"Bjorn This Way" Trip Reports

[Serena]

Day Two: Skara Sommarland

This was my favourite day of the Live because it was the day that I discovered these:

Ed was also pleased to discover the park sold lacto-free fake Cornetto's. You could call them Cornotto's. All in all, it was an ice cream win for Skara.

I also enjoyed it because the day featured all of my fave activities: sitting on benches, sitting on grass, sitting on rocks...etc. Don't think I've ever had such a relaxed day at a theme park before. If you love to loiter, Skara Sommarland is definitely the park for you.

Tranan was a fun, unique coaster - really glad I got to ride the only S&S Freefly in the world! Fun fact: Tranan is the Swedish word for Crane. Just imagine if it ever breaks down, they may have to use a crane to get people off The Crane!

The Spinner didn't do anything.

Some people went off to do the CF Grand Prix. But I wanted to get a bit more sitting and chatting done instead.

Faffle occurred, I won a magnetic puzzle of Plopsaland - complete with 50% off sticker and missing piece!

Then we ambled over to the kiddie area. One of the Tranan ops I spoke to in the morning promised a 'surprise' on the mine train. I could see as we approached it that it went into a shed... this made me secretly quite excited for what was to come.

If by 'surprise' they meant 'nothingness' then they certainly hit the nail on the head with this coaster. One and done. (Although, they were playing the Swedish language version of Sweden's 1999 Eurovision winner 'Take Me To Your Heaven' in the ride station; which almost made up for it)

Dodge Them's, Moser drop tower and Darren's beloved log flume followed.

It had fab whale boats. We had a whale of a time on it. The whole ride was beautifully orca-strated.

More sitting occurred, this time sitting and eating. I was pleased that they served Falafel at this park, makes a nice change from burgers n chips.

Then it was time for Skara's best feature - their Waterski Challenge. Which involved yet more sitting down (this time under a tree!) as I watched 4 brave CFer's have a go.

Naturally, I scientifically documented the results:

I could happily sit and watch people attempt The Waterski Thing all day, it's such a great spectator attraction.

But the black clouds were looming and it was starting to rain - perfect time to visit the waterpark! We managed to go on one slide, and splash around in the pool for a bit - which was awesome in the rain. I found a sloped shallow bit where I could have another sit down, as Richard and Darren did the hilarious zip wire into the pool.

Then we got evacuated from the pool due to lightning. I was gutted that we didn't get to ride any of the big slides, especially the half pipe one, as they looked really good.

Had a bit of faff trying to meet up with all the sensible people who didn't go swimming during a thunderstorm. We left the park early as it was now hammering it down, but there wasn't anything left for us to do there anyway.

Skara is a pleasant enough park, but it feels a bit sparse. In my opinion they could really do with:
1. A ghost train
2. A thrilling coaster
3. Music for the rides / areas
4. Skara Sommerland themed MaSkara in the tat shop

Enjoyed the long drive across Sweden with Jordan, Conor and Mouse. Most of which was spent trying to save my Now That's What I Call Sweden mix cd. I had tried to be all impressive by sticking a cd label to the disc to make it look like a professional cd, but accidentally stuck it on the wrong side so wouldn't play. Je suis une idiot.

Got changed into my snazziest dress to go out for a meal in the evening. Then Ian pointed out that my green dress / blue cardigan combo was exactly the same colours as the hotel we were staying in. Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be an Ibis!

During the day someone also pointed out that my green spotted blouse looked like the disgusting Liseberg poncho. It was not a good fashion day for me.

The meal was nice- thanks to Nic for swapping her burger for my ribs when I realised they were hotter than the sun. When we got back to the hotel I found the children's box in the lobby - featuring drawing pads, crayons and toys. So me, Jordan and Sue had a nice arts and crafts session whilst everyone else (ie: Richard) got told off for being loud...what a surprise!

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Am I being silly or has peep not posted his excellent video in here?

 

[peep]

I haven't. Was gonna post it with the few photos I took but I still haven't sorted those out. Don't worry should be all sorted soon

 

[peep]

Ok, going to write up a brief report of the pre-Live (mainly because most of my photos are from those two days).

I flew out stupidly early with Benin on the Thursday. The airport was tiny but in the baggage area it had a Liseberg themed play area for kids? No idea, was awesome.

We then got a stupidly hot coach into the city centre. It was hot outside. We dropped our bags off in the train station and then walked(!) all the way over to the Universeum. It is literally next door to Liseberg, it was quite frustrating being so close to Helix but still having to wait a few more days to ride it. We grabbed some food which was next to a Toucan enclosure, so that was nice.

The museum is weird, it sort of has an aquarium and a large aviary (which was awesome apart from the added heat) and then a whole bunch of science type exhibit and interactive malarkey. It was an interesting place.

BEES!

Aww, they're cuddling

"I have a cunning plan!" said the plant?

I want an adult version of this in my life

We then met up with the rest of the pre-livers at the hotel where we proceeded to try and cool down and then find somewhere for food. We ended up having a nice meal at Hard Rock Cafe before moving on to a park which had a bar (and a TV show recording in the background). Some alcohol consumption later we played on the kids playground.

Somehow no one got hurt. Back to the hotel for some sleep before a day at Tusenfryd. It's a weird park, has some nice areas and some not so nice. It has a nice selection of rides. Thors Hammer (the 3D interactive dark ride) was what I was most looking forward to, it was a little disappointing. Mainly due to the animation and vehicle movement not being very cohesive and also because some scenes didn't work properly at all. Still, it all being inside a cave was awesome.

Speed Monster was actually a fun launch coaster, a very weak launch followed by a nice layout with some great moments. Would be greatly improved with non-neck chopping restraints.

Loopen I found quite enjoyable, very cramped layout which made it look a bit different, which was nice. It did have a fairly nasty kink coming out of one of the corkscrews but apart from that it rode well.

Thunder coaster was ok and then in the afternoon it was fantastic. Some amazing moments, a little dampened by some rather rough moments (any time it tried to turn).

The large spinning frisbee, spinning spider(?), was amazing, just the right amount of time, the right amount of spinnyness and a great amount of air time. Definitely the best one I've ridden of this ride type.

The rest was rather standard. Well, apart from the indoor interactive spinny room of evil. It was the same ride type as Vengeance at London Dungeons. You sit in a room, the floor spins you shoot at 3D projections, it's all a bit mental. I thought it was ok for what it was but it was like a sauna in that building which made it a rather unpleasant experience. Some pics...

On the way back we stopped for food at a McDonalds. One of the drink dispensers was finished so this temporary sign was placed....

When back at the hotel we had some more alcohol and found that the PC in the reception area had been left on a porn site!

Day three was the start of the actual CF Live. A joyous day it was with some semi-ERT on Helix. A decent amount of rides in, lots of antics and generally being able to see lots of friendly faces again. It was a shame a part of the day was dampened by the storm. I'll review the main creds...

Helix, was really looking forward to this and wasn't disappointed. It was exactly how I thought it'd ride, apart from the inverted top hat was better and the banked turns near the end weren't quite as good as I'd hoped. Still a fantastic solid coaster that I could just re ride all day.

Balder, I remember loving it back in 09 but was intrigued to see if my opinion would have changed over the years. Nope, lots of little pops of air time, a decent pace throughout and tunnels(!), makes for a very enjoyable ride.

Lisebergbananananananaan, a really fun coaster, has some great moments of speed. I love the interaction between all the rides on the hillside though, definitely adds a lot to the ride experience.


Second day at Skara was much more faffy and fun. It felt like we didn't do a lot but it was just really nice to chill with like-minded peeps in a nice setting. Once again it was a shame there was a storm. Cred review time...

Tranan was a really fun ride, very unusual experience. I'd love to see one of these with a larger layout that includes a full rotation, I can imagine that being really fun.

Spinner wasn't too bad, found it to be rather smooth, just nice to have a different type of car on this ride layout.

Gruvbanan was very meh. The trollhouse was random and made no sense.

It was fantastic fun watching four very brave peeps partake in the evil waterski thing. I recorded it...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-70-ChBYyCQ&list=UU2TjyrrH3vx0WkNPkzp4C6w[/youtube]


I love how it turned into an episode of Fort Boyard with everyone shouting tips on how to do the challenge. Once again congrats to those brave enough to actually give it a go.

The antics with Ciall's shorts was amazing too, everything from the faff trying to get them up into the tree from the 20 odd minutes of Sue throwing a plastic bottle at them to try to get them down. It was just amazing.


The last day of the live at Grona Lund was great fun too. The ERT in the morning was mental and just superb. The ghost train where they just threw every effect known to man at it (which was just the best thing ever), the antics, the not trying to break the benches by sitting on the middle of them, just a really great way to end the long weekend.

Twister was fantastic fun, it had great pacing throughout and it just felt wild, just flinging you all over the shop with some decent pops of airtime thrown in for good measure.

Jetline is alright, has some really good moments.

Kvasten, I really like this, just for what it is and that it has an amazingly themed station.

Vilda Musen I really enjoy too, just a very unusual layout that just seems to sit on top of everything. That station building needs a wider queue though!

If it wasn't already apparent I had an absolute blast, some great parks, some excellent rides, huge group of fantastic people and another CF Live event I'll never forget. Many thanks to all the drivers, Ian for organising and the parks for providing us with some excellent perks (even if some of them forgot).


I made a video...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAuxcfdJPL4&list=UU2TjyrrH3vx0WkNPkzp4C6w&index=2[/youtube]

 

[Dubaidave]

Heres a link to my video of the fun house at Grona Lund.

Be aware it is quite long!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4GAv7gQS2c&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]]

 

[MouseAT]

Between broken laptops and a serious lack of free time to sort photos and write trip reports it’s taken me until now to get anything put together. Those of you on my Facebook friends list will probably have seen all the photos already, but links are provided for the benefit of everyone else.

I do need to try to edit and upload my waterski footage at some point. It will happen eventually, assuming I don’t die of old age first.

Anyway, on to the trip. I’m going to be fairly brief in my coverage of the various days, otherwise I’ll completely lose the will to live, but I’ll cover all of the add-on stuff because that was epic.

Day 1: Gothenburg
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... c2a5a25581

It’s always great to start a CF Euro Live with a chill day (or at least a chill afternoon), as it helps get everyone in the holiday mood and takes the pressure off. Day 1 featured Stone Cold getting rather excited over many, many Volvos. Now if ever there was a company made for Richard, it’s Volvo. The entrance to the museum features the original desk and chairs from the main office, along with a sign explaining that the main means of communication with the factory downstairs was stamping on the floor. At least until the founders got older and upgraded to using broom handles.

After finding our hotel, the evening was spent enjoying a nice group meal and then chilling in a nice bar in a city centre park. So far, so good.

Day 2: Tusenfryd
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... bde0709e98

Day 2 featured a group trip into Norway. The bloke in the toll booth on the border didn’t look impressed by our choice of music for the drive (Abba).

Tusenfryd is a nice enough but somewhat bland park. Some aspects of the park that I was genuinely looking forward to were a bit of a let down; Speed Monster’s launch in particular is extremely poor first thing on a morning (and doesn’t get much better), and the Thor-themed dark ride had some nice ideas but unfortunately struggled to execute them effectively. That said, there are a fair few creds to be had, the giant frisbee (Spin Spider) is absolutely amazing, the Vekoma woodie is a good laugh later in the day once it has had time to warm up a bit, and there’s are definitely enough random side attractions to keep a CF size group entertained for the day.

Day 3: Liseberg
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... adc2496d7e

The official Live kicked off at Liseberg with some early ride time on Helix. First impressions were generally positive - the ride had a very slight rattle to it and wasn’t necessarily the best at anything it was doing, but it was certainly ticking all the right boxes. It started good. It got better. By mid afternoon, it had picked up speed, the rattle had faded and the ride had gone from good to epic.

Balder on the other hand was a complete let down. I’ve said this many times to many people, but I’ll say it again: The big hills that could have potentially sustained some decent airtime seriously lack proper ejector airtime, and the later hills have such short pops of airtime that they’re there and gone before you can enjoy them. It’s massively inferior to the bigger Intamin prefabs, and massively inferior to the Mega-Lites. What a load of crap.

Kanonen looks vile, but was actually more fun than it looked. More fun than Balder at least.

Lisebergbanan was also a bit of a let down. It’s fun enough, but wasn’t quite as great as it was made out to be.

The park itself is pleasant, and has some interesting side attractions. The flume in particular is pretty amazing with its unconventional layout, which ends with a sequence of three drops in quick succession. We probably didn’t get to experience the park at its best as it was absolutely heaving for most of the day, but it’s certainly a park I’d like to go back to one of these days, even if it’s primarily so I can whore Helix for most of the day.

Day 4: Skara Sommerland
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... ef0349f10a

After a late ERT session and a pine cone fight outside the park, we finally got to ride Tranan, the S&S free fly. It’s a fun concept, but somewhat flawed, and you can understand why no-one else has built one. It’s a shame, as an improved MK2 version could actually be a very entertaining ride. After that, it was time for a few of us to go karting, and then mop up the remaining coasters and generic flat rides that make up most of the rest of the park.

Skara Sommerland is a pleasant enough park, but there’s not really a lot in the way of rides to keep people interested for a full day. Fortunately, there’s more to the park than just rides. I’m not one for water parks, but the waterski lake was definitely as much fun for the spectators as it was for the participants.

Some of the group headed for the water park for a while, but then the thunderstorm hit and the park started to shut down. We hit the road early, headed for the hotel and then had another great meal, this time at an O’Reilly’s bar.

Day 5: Grona Lund
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 61442b54c3

Grona Lund is a very interesting park, with an incredible amount of stuff packed into a very small space. Twister is a fun little wooden coaster, the ghost train and fun house are both phenomenal, and there is some excellent food available.

Opinions on Insane were mixed to say the least. Some people had horrific rides, and said the ride felt like it was trying to snap them in two. Having experienced something similar (on a much lesser scale) whilst riding Kirnu last year I can believe it. That said, I got a really smooth, enjoyable yet mental ride on it. It’s clearly a ride that’s very hit and miss, and can either be amazing or disgusting depending on whether or not luck is on your side.

It’s a shame Eclipse, the park’s star flyer was closed, but it had been hit by lightning several times the previous day, so I’ll let them off for that one. Given its size, I’m sure it would have given some amazing views of Stockholm.

Day 5 marked the end of the official Live. At the end of the day, we returned to Stockholm’s airports and people started going their own ways. For me, the holiday wasn’t over, as I had a couple of extra days in Denmark to look forward to.

Day 6: Bakken and Tivoli Gardens
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 0c018481a3

I’d been to both Bakken and Tivoli before on the 2009 Euro Live, so I knew more or less what to expect.

Bakken was first, and the park had made some changes since my last visit. They’ve added a sky roller, which is quite possibly one of the best flat rides ever created. They’ve also completely ruined Rutschebanen, turning it from one of the best rides of its type into a ride that’s now so bland I can’t think of a single redeeming thing to say about it.

Oh, and Tornado. Where do I start with you? I rode 3 times on the 2009 trip, once this time and have yet to experience a spin on the ride. Also, as the massive bruise on my shoulder would attest, the ride has not aged well and is incredibly violent. Last time I saw it as a ride with potential that I just hadn’t experienced. This time, there was no pleasure, only pain. It's **** ****!

After two visits to Tivoli Gardens I’m still not sure what to make of the place. On the one hand, the park is beautiful, but I seem to find I’m too distracted by the rides to fully take in the setting. On the other hand, very few of the rides are good enough for me to be enthusiastic about riding them, so the park doesn’t really appeal to me on that level either. Somehow I find these two aspects of the park seem to detract from each other rather than making the park more appealing.

I will say that Tivoli have done a lot of work on their Rutschebanen, and it shows. The ride looks amazing, and rides pretty damn well too. It's definitely the best roller coaster in the park.

We hit gold when looking for somewhere to eat too. There’s an amazing restaurant near the entrance that served a fantastic buffet. It was undoubtably the best meal of the entire trip, and if I ever end up back at the park I know where I’ll be going for dinner.

After Tivoli came the long drive up to Aarhus, ready for the final park of the trip, Djurs Sommerland.

Day 7: Djurs Sommerland
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 0fd267d5ec

Djurs Sommerland is probably my favourite park. Back in 2009, it seemed like a nice enough park with a lot of potential. They’ve done a lot of work since then, and the park is really starting to shine. The park is really attractive, and feels a lot more complete now as they’ve had time to build more attractions and fill in some of the previously empty spaces. What’s more, they’ve really made an effort with the new additions. The new rides and areas are really well themed, and the park really does seem to offer something for everyone.

Piraten is still amazing, and can easily kick Balder’s ass into the next continent. Juvelen was probably the surprise ride of the day. In addition to really amazing theming in both the queue and the pre-show, it’s a really solid ride. I was expecting a half decent family coaster, and that’s pretty much what I got, right up until the second launch, when it suddenly kicked up a gear and went from “good for a family coaster” to “a really good coaster by anyone's standards”. The pirate area is now far more complete and the bouncy air cushions are still there and are still just as much fun as I remember. There are two good water rides in the form of an entertaining log flume and a rapids ride that (unfortunately) had broken animatronics on this visit. There’s good food to be had at the western buffet as well, although I think the rest of the group were less impressed by the Mexican.

All in all, Djurs Sommerland was a great way to finish off a great week. It’s definitely one to watch, and I’ll be interested in what they add in years to come. It’s not a great thrill seeker park, and it’s not trying to be, but somehow it just manages to provide the full package, and the attention to detail is amazing.

Anyway, time to wrap up. Thanks once again to everyone who made the trip so amazing. I wish I had more to say about antics but I just can't remember the details all that well seven weeks on, so I'll have to let the photos do the talking instead. I think the pictures say more about why the Live was amazing than anything I've written above.

 

[Ian]

On this cold, grey depressing morning I've spent the last 15mins re-reading this topic. How amazing was this Live? I also realised I never finished my TR. Oh well, I'll just watch peep's video again and piss myself laughing at the mincing at 1:13.

 

[Serena]

It's the Moser Drop Tower "oooh" at 0.38 in Peep's video that makes me giggle every time! Twas a fab trip indeed <3