Gazza
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Posts posted by Gazza
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Grona Lund + Bonus Mountain Coaster at Hammarbybacken
So I still have do my trip report for Liseberg and that's Scandinavia sorted, but I probably won't get to that until sometime in January.
In the meantime, i’ll smash this one out before i head away for christmas.
Grona Lund is really one of a kind, located in the heart of Stockholm.
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/grona-lund
The site is perhaps comparable in size to a Bunnings, or say 2x the area of LPS, but in that space there's 8 coasters, 4 drop rides, dark rides, heaps of flats, several eateries, and it's just so tightly packed in 3 dimensions and pushes the boundaries of clearance envelopes.
Line too long on one ride, cool you can walk across the park in 2 mins to something else!
The park is on two sides of a laneway, with a bridge connecting each side. One part has mostly kids rides, the rest feels like sideshow alley at the royal show, except everything is better.
To get there you can take a tram (and the ABBA museum is right next door) but the best way is to get a public ferry (Pendelbåt) from Slussen. Just tap your credit card to pay the fare. You get a great visual on the way in.
Previously it was a pay per ride or wristband type park. Now they limit attendance into 5.5h sessions that you pre book.
I was worried that it wouldn't be enough time but it was plenty of time to get heaps of rides, and in addition you get two jet passes included, and waits weren’t that bad because of the capacity cap.
Still, I bought 2 sessions on separate days so i could do daytime and evening, so it worked out to be the most costly park of the trip, though i definitely got my moneys worth.
The park also has concerts included with admission on certain days, and they actually get major acts. Toto...Tom Jones...Pixes for instance coming up.
Monster
Obviously was going to kick off with this one.
B&Ms newest inverted coaster. I have been following this project for years, ever since it was announced as “project blue harvest” back in 2017, and ive literally been holding off on a Scandinavian trip until this ride was open. It kept getting pushed back and pushed back, and of course there was Covid, but finally opened in 2021.
You win some you lose some though. This coaster opened, but a few weeks before my visit Balder at liseberg closed for retracking…bah!
The theming was fun, monsters have come up from a subway station.the safety video was done like an old Scooby doo cartoon meets MTV.
The queue takes an interesting route up and down stairs through some buildings.
As for the coaster, you rise up from underground to the apex of the lift hill with great views of the harbour, before hurtling down a very steep drop.
You skim over a garden into a zero g roll then a forceful inclined immelmann.
Next comes a corkscrew high above some buildings, before some more turns and a tight helix which also attempts to smack you into a building
One more corkscrew follows, before a turn into a short tunnel, which had a bunny hill that would chuck you upwards and forward in your seat. Never felt that sort of airtime on an invert.
One final turn and it hits the brakes
Wowee
What makes this special is the way you get the sense of height by being above the crowds, but you also get the near misses with buildings on all sidesIkaros
Another ride I was eager to get on was This drop tower is an Intamin Sky Jump, that has tilting seats that have you freefall face first.
Honestly one of the best drop towers I have done. The tilt at the top makes the tension just that bit higher A great thrill seeing the ground rushing towards you, and the addition of the seat rotation just before the brakes makes it just that little bit more dynamic.
It seems like a bloody complicated system with long hydraulic rams. Why didnt they just have a pivot and rotate the seats like a freespin.
Seemed to have less of a queue than the other drop rides, despite only having one side open, so i guess its perhaps a bit intimidating for most.
Insane
Ah, the infamous ZacSpin. 3rd one I’ve done now.
They definitely are a ride that I find quite intense and nerve racking and even stressful in parts.
On the smaller dips at the start your car stays fairly upright, so the forces feel amplified because you are being yanked up and down rather than following the hills predictably.
And of course the drops are freaky because you change direction so half of it is always backwards and you feel frontal acceleration rather than just vertical.
Once you get to the 2nd level it gets quite intense, and the curves are so tight that the forces are quite strong.
Still did it a couple of times. You wouldn’t want the ride to be any longer.
I think the reason this one is “worse” than the other designs is because it is quite compact still, so the turns are not quite as drawn out as they should be. Counter intuitively, if you did a scaled up version of the same layout, some of the jarring and rapid changes in force would be smoothed out.
Twister
So many of us have ridden Leviathan now so you know what Gravity Group wooden coasters are like.
This one is SO compact, the turns are almost getting like a wild mouse, and it runs a short little 6 car / 12 person train to deal with it.
So many near misses, and the layout is a tangle full of quick drops and ground hugging turns.
Afterwards, I came to the conclusion that it is basically a wooden version of a rollerskater in terms of scale, though perhaps a little more intense. Good fun and runs well.
I liked how the queue line had posters with some of the great wooden coasters around the world, it’s almost like they were trying to say “hey, this wooden coaster is a legitimate attraction, not an old rattler”, it could also be because they are trying to sell tickets to Kolmarden, because the last bit of the queue had a video promoting wildfire.
Kvasten
Vekoma Family invert that is more intense than Escape from Madagascar, but less intense than the SFC 450 (TNT, Orkanen, MWs forthcoming etc), so it was alright.
The station was the best themed in the park, a really cool witches house full of detail, and a cacking spiel from the witch whenever the train departed.
And there was even some theming around the base of the helix, and a kid was engaging in satanic worship.
I love the airtime hill that runs the length of a section of boardwalk. Fits in so well with the park and its fun whizzing over the crowds.
This is a ride to use Jetpass on because it's popular but only has 1 train.
Jetline
My hot take is that there are no bad Schwarzkopf coasters, and this is no exception. A thrilling layout with big drops and smooth turns and helices and heaps of near misses both with itself and other rides, all perfectly negotiated without jarring.
One thing i found interesting with the layout is that it had a couple of big drops that broke away from the main layout and crossed halfway across the park, rather than being like a traditionally travelling coaster where everything is contained in a fairly compact footprint.
This has the highest capacity in the park, waited 2 mins max each ride.
Vilda Musen
So normally if you were building a ride, its a strict rule you don't attach to another manufacturer's ride structure, since then you open yourself to issues of liability if one ride has an impact on the other. Grona Lund evidently offered enough dollars (or maybe its because Schwarzkopf are extinct now) because they built a mad mouse style Gertstlauer bobsled coaster onto the existing structure of Jetline.
The layout was decent, despite being heavily driven by being able to snake through the other coaster. Still had all the staples of this ride model, nice curved drops, sharp turns, helices and even some good little airtime hills.
This is another highly popular ride, so good to book your jetpass on this one.
This might be some of my favourite theming too:
Kärlekstunneln
So if you were ever dreaming up a list of generic amusement park rides, you might say roller coaster, merry go round, ferris wheel, ghost train and ….tunnel of love.
But has anyone actually ever seen one of these anywhere?
Grona lund actually has one, complete with a heart shaped portal at the start of the ride.
Wasn’t sure what to expect, was it going to be animatronics and pink coloured scenes of people getting frisky?
A big dark tunnel where people can kiss in the darkness?
Turns out it was more like a ride through fairyland, with dioramas of magical creatures, fairie amongst the toadstools and so on. Just stuff that was "pleasant" and "happy" and "peaceful" to use some adjectives.
The ride path is so narrow, so all the scenes have to be behind glass because i guess modern day guests would just reach out and break stuff.
Tuff Tuff Taget
Imagine a kiddy coaster more gentle than a wacky worm, with a bit of wild mouse thrown in.
Turns out a lot of 20-30 somethings ride this for a laugh, so no shame in riding.
Nyckelpigan
Another one of those oval shaped Zierer kiddy ladybird coasters.
Veteranbilarna
Quite a pleasant little car ride, mostly rode to get some pics of Nyckelpigan.
Pettson o Findus Värld
Walkthrough house based on the works of a Swedish children's writer.
Aimed at kids with some bits and bobs on the walls around the house you could switch on and off and make noise with. Wholesome fun.
Bla Taget
My other hot take is that most ghost trains are overrated and rarely warrant repeating. I mean have you ever ridden one and thought "Wow that was awesome lets go again".
Yeah maybe if its haunted mansion, but most of the low budget ones are so formulatic.
This one did have an outward banked turn and some innapropriate theming to save it at least.
Katapulten
The rare S&S combo tower.
Imagine you took Batwing and crossed it with Supreme scream.
So you launch up, come down with some airtime, bounce and sort of stop halfway up the tower. You then are raised slowly to the top, held, and then finish off with a fast downwards launch.
So its a longer ride cycle, and you get to experience two ride types in one.
Surprised this model isnt the default over the conventional space shot at more parks, its more fun!
Eclipse
I quite enjoy starflyers, its just a shame there’s no way to take a camera to capture the wonderful views.
One thing i thought was cool was how the ride base is on an elevated platform, but the queue line comes up around the middle of the tower (So the queue isn't on the outside like trident). So you get a good view of the ride rotating around you and rising up:
Fritt Fall
Evokes memories of space probe 7, good classic Intamin drop ride, with spectacular views.
One side had the stand up tilt seats, which have more of a bicycle seat you sit on rather than a proper seat, and it tilts forwards a few degrees before the drop (Sort of redundant now that they have Ikaros), but the feeling of your legs hanging vertically makes it a bit more thrilling and feels more exposed.
Lyktan
Ended up riding this just to tick off every tower ride. This one is the smallest of the lot, a rotating Zierer family drop ride with a VERY random program of drops and lifts.
Lustiga Huset
A very long, very awesome fun house. I had everything, bridges, multiple slides, multiple turntables.
And the punters love it, this is the first time ive ever queued for a fun house!
At the end you finish off with a really long slide ridden on a mat from the top floor that concludes with an airtime hump at the end. A finley tuned operation, with conveyor belts taking the mats to the top, staff members setting them up for you, and an automated system dispatching you. Clearly everyone loves the slide so they have focused on optomising it.
There were a few spin and spew rides I didn’t do, and for some reason I couldn’t be arsed doing the upcharge ‘house of nightmares’ walkthrough.
So in 5.5h on the first night I did everything i wanted to, and if you were pressed for time and its not too busy you could do the park in that time frame, but booking a 2nd night made it much more relaxed and I definitely got to enjoy myself and
Whats wrong with this picture?
And now they have acquired the car park next door and have another coaster planned. If it’s anything like Monster it’ll be a hit.
Grona Lund is a true icon in the theme park world, very unique, and a must if you are in Stockholm.
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Bonus, the Mountain Coaster at SkiStar Hammarbybacken
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/skistar-hammarbybacken
Hammarbybacken is an artificial hill formed by waste spoil from various tunnelling and construction projects over the years. During the winter they use it as a ski slope. During summer its mostly used by runners doing hill training, and grass skiing.
But just prior to my trip i found out it even existed, and they were opening a Mountain coaster. This one is by Sunkid (Brandauer) and instead of a track like the Wiegand ones, its a single rail so feels pretty exposed.
Access was easy, its not far from the city centre. You can catch a bus to the stop near Bauhaus Sickla, and then walk about 500m along some local pathways and across a pedestrian bridge to reach the facility.
These have a reputation for being crazy, and indeed the one I rode in bavaria a few years ago was. This one wasn’t quite so intense, but still good fun. Had a few wide back to back turns that followed the slope, and towards the end was a bunch of downhill bunny hops that give a little bit of air.
I purchased a 3 lap ticket, which was plenty. Wasn’t hard to get the speed to max out with a ‘no brakes’ , and it was fairly uninterrupted since i arrived first thing and had it practically to myself.
Towing to the top is achieved by attaching a spring loaded rod to your sled.
At the top it actually detaches quite hillariously and skitters across the ground as it reels itself back in. I dont think youd want to stand in the way!
They also had a ropes course, and artificial snow tubing.
If you've not done this style of mountain coaster it's worth a look.
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Hey @Noll_57 some great detailed photos.
How was Project Zero running post move from DW, and how did you rate TNT as a coaster?
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Excellent report!
Amazing how much more ornate some of the theming is in Paris compared to the other parks.
I'm surprised you skipped the Avengers coaster. Even if you've done it before I reckon the preshows Disney do make it worth a look.
Did you go back for a 2nd day? Or is it possible to do both in a single day?
DLP (Along with Asterix) is a park I've been wanting to get to, but I've been saving it for a longer trip so i can spend a solid 3 weeks in France.
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Linnanmaki 25th July 2022
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/linnanmaki
Linnanmaki is the #1 park in Finland, located just 2km north of the city center. And its for a good cause. The park is run by a not for profit and all proceeds support child welfare work.
In fact, if you arrive in Helsinki via boat (I caught the night ferry from Stockholm) you can quite clearly see the skyline of the park in the distance. In particular, the skyloop really stands out, but you can see the white painted drop tower, and even the tophat for Taiga if you really squint to the left of the striped crane.
Various tram lines serve the park from either side, so it’s easy to get to, but the park itself is located on a hill in the middle of a public park so there is a little bit of an uphill walk to the front gate.
In terms of size, the park is about 250x250m, so it’s about ¼ the size of say DW, but has heaps of rides packed in.
It's definitely an amusement park, though most of the kids rides have a circus sort of theme, and most of the bigger rides have vague themes/names based on Finnish mythology.
Turns out I misjudged the entry time so was there an hour before rides actually started, so took the time to wander around the outside and get some photos.
Linnanmaki offers wristbands for 45 EUR, or individual ride tickets at 10 EUR each or 45 EUR for a 6 pack.
(So for most visitors you’d clearly get the wristband, I mean I did 16 separate rides, plus some re-rides so it’s easy to get your moneys worth)
Tagia has a deal that if you use two ride tickets, you can skip the line.
But if you already have a wristband, then a single additional ride ticket allows a skip.
So later in the day I forked out 45 EUR for a 6 pack, reasoning that 7.5 EUR a pop was a good deal to get plenty of rides on a top roller coaster that I probably won't be back to ride for at least a decade or more.
When the gates opened i made a quick beeline for Taiga.
What to say? This has to be pretty close to the world's best launch coaster (Haven’t ridden Velocicoaster though) Such a varied layout, great pacing. Beats Maverick, beats Taron.
From the station there’s a decent initial launch into a zero g winder, which is like this 90 turning corkscrew but it banks outwards at the top so heaps of hangtime. Then you pitch sideways into a big curved drop down a hill, and some snappy jet rescue style transitions between some turns, a good start which lines you up with the 2nd launch.
Then it really kicks into gear, hitting 100km/h along a launch that dramatically crosses over a major pathway.
Then into a great tophat with great views due to being at the edge of the hillside. Following that is a long zero g stall, quite unusual travelling upside down for so long but magically floating in place with the train.
Floater soon becomes ejector as there is a tiny dip at the exit of the stall which doesn’t look like much in POVs but is as aggressive as some of the airtime on Skyrush.
A 3rd inversion, an immelmann follows, before another big banked turn, a snappy transition then a helix above the station.
A brief moment of respite as you do some s bends high in the air, but that all goes out the window with an aggressive dive back down the hill, that really catches you off guard.
At full speed at the bottom of the hill is a bit of a wave turn giving some unexpected air.
You finish off with a long drawn out corkscrew that dunks you out of your seat like the final inversion on ST, then you cruise around the final turn into the brakes.
What an adventure. It’s a tangled mess like Taron so it’s hard to follow which way you are going to go. Switches between thrilling and outright furious, and the gentle moments in the course are set ups for quite aggressive moments.
At the exit is a nice gift shop, positioned on the edge of the hill with some big windows
I heard Salama can get long lines so i went there next.
A custom Maurer spinning coaster. Had heard it was underwhelming but i thought it was fine. Had a suitably confusing layout, combining several high banked turns, quick drops and so forth. The track layout was good but it could have perhaps spun a bit more.
Visually its not the prettiest thing since it was built above the existing rapids ride, so it has a lot of heavy supports spanning over the rapids below.
The rest of the rides, in no particular order....
Tulireki
Ugh, turns out Mack can occasionally have a stinker. This is like a wild mouse with banked turns and a helix, so it’s like Mack were trying to replicate a Gerstlauer bobsled.
But it has the “e-motion” suspension system, which just makes it rough, and in particular at the bottom of the drop clunks down so you get a nice bit of spinal compression. One and done for me!
Ukko
A Maurer skyloop just like Buzzsaw / Project Zero.
Do you need me to review this again?
As a bonus as soon as I joined the queue they called for a single rider so I was in and out in 5 minutes.
Apparently the name is the Finnish god of the sky and thunder, but then the theming was this hippy yellow submarine type deal which made no sense but looked fun.
Kirnu
These free spin / Zacspin coasters can be polarising, but if you have misgivings, this ride is the one for you and is nowhere near as intense.
I think what helps is that its a lot shorter and the main curved drop is much more drawn out, so you get a fun flip, but not the repeated sensation of being thrown up and down and shoved back and forth. (Now i dont mind the full sized ones of these btw ) The feeling is really like being swept around on a top spin and doing a single flip.
Made sure i got 2 rides, left facing foward and right facing backwards. I think forwards leaving the station is a little scarier because you cant see the first drop.
Vuoristorata
Your spine can get readjusted on Scenic Railway, but this thing is brilliant. It's a classic wooden side friction coaster with a brakemaster riding onboard. The layout is a fairly standard layout, an oval with a cross over in the middle so it makes a double figure 8.
The airtime is variable depending on your brakemaster. On one lap i sat at the front and we must have been going a little too fast on the double down and i was well and truly chucked out of my seat. And its just a fixed lap bar so a momentary freak out when it happened.
Was running 3 trains quite efficiently so I got a few rides.
Linnunrata
An indoor family coaster built inside an old water tower.
The queue line reminded me of those 90s lasertag places or watching escape from Jupiter. But you were made to wait outside and rushed through this part, likely 'due to covid'
The ride is one of those Zierer family coasters with a very long train (like this) and it had two lift hills, so was a reasonable little journey, and was quite dark for many parts so was actually not half bad! On the way were quite a few strobes, and big foam planets hanging from the ceiling, the usual space coaster stuff. Did a couple of laps because it was good.
Panoraama
Rotating observation cabin. Clean the windows please!
Pikajuna
A powered mine train type coaster, but if was a bit naff, a fairly basic layout with a couple of helices, though they did make the effort of making the station look like a giant train (So is it meant to be like the train is giving birth to a baby train, who knows?)
Hurjakuru
Under Salama is this rapids ride. Normally the top of the hill would be the last place you'd build a rapids, and what was even crazier is that the high point of the ride was at the lower side of the hill, which meant the end of the course was essentially in a huge ravine.
Yeah it was ok, the foggy tunnel at the start with viking theming was probably the highlight, and i guess being in more of a deep gorge for the rest of the layout made it feel like more authentic rafting.
Kingi
Another moser drop tower, with rotating seats. These are a little weaker than the intamin counterparts because the brakes start so high up the tower, so you dont get as much freefall, and the braking is more drawn out and less forceful.
The theming was great, this curtsey medieval look.
The staff had no hustle so the wait felt longer than it should have.
Kammokuja
This was a spooky walkthrough, but you wore a special type of chromatic 3d glasses that would make all the blacklight murals appear to 'pop' off the walls. Hocus Pocus Hall at Chessignton was like this too.
No actual scare actors, though a couple of basic animatronics would jump around when you walked past the trigger. Was ok.
Kyöpelinvuoren hotelli
This was a ghost train/haunted hotel, but it was a bit newer than the classic ones many parks hold together with duct tape.
Given it was newer, the quality of the theming was a bit better, the lighting had more polish and it had some nicey animated projected screens too.
A solid B+.
Rinkelli
A big ferris wheel, with great views of several of the coasters. Seemed very popular so a bit of a wait.
Taikasirkus
This is a family dark ride through a circus, so if you have clourophobia or globophobia steer well clear. The vehicles were little 2 person 'eggs' suspended from an overhead track, and these could rotate just like the disney omnimover, so you would face certain scenes.
The scenes were all quite cute and well done, basic movements in the characters brought them to life.
I got a giggle from the clown sweeping up elephant dung.
Maisemajuna
A mini monorail that does a lap around the park, so another good opportunity to take some photos.
Overall, it’s an excellent park with a lot to hold your attention. I rode heaps and heaps but still only did less than half the lineup, so it represents excellent value for money. If you are in this part of the world Helsinki is a nice city, and Linnanmaki is worth the effort.
No i didn't ride this.
Also, I should give a special shout out to the food, they had a proper indian restaurant.
And the taco place near Kingi was decent too.
Almost 300 photos here:
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Tivoli Friheden and Tivoli Gardens
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/tivoli-friheden
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/tivoli-gardens
Was trying to get these trip reports rounded out by the end of the year, but I’ve still yet to upload the pics from Liseberg, or finish a couple of them.
So here is an easy one.
Tivoli Friheden I did the same day as Legoland, Monday 11th of July.
It’s situated in Denmark's 2nd city of Aarhus. 1h drive from Legoland, but more like 1h45 in my case because I detoured to look at that Elia sculpture from the Tom Scott video.
And four days later on the 14th of July the park had a fatal accident on their Santori built inverted coaster Cobra, where the final car detached and killed a 14 year old girl.
What is quite shocking is that when the ride was first built it had a derailment that caused injuries shortly after opening, and you’d think that would have been that, but the manufacturer rectified it, but sadly it happened again and now the ride will finally be scrapped.
I always had a bit of a curiosity with this ride since it’s basically like a travelling version of an SLC, with a cobra roll and immelmann and a helix the train barely makes it around (Which probably explains why they only cycle with a full load) Anyway it was rougher than a bad SLC.
And one of my rides was in the exact seat that fell off later that week.
They also have Tyfonen, a Zamplera spinning coaster which in itself is a clone of the original Reverchon design. Was seated alone so it spun like crazy. Interesting that it was enclosed by perspex on two sides since there is residential immediately north of the park that obviously dont like the noise.
They also had Dragen, a typical big apple coaster.
And Bisvaermen, a three loop spinning coaster like the one Adventure Park Geelong.
Much like Fury 325 at Carowinds, it is themed around bees, so it looked pretty cool.
And in fact the whole kids area around it carried the “bottom of the garden” theme well.
What else?
Hjertekig is a gyro drop ride from RES, but it also had lap bars only as well. Decent height too at 65m. I reckon its a great model for smaller parks like this.
There was also Himmelrum next door, but it looked too vomit inducing for me, especially at that point in the day where i was a little tired and sunburnt.
The thing the park is known for is Sky Tower, A SCAD tower where you are literally dropped into a net. Bungee jumping without the rope.
They actually make you wear a football helmet and strap you to a board so you land the correct way, but to be honest it didnt appeal and i wasnt in the mood so ill probably never do one now 🤷. You can in fact just head up the top where there is a viewing platform and a glass floor
Haunted House was 'okay'. Combined all the usual house of horror type gags like trucks with headlights beeping at you loudly and characters popping, but it also had a few 3d screens where you would shoot at hordes of advancing zombies.
Was a bit ick because you were handed a ratty 2nd hand set of 3d glasses that hadn’t even been washed!
Next door was Illusionfabriken, another nice funhouse, though this one was more focused on optical illusions and mirrors rather than punching bags and spinning tunnels. Every park should have a funhouse now, im convinced.
Sommerfulgen is the low budget version of a Gerstlauer skyroller. Rather than being lifted up and sweeping around a tower, it’s more like a dumbo ride with fixed arms, so you can still roll with some effort, but its lower speed and lower height.
Pariserhjulet is a decent sized ferris wheel, so a slightly different elevated vantage point to the Sky Tower.
I quite liked the tribute to the inventor of the Ferris wheel.
Looking down over the mini golf course, it totally reminded me of the very rigid layouts you’d have in roller coaster tycoon.
The park had all your other usual suspects in terms of carnival rides.
The park itself had a very peaceful and pleasant atmosphere. It’s clear they were trying to emulate the model of the original Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, with higher quality dining, concerts, lots of landscaping.
Looking at the lineup, it does look like a lot of permanent carnival rides, but an effort has been made to make the grounds nice.
How the park will fare in the wake of the accident, who knows?
Im not sure if you'd bother adding it to your trip unless you were really keen for the SCAD tower (Even for me it was a couple of hours tacked on at the end of the day)
More photos here:
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/tivoli-friheden
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So Tivoli Friheden was at the start of the trip, and 3 weeks later at the other end of the trip I finished off at Tivoli Gardens, which was very busy!
In fact i ducked in a couple of times for short evening visits since the friend I was staying with had a gold pass so could get me in for free, and all I had to pay for was ride tickets.
One night I dined at Groften for some traditional Danish food. 'Skipperlabskovs' is meat, diced beetroot and mashed potatoes, chives, with plenty of rye bread and butter on the side. quite hearty!
On another night it turned out one of their summer concerts was on. The artist performing, Birthe Kjær is more or less like Denmark’s Oliva Newton John.
I actually already visited back in 2017 but because some rides closed earlier in the night I totally missed the funhouse Skaersilden and one of the coasters Karavanen.
Denied
Denied
Since then, they did a 1 for 1 replacement of Karavanen with another coaster called Kamelen.
Skaersilden i loved the aesthetic of, like a port / cargo hold. This funhouse you are free to explore like a playground rather than make your way through in sequence.
Kamelen was also very attractive for a family coaster, with the same ornate theming seen elsewhere in the park.
It would have been rude to not ride Dameonen whilst I was there so I reacquainted myself with that and its punchy, fun layout. Probably waited half an hour, but the atmosphere was unbeatable.
More photos here:
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/tivoli-gardens
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I'm surprised backwards costs less than forwards.
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13 hours ago, joz said:
I think this obsession with shortterm unplanned downtime has become unhealthy.
Yeah its funny how the most active threads on Parkz has been the annual maintenance topic for each park.
I miss the thoosie days when it was all about trip reports and taking photos of footers under construction 😥
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A new thread of course.
NB this is not an invitation to make a thread days early or make a thread if you don't have an initial review to contribute.
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32 minutes ago, REGIE said:
One of those new intamin multi dimension coasters would also be sick.
To an extent, isn't that what jungle rush is going to be? A highly themed family coaster with track switches?
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Could they put spinning cars on Motocoaster? That would actually be pretty fun.
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I reckon it would hard to go past Perfect Storm due to its length and extra theming and effects.
But don't just ask me:
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11 minutes ago, themagician said:
$69 for adults
Nice.
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Oh wait, i have a pass again, I can actually go!
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16 hours ago, TBoy said:
It looks like there is two entrances for TNT:
- The one on the left is the normal queue line for people without Express Q
- The one in the middle is for Express Q members
- The one on the right is the exit
The exit to TNT is this part:
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Park has a video showing off some of the theming in progress and an early test.
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^Use Dibond not corflute.
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Dont parks do temporary signboards for the themed food carts at night events?
And those are weeks not months.
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5 hours ago, TBoy said:
I DO know the Disney/Fox buyout, I just forgot it at that moment. And I could realistically see the new Funfields slide open on the same day/week as the Gumbuya World coasters. I am not "trolling" I could see it happen.
But the rides are going to be open for the next 20 years probably.
If i were managing a park, id probably pick a a different day so the news crews come out to me and are not competing with someone else for attention.
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Also, DAE reckon its actually going to be a fair bit of a drop into the saucer. Should be a good start to that slide.
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Sarkanniemi is an amusement park in the city of Tampere, about 90 mins by train north of Helsinki.
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/sarkanniemi-amusement-park
Easy trip and a bargain at only 9 EUR!
I got into the city around 8. The park is about 2km from the main station, so I just wandered across the city centre and took in the sights till opening time.
It is located on a peninsular on the lakeshore, and part of a broader tourist complex that has an observation tower (Similar to the ones in Canberra/Sydney) kids farm, aquarium, art gallery and planetarium. Your ticket includes all of these things.
With more time to kill I wandered around the adjacent marina and got some photos.
The main draw for me was of course Tornado, a rare example of an Intamin SLC . There’s a decent selection of other rides, and perhaps the highest density of Zamperla rides you’ll see anywhere.
The entrance to the park isn’t exactly the most inviting…
So, kicking off with Tornado.
It’s so unique heading into an underground tunnel and finding a station cut into the rock. It feels like a themed attraction, even though its entirely utilitarian design. Should have called it “missile” or something like that.
I had heard beforehand it was rough as guts, but it was running “fine”, not perfectly smooth, but not bad for something built 20 years ago.
Starts off with an average first drop into a forceful loop, a straightaway in a tunnel, before a forceful cobra roll. A lazy banked turn that threads through the loop leads into a downhill section of track into another tunnel.
Hidden inside is a barrell roll through the top of the station cavern. You come out on the other side, and into another barrel roll, which just about everyone gets this photo of:
So yeah, pretty good, the layout feels a bit formulaic, as you can see from the aerial image, just elements plugged in one after each other.
It has my favourite ride colour scheme ever too.
Some nerd pics include the wheels, and the video AI system they use for checking if the restraints are closed.
I think next i headed to Boom, a Zamperla drop tower. It’s a bit like Inferno at AW. It doesn’t really hit true freefal because you are attached to cables the whole time, it kind of just “goes down fast”.
You have to give the engineers credit for doing the difficult thing of making the whole tower rotate rather than just the car.
Turns out a lot of the rides didn’t really open till 11 so had some time to kill so wandered around the Angry Birds area and went on the Kantii X Kantii car ride. Nice views of the lakeshore but the thing must be 40 years old.
Vauhimato was also here, an early model Zierer kiddy coaster.
Hey where have i seen that train before?
Realised that the observation deck and aquarium were already open so I headed back out of the park and had a look at them.
It was getting close to 11, so i headed back down to go back into the rides area, and at this point the weather started to turn.
I reasoned if it was raining I’d do Koskiseikkailu rapids ride. As far as rapids go, it was on par with Bæver Rafting at Farup. Basic concrete channel in the woods with not a whole lot of theming, though i did think the entrance waterfall did have a bit of this very Finnish mid century modern style to it:
The rain got really bad as I was exiting.
So i parked up at a Cafe near the Doghill Fairytale Farm and had an early lunch.
The area was quite nice from the perspective of "Lots of wholesome stuff for kids to do"
When the weather started to improve I continued with the park.
Motogee
Actually pretty fun! Gave this a couple of laps. It's a Zamperla motorbike coaster, and it in fact uses a cable launch like superman, but the difference is it's a simple electric motor rather than hydraulic.
Has the right amount of speed, and relatively tight turns, so it feels quite zippy. And because most of the course is downhill, it never loses pace.
Hype
Premier Sky Rocket 2, and I love these things.
A punchy launch, really fast vertical twist, good pop of airtime as you transition at the top, then a fun heartine roll. The 2nd half rapidly picks up speed as you dive down again, with more air in the non inverted loop. So despite looking quite simplistic from the outside, it's quite forceful and varied.
I swear whoever did the theming from this borrowed from Bounce Inc.
High Voltage
A Zamperla power surge. Despite having these at LPM and AW, I've never thought I'd have the stomach for one. Anyhow, its actually not too bad, its sort of like being on Tailspin with the flipping seats, but in this case you aren't controlling the spinning. So nothing unbearable, its bark is worse than its bite, but Im not sure if I'd bother with one again.
Trombi
I last did one of these Volare flying coasters years ago at Canadas Wonderland, and it....wasn't good. The park was quiet so i did 3 laps over the course of the day to really cement my opinion on the thing and see if there was any way to enjoy it.
The issue is that it has turns as fast and as sharp as a wild mouse, but you are in a flying position in a car that isnt very comfortable, so it is a ride of endurance.
This is one ride where trim brakes would help it. If you just cruised through slowly, it would actually be somewhat enjoyable. I think looking down rather than straight ahead makes it a bit more comfortable, but overall it's just a bit of a failed concept to be honest.
Tyrsky
Zamperla Disko coaster with a cute dolphin theme. The setting was nice since its on a peninsular out on the lake. Sort of rode by accident, since I went up to get a photo, saw they were loading and it had no queue, so, what the hell.
Tukkijokki
quite an old school flume ride. It start off with a lift hill and then follows the terrain with several small drops working down the hillside, and at a couple of points you come quite close to Tornado.
A second lift takes you to the big drop. Interesting for the proximty to tornado but it wasn't a particularly attractive ride.
Some kids thought it was a stand up coaster.
The park is reasonably compact.
It was still raining sporadically so I did some re-rides and took plenty of photos, but eventually called it quits around 4 when i was getting a bit cold and damp, so headed to my hotel for a nice hot shower and a sleep.
More photos of the park are here:
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/sarkanniemi-amusement-park
Overall, it's a decent park. Operations were good, didn't really seem to wait long for anything, and they even had 2 trains going on Tornado despite non existent queues. Overall its a well balanced lineup, with higlights being Tornado, Hype and MotoGee.
If you are going to PowerPark its on the way, and even if you aren't its a cheap and easy day trip from Helsinki.
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What's the reason to put it on the same day?
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Didn't vortex open with Kmart bins and then eventually get permanent ones on the fence?
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Why no carrot?
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More testing
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@Rivals Nah, needs to be groups of guests filling behind each gate as soon as the previous group have taken their seats. This probably means having a group waiting in the cave, which would actually be good because its an awesome space you want to spend more time in.
The station should have dots on the floor like Arkham used to have, so you should be able to have 2 guests for each gate plus 2 behind them against the wall.
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Quote
They have never stated what the issue was/is with the launch.
The electrical room got water damage too.
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Grona Lund 18/07/22 feat. Monster B&M + Bonus: Skistar mountain coaster
in Theme Park Discussion
Posted
It's funny hey, like the bit of the park around jetline has 20 rides crammed in, but then the expansion they did for monster only has 1 ride and heaps of restaurants.
But who knows I'm sure they'll find a way to add extra rides around monster.
But nordic parks are like that in general, eating is a big part of your visit evidently, and it's more like being at a night market in terms of variety.
Nothing like Australia where there's 1 or 2 outlets and that's it.