenge does but are a lot more interesting. Avebury, which is a town surrounded by standing stones, is nearby, as is Kennet Long Barrow, a c. 3500BC tomb built into the side of a hill - and you can actually walk into it!

[mockmonkey]

16. When I was 15 or 16...

which would be 1975 or 1976 my parents took me on a trip out west. The two things that stood out for me
being that young was Mt. Rushmore is smaller than I imagined. And why did they take me to see Wall Drug? The trip was my
Mom's idea because she was planning on divorcing my Dad and my being the youngest of the family I didn't get a
trip out west like my older brothers had. They fought most of the time. Stuck in a car for two weeks with no a/c with two heavy smokers in August. Ah, good times.

[Celerity]

20. eeek

They fought most of the time. Stuck in a car for two weeks with no a/c with two heavy smokers in August. Ah, good times.

[TigressDem]

28. Wall Drug has grown. It's a hoot.

In the "back yard" they have a TRex who "feeds" every 12 minutes. Or at least he raises up and roars.

I had an 8 year old who loved it.

HOW BIG DID YOU WANT RUSHMORE TO BE?


BUT with those traveling companions, I can see the yuck. Best place in the world would have been tainted with that bickering.

HOPE you have had great adventures of your own, or have some in the future that give you a real feeling of having been there and done that and skippy proud of it.

[Kid Berwyn]

23. Take-Out from the Wax Museum

[nolabear]

25. What the actual fuck?

[Kid Berwyn]

26. "They messed up bigly on Melanie."

“He looks very real, but he’s not quite orange enough,” visitor Marwa al-Haddad told The Associated Press.

https://news.yahoo.com/donald-trump-waxwork-stares-phone-093307045.html

[Mr.Bill]

30. Geno's or Pat's Philly Cheesesteaks.

Some of the worst Cheesesteaks I've ever had. Mediocre bread, bland meat, and if you've got to put Cheese Wiz on something to make it taste better, there's a problem.