Linnanmaki 25th July 2022 - Home to Intamins best launcher?

Gazza · December 22, 2022

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.