April '17 Creds in Europe (Part 4: Liseberg)

[Coaster Hipster]

After missing out on Taron on my previous visit to Phantasialand last year, I was eager to make another trip there so I can see for myself if the coaster deserved so much hype. However, me and my 2 coasterfan friends decided to have some appetizers before with a little detour at Plopsaland! The curiosity around the little new woodie Heidi was tempting enough for us.

I hadn't made much research on the park and as a result I was quite disappointed to see the entrance... just a giant billboard. Looks kinda cheap in my opinion, and is all the more surprising considering the main plaza and some areas of the park are really decently themed.

The layout of the plaza itself is deceiving. At first I thought there was two big branches coming out of the main square leading to several parts of the park. Turns out the right 'path' leads to nothing. Feels like the park is trying to look bigger than it is really

We began our day with La Grande Vague, a pretty well themed Zamperla Disk-O. The rails are barely noticable with all the rockwork and scenery around, and I quite liked the cartoonish Viking theme. The ride itself was no surprise and felt the same as its counterpart at Nigloland.

Onto the first cred of the day (and of the year), Anubis, a Gertslauer launched coaster. Looks quite photogenic actually, I do fancy its dark turquoise rails.

The coaster was a mixed bag for me. On the plus side, it has a fun launch (there's a sudden acceleration that works pretty well) and a nice airtime at the bottom of the top hat, followed by a good Dive Loop. Aside from that however, the ride suffers from slight rattles at the bottom of the same Top Hat and a series of uneventful turns. But the worst part of the ride remains that twisted turnaround hill with no airtime. It is banked in such a way that makes me unwell and gives me nausea every time. Really unfortunate as the coaster had no wait all day and I could have enjoyed the launch and airtime pop more if it wasn't for the unconfortable sections.

We followed with a generic Pirate Boat (no pictures), and the second cred, Rollerskater. It is just an old Vekoma Junior with a few jolts here and there. +1

Next was Heidi the Ride, the main reason of our visit. It had a 20 minute-ish wait due to the slow 1 train operation on our first run, during which my Phantasialand fanboy friend noticably complained. I was more forgiving having experienced Six Flags America and its crappy 10 minute dispatches the summer before.

The new small woodie met my (moderate) expectations: a coaster with good, consistent speed, and many hops along the layout that provide little to no airtime (for an Intamin fanboy anyway) like most GCIs. Overall a fun coaster that is easily rerideable.

I could only find this picture of Supersplash. Interestingly this Mack ride isn't considered a coaster on rcdb. So no +1 I guess. Nice interaction with the Pirate Ship though (still no pictures).

After that we decided it was time to eat lunch and more importantly, shelter ourselves from the cold and slightly rainy weather in the indoor section.

Some rerides on Anubis & Heidi followed after the break, as well as a lap on Draak, the park's Mack e-powered. It's a little spead out compared to others of the same type except for the helixes. We actually had a fun time on it acting silly like pretending 'OMG it is more intense than GeForce' which I guess is one advantage of riding with other goons.

If you look closely enough you may find our final +1 of the day: Viktor's Race. An actually really old Zierer (1976!) well surrounded with foliage and trees. Again couldn't find any other pictures so I decided to cheat a little bit to show you what it's like:

(Courtesy of Plopsaland's website, yeah I'm shameless)

(A parking lot/woodie picture to round this up)

In short, Plopsaland is an uneven place to me. It has some really pretty areas like the Anubis building and to some extent, the new heidi zone. However, some other parts seem like they need more work and refurbishment. I still enjoyed the day and my several rides on Heidi though, and it was a nice gentle way to start 2017 credding for me

Part 2 @ Phantasialand will come very shortly!

 

[Hixee]

I didn't realise (I hadn't paid enough attention during construction) that the wall along the car park side of the coaster wasn't the same height all the way along. It looks a bit... ****?

Good to hear the coaster is actually good though - that's all that matters I suppose.

 

[peep]

The layout of the plaza itself is deceiving. At first I thought there was two big branches coming out of the main square leading to several parts of the park. Turns out the right 'path' leads to nothing. Feels like the park is trying to look bigger than it is really

Leads to nothing? There's a giant theatre and waterpark to the right? Or do you mean the other path that leads into the Plop area? I wouldn't call a farm and dark ride nothing either.

A shame you didn't really enjoy Anubis because of the bit towards the end, can't say I've experienced that before. Glad that Heidi sounds fun though, should be riding it in a couple of weeks, looking forward to it.

 

[Erdekraft]

The operations were REALLY bad ! And yes I am the Phantasialand fanboy who complained.

 

[Pink Cadillac]

That Disko is everything. One of the best flat rides I've ever seen! Looking forward to Phantasialand.

 

[Coaster Hipster]

I didn't realise (I hadn't paid enough attention during construction) that the wall along the car park side of the coaster wasn't the same height all the way along. It looks a bit... :emoji_poop:?

Good to hear the coaster is actually good though - that's all that matters I suppose.

Actually the wall is the same height all the way, it is a mixture of wood and glass. I agree it could look better!

Leads to nothing? There's a giant theatre and waterpark to the right? Or do you mean the other path that leads into the Plop area? I wouldn't call a farm and dark ride nothing either.

A shame you didn't really enjoy Anubis because of the bit towards the end, can't say I've experienced that before. Glad that Heidi sounds fun though, should be riding it in a couple of weeks, looking forward to it.

You're correct, there is a theatre and waterpark to the right. I forgot about that, my bad. I was under the impression that the right path leads to so little in comparision to the left and straight paths, hence my gross exaggeration. My apologies again.

Thanks for your comment, I hope you'll like Heidi too

The operations were REALLY bad ! And yes I am the Phantasialand fanboy who complained.

Haha, welcome to CoasterForce my friend ^^

That Disko is everything. One of the best flat rides I've ever seen! Looking forward to Phantasialand.

The Disk-O looks very nice indeed! Thanks.


Day 2 - Phantasialand

A 3-hour drive from Erdekraft's home meant we had to wake up at 5 am to ensure we would get to Phantasialand around opening times. We arrived at the Ling Bao (no pictures, whoops) hotel right before 10:00 am for check-in. We took our hotel ERT bracelets and headed straight to Winjas':

The sight of Wuze Town's main hall and the double helix still amaze me. Even though it is my 3rd visit to the park, I was surprised by how fast the elevator lift was. It lasts for like, 10 seconds until you reach the main drop? The coasters themselves were fun as always. They didn't really duel during my visit but I did not mind given how immersive the theming is. Both layouts are varied, complete and have some little tricks that set them apart from other spinning coasters. I can't conclusively decide which one I prefer, even though both my friends heavily leaned towards Fear because of the bigger drop and overbanked turn.

Our second ride of the day was Temple of the Night Hawk. Erdekraft nicknames it 'le coaster nul' ('the sucky coaster' in French). It isn't that bad to be honest. Just meandering a very long time in the dark. Would be more interesting lights on and with theming in my opinion. I guess even Phantasialand has room for improvement

I was looking forward to riding Black Mamba which left me a positive impression last year. And my first ride was... fairly disappointing sadly I sat at the front right seat, and definitely felt some headbanging during a couple of transitions. The intensity was there though as I remembered, but those jolts meant I couln't fully enjoy that first ride. Funnily enough, Erdekraft sat in the middle front and had no trouble whatsoever, but heard me and my other friend (sitting at the left) say 'ouch' at the very same time! Thankfully, there was no such headbanging on my following laps later in the day or the next day, and as such I still rank this B&M Inverted highly for its extensive theming and narrow, forceful layout.

Our impatience then was too much, we couldn't resist the urge to go and see Klugheim...

Taron was about an 1:30 hour wait. I was extremely intrigued by the hype and applause around the latest Intamin blitz that I feared ending underwhelmed. Therefore I was very excited when it was time to ride aboard the new trains complete with their Mack-inspired lap-bars. They felt a little bit bulky at first, but caused me no problem overall. Good job Intamin!

My first impression was that the ride was worth its reputation, a Top 5 coaster full of intensity and snappy turns. The couple of airtime hills are good ejector but definitely not the most insane/powerful Intamin ever did (EGF and El Toro still fare better imo). But more on Taron later that day with the hotel ERT...

Mystery Castle was a 5 minute wait. Aside from the great theming, this Space Shot-thingy dazzled me with its light effects which made me lost sense of height. At some points during the program I couldn't tell if I was towards the top or the bottom of the ride. I suppose the effects worked wonders on me!

Chiapas and its earworm soundtrack... Still the best flume log I've ridden, great Mexican scenery all along and fast, efficient switch track tricks. The log reaches a fairly nice speed at the bottom of the main drop. Templo de Fiesta is still good funky

Onto another best of its kind, this time Colorado Adventure. This Mine Train is only pure fun, no dead spots, a good speed throughout and fairly smooth even though a few oddly banked turns caught me off-guard when I raised my hands ^^ The final helix makes for a great picture location.

The next ride was something much more agressive with Talocan. A good soundwork and fire effects really add to the atmosphere, especially during the queue. The ride itself was on the edge of too much intense spinning for me buy fortunately I still enjoyed it.

We then decided to eat a quick dinner with some Chinese noodles (no pics, yep again). For some reason our noodles contained a substantial amount of sweetpepper. Well, doesn't matter if you have bad breath when you still get an ERT on Taron later!

Taron evening ERT. I will go straight to the point: this hour of exclusive ride time of Taron was the most fun I ever had in an amusement park. I really enjoyed my first lap on this coaster, but the 6+ rides with little to no wait after park closure took matters to an entirely new level. The second half was literally breathtaking, I couldn't even scream of joy even though I wanted so, because the twists were so snappy, and the turns so intense. The official POV doesn't do it justice really. While the first half might be some fast strolling around the rocks after the airtime hill, the second part is so relentless the overall experience feels overwhelmingly exhilarating. The Taron fanfare and the sweet Intamin LSM sound build my excitement even higher for a complete experience, ride and theming joining hands to deliver a fantastic moment!



I think EGF still ranks ahead on pure airtime joy, but Taron comes very, very close behind because of that magic ERT. As opposed to most coasters I've ridden before, Taron has an 'organic' feel that is hard to describe. I can't tell each element from another, as the elements are so intertwined. A truly wonderful engineering achievement to my eyes.

(Picture courtesy of Maxime H.)

We went back to our room still bewildered by the outstanding time we had. The experience was so fulfilling we couldn't help laughing for the next hour!


Part 3 will deal with our final day at Phantasialand and the remaining cred: Raik!

 

[peep]

Sounds like you had a fab day at Phantasialand. Temple of the Nighthawk certainly is on it's last days, I reckon they'll remove it within the next 5 years.

Glad you loved Taron, that ERT session sounds amazing. Jealous.

 

[zazobo]

Just back from a three day trip to Phantasialand myself, Taron ERT was stunning. Managed 9 rides (three front row) within the hour the day before yesterday. Absolutely delicious.

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Great report!

I'm interested in what you said about Black Mamba, I personally did not notice any joints but a couple of my honeys did. Still an awesome invert as you say.

The mine train is awesome!!

 

[Smithy]

I have no idea where the sudden influx of Phantasialand trip reports have come from but, as someone who recently decided they'll be booking a trip there later in the year, I do approve!

 

[DelPiero]

I'm feeling pretty jealous of everyone heading to Phantasialand recently, even though i was there at GF, Taron really is incredible, think it's time to look into Wintertraum.

 

[Hutch]

I came for the Phantasialand report, but I also enjoyed the report on Plospa--it actually looks like a pretty nice park. Good read.

 

[Pink Cadillac]

Nice! Sad to hear that Black Mamba was a disappointment - I didn't have any problems with it in December. Totally agree with your thoughts on Talocan though. I hated to admit it, but Top Spin 1 was too intense for me!

 

[Coaster Hipster]

Sounds like you had a fab day at Phantasialand. Temple of the Nighthawk certainly is on it's last days, I reckon they'll remove it within the next 5 years.

Glad you loved Taron, that ERT session sounds amazing. Jealous.

Thanks for the comment! I am very curious about what Phanta will replace TotN with, if they replace it eventually. Hope you'll experience Taron in such great conditions too

Just back from a three day trip to Phantasialand myself, Taron ERT was stunning. Managed 9 rides (three front row) within the hour the day before yesterday. Absolutely delicious.

9 rides wow! That must have been very intense. Phantasialand had such a stroke of genius with this hotel ERT idea. So cool and generous. Glad you loved it too

Great report!

I'm interested in what you said about Black Mamba, I personally did not notice any joints but a couple of my honeys did. Still an awesome invert as you say.

The mine train is awesome!!

Colorado is really cool indeed ^^ I might have stressed my mixed experience on Black Mamba a bit too much though, the jolts were only felt on my first ride of the year, the following rides were really good actually! Thank you too

I have no idea where the sudden influx of Phantasialand trip reports have come from but, as someone who recently decided they'll be booking a trip there later in the year, I do approve!

I've decided to make a trip there precisely because of that influx haha. Hope you'll enjoy Phanta as well!

I'm feeling pretty jealous of everyone heading to Phantasialand recently, even though i was there at GF, Taron really is incredible, think it's time to look into Wintertraum.

That must tell how incredible Taron is Even if you rode it not far long ago, you still get jealous because other people get to ride it ERT ^^ Thanks for your comment!

I came for the Phantasialand report, but I also enjoyed the report on Plospa--it actually looks like a pretty nice park. Good read.

I appreciate that you enjoyed my reports, it took me some thought and time to write them. Thank you

Nice! Sad to hear that Black Mamba was a disappointment - I didn't have any problems with it in December. Totally agree with your thoughts on Talocan though. I hated to admit it, but Top Spin 1 was too intense for me!

As I told AttackHammer, the disappointment was only really about my first lap on Black Mamba, the other rides were fine! Nice RCT reference haha

Day 3 - Phantasialand: part II

Because I don't want to sound redundant, this will be a smaller reading focused mostly on Raik. After the insanity of evening ERT on Taron, this custom Vekoma family Boomerang might seem like a footnote, but there's still plenty to say about the other 2016 addition at Phanta.

Raik, for that matter, is actually my very first Family Boomerang. I have to say I was pretty impressed by the speed the train goes through the station after the first backwards crest. For a family-oriented coaster this is still fairly scary

The scenery is very detailed and easy on the eyes. I didn't get the fog effects but I loved how the lights changed from red to green as the train switches from going backwards/forwards. The only downside of this charming coaster is its limited capacity because of its shuttle nature. I waited around 45 minutes in the morning (in the single rider line!) for my one ride. Thankfully the atmosphere is more than nice enough to cushion my impatience and I got rewarded with a nice interaction with Taron on my way through the backwards lift!

Maus au Chocolat was our last major attraction to experience again. This 3D shooting dark-ride was a pleasant and fun one. I love the theme, it is refreshing and new for a ride of this type and still very fitting! The theming is well executed and the whole 3D-thingy well integrated.

The rest of the day, which precise schedule I can't exactly remember mostly consisted of rerides on Black Mamba, Winjas Fear and Colorado, with the B&M getting the most laps overall despite (or because ?) of the unconfortable experience of my ride at the front the previous day. We also went around the lake for a welcome break from all the intensity and dense (but wonderful!) theming of Phantasialand.

Thank you again for reading this short report. I apologize if that one is really short, but I am saving my energy for the next one! Liseberg on Saturday 29th April As a teaser: I loved it!

 

[CSLKennyNI]

Thanks for the comment! I am very curious about what Phanta will replace TotN with, if they replace it eventually.

There's some rumours that this could be TotH's last season. But it remains to be seen if there's any truth in this. The coaster will certainly be removed though within the next few years.

 

[Coaster Hipster]

Part 4: Liseberg

What an awesome view to get from the airport connection bus!



How can you get GP friends to an quality amusement park that is off their beaten track? As a French coasterfan, I was always frustrated to hear from the 'lambas' (French for 'General Public') inaccurate or cliché comments like 'roller coasters are too violent and unconfortable' and 'it isn't scary because it doesn't have looping lol'. My non-goon friends had the same preconcieved ideas about coasters, and I was commited to try and change their minds about my burning passion for Taron & co. So I bundled a journey to Gothenburg with a day at its famous park.

The fortunate location of Liseberg within the city meant that there was no hassle reaching the park. Thus selling the idea of going to Sweden to ride coasters was much easier. The entrance stands proud and pretty a few footsteps away from a streetcar station, looking to me like a gateway to seemingly endless fun and thrills.

Almost as soon as we crossed the gates, the main attraction was already unmissable and impressing guests such as me and both of my friends.

The main street isn't particularly outstanding per theming, but it still looks nice and clean with its foliage and little buildings.

I did not want to scare off my friends (at least, not right away!), so we chose to start things in a gentle manner with Lisebergbanan. I realize I did not take outside pictures of this brilliant Schwarzkopf ride, but wait! I was allowed to film an on-ride POV, thus recording our reactions on our very first ride of the trip. (Pardon the French comments ^^)

It was a very pleasant experience. It does shuffle a bit at the bottom of some turns and helixes, but this adds to the vintage and out-of-control feel of this fun terrain coaster. The Banan also has a few surprise direction changes that are swifter than I could imagine, and a couple of slight airtime humps. I did not get good interactions with Helix's trains but my first lap was still very satisfying

Balder's looks on the internet were deceiving to my pals. Watching POVs one of them assumed it was a good, but mostly inoffensive coaster compared to its newer green multi-launched neighbor. Even a ride early in the day right after Banan proved them wrong! The drop definitely feels steeper and meaner in real life, and the small metal beams that were recently added above made it even scarier.
As most will know, the quantity of airtime this woodie delivers is fabulous. It is significantly stronger than GCI's small hops on Heidi or Joris, but Wicked Cyclone felt decidedly more brutal and sharp with its ejectors. There was a slight rattle throughout the day in some turnarounds, however I did not mind at all. It still rides very confortably. In fact, the light vibrations help making the coaster feel more wild and like a traditional wooden coaster.

This was our view on our way to Helix!

Liseberg mastered the art of path/coaster interactions and thus built up our expectations for Helix to a very high level! Needless to say we went aboard our first train, front row, with huge anticipation...

The well-known drop out of the station isn't revolutionary, but very unusual and effective! It shows right from the beginning how the coaster never loses speed and energy. The coaster as a whole isn't going insane forceful like Taron's second half, but still packs a punch and offers a wide variety of sensations. It feels like a different, but equally subtle and refined design philosophy compared to Intamin. The corkscrews and other rolls aren't as swift as on some other coasters, nevertheless they still throw you around in all directions (including forward!) while giving the rider the sensation of weightlessness at the same time. The acclaimed Mack lap-bars and trackwork make the whole experience very comfortable despite the relative intensity and snappiness, and none of my friends complained about vibrations or disconfort.

In short, our first lap was excellent and we proceeded to ride once more!

Afterwards one friend felt a little sick and we took a break. We rested a bit, took more pictures and went to Stjärnornas Krog for lunch. I had some decent BBQ Ribs (not pictured) while we pondered what would we go for next.

The Ferris Wheel was our pick for its quiet ride and provision of nice overviews of the park and Gothenburg as well. Here are a couple of pictures I got from there:

Gothenburg's famous suspended pool.

It was then time to face the park's new for 2017 ride, Loke! I never rode a Gyro Swing before and I was curious to see if I could handle the intensity. Turns out I was able to, but 15 more second would probably have made me feel nauseous. There's good forces at both bottom and spikes on this one, and the flat ride provides excellent interactions with the surrounding Balder and river.

That surge of intensity made us amicably (and temporarily) split: I went for a quick double ride on Balder, while my friends dared the cold weather on Kållerado. We rejoined for another ride on the Intamin woodie at the back, where we enjoyed getting sucked into the first drop at a surprising speed.

We went back for something milder with Waltzer, a chairswing.

Mechanica was the excuse for our second break-up. And to be honest, they were understandably right to sit out. This Zierer Starshape does provide some strong G+, but also nasty headbanging. Ugh. Feels more like a fairground attraction to me.

The flat ride series continues with Hanghai. This shorter iteration of the Zamperla Disk-O has arguably inferior theming to its Plopsa and Astérix counterparts, but I enjoyed the no-hill version more. Gets straight to the point without a futile detour in my opinion.

AeroSpin is quite noticable from most parts of Liseberg. It has a nice location on the main hill and the my ride greatly benefited from fairly strong winds due to the fairly high altitude.

Our second lap on Lisebergbanan did felt more agressive, but that pales in comparison with AtmosFear's drop! Effective and thrilling as expected.

I then went for a single rider lap on Helix. The wait had increased somewhat during the interval, growing from 10 to about 25 minutes. The longer queue gave me the opportunity to take the above picture showing some fences and concrete theming. It looks decent as it is, but I can't help but wonder how this contemporary scenery is going to age. At least the soundtrack is majestic

I was reckless enough to order some nachos before the repeated night rides that were about to come... How does it taste? Unmemorable I guess.

I took many more pictures this time around compared to Phanta. However there was none for evening Balder. Why? Well walk-on Intamin plug-n-play means no time for toying with the camera! The nonexistent wait meant I was able to chain 4 almost consecutive rides before 9pm ^^ Turns out my Express Pass wasn't necessary for that one! With hindsight, I'd rather recommend using Express Pass on Balder during the afternoon when the wait times are the highest, at least based on my one experience. The only downside of this sort-of-ERT was that the train wasn't fully loaded, and therefore Balder didn't feel any stronger or delivered better ejectors contrary to what I hoped. Oh well it's still a great coaster

We spent our last Express Pass on night Helix at around 9:10pm. Predictably, I went on to get some solo rerides. However, something amazing was going to happen...

(Picture courtesy of Olivier B.)

So basically the wait times were getting shorter and shorter to the point my last ride was non-stop walk-on to my train seat. Not only that, but people were running across the queue maze in excitement to get their couple of laps! It was an awesome scene of collective coaster enjoyment. Passengers also clapped uninamously at the end on one ride. But the most heartwarming moment for me was that my friends, including the one that fell unwell at noon, joined me in this another practical ERT craze. And that one friend ended up shouting with delight the exact inversions' name as they went, as well as 'airtime!' on the hills. I am not the biggest fan of running commentary on coasters, but I was more than willing to make an exception that time!

A week after my exilarating ERT on Taron, I was incredibly lucky to witness another personal moment of magic in an amusement park. Helix, even at night, wasn't as forceful or relentless as its German rival. But this experience with my GP friends was complete fun. The sequence of elements is so great, and well executed, that the relative lesser intensity didn't harm my (or other's) enjoyment at all.

We left Liseberg with a big smile on our face, tired indeed, a little sick for one of us, but really satisfied.

April 2017 credding was simply incredible for me.

 

[Erdekraft]

Great TR, so sad I couldn't come with you on this Trip. Helix was very attractive with its curves :3 Even if Taron would have still been my #1!

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Hi everyone !

Hi Erdekraft! Sounds like you and portemine had a fantastic day at Liseberg (to be honest it's rather hard not to). Hope you've caught the coaster bug.

Great reports, I can really feel the enthusiasm coming off. The thing I love about both Phantasialand and Liseberg is that every visit is still just as exciting and fresh. Both parks have so much quality on offer that return visits don't get boring as with other parks. Can't wait for the dive machine coming along. Ekk.

 

[Smithy]

Gah, I love that report from Liseberg, the last few bits really do capture why it's such an amazing park. It just makes you feel good.

 

[Pink Cadillac]

It was very uplifting when you got to the part about your friends joining you for night rides on Helix! Have enjoyed reading these