One week. Seven parks. A few coaster gems, and a million hairpin turns. Yes, Denmark has it all - a Reverchon spinning mouse, a Zamperla spinning mouse, Gerstlauer Spinning Coaster, a Mack Wild Mouse, and even a SPINtamin.
I began my tour of lateral forces at the fabulous Djurs Sommerland, and was delighted to discover that it's one of those rare theme parks that doesn't blast out music absolutely everywhere across the park. I instantly liked the park for it's relaxed atmosphere; and once I had rode their two Intamin beauties, my like quickly transformed into love for Djurs.
Started off with the new coaster Juvelen, a furious little ground-hugging double launch coaster which really pushes the limit of the term 'family ride'. The indoor queue is well -themed with dangling tree vines and plastic jewels glowing in the darkness, it's like a cute, scaled back version of Wodans queue at Europa Park.
When I first saw a picture of Juvelens' AV Bike trains I thought they looked as though they had come straight out of the Argos catalog. However, in the context of Juvelens' adventurous theme they work well. It was actually really nice to board something a little bit different to a regular sit-down train, and the leaning forward ride position added to the fun of the ride.
The pre-show features more pretty jewel lights, exciting music and some animatronic stone people things - which was much more than I was expecting. Then it's straight into the first tire launch - it's smooth, it's gradual, and so enjoyable - it rides like an extended version of Thirteens' 'back into the station' launch. Unlike it's American big brother Cheetah Hunt, Juvelen doesn't instantly slow down post-launch. It takes the first swoops and bends at a graceful speed; before plowing into a faster, second launch where the forces really kick in. Now at it's maximum speed, the second half of this coaster is a wonderful blur of whizzing around waterfalls and through rocky walls. Overall, I'd say it's the best family coaster I've ever ridden, it has huge re-rideabilty and makes a great addition to the park.
Rode Juvelens' neighboring flat ride 'Solguden' - a self-controlled, 'avoid the water jets' spinning thing that looks as though it's been themed to a kebab. It has ultra catchy ride music which remained in my head for the rest of the week. Pottered over to Thor's Hammer, a pleasant but unremarkable Gerstlauer Bobsled that does some nice airtime hills over water at the end. Did the obligatory water rides and flat nonsense before heading over to Skatteoen - a Mack water coaster with a funky octopus at the start. I'm not a fan of Mack water coasters - I find them too short and dull, so Skatteoen was a non-event for me.
Last but not least was the Intamin Mega-Lite I'd been anticipating ' Piraten.' This coaster really did not ride like I expected it to. I though it would simply be a tamer version of a mega coaster; but no. This is pure ejector airtime craziness from start to finish. Like the smaller B+M Inverts, the Mega-Lite seems to pack more of a punch due to it's lack of height - on Piraten there's no time for floaty air or sluggish big turns. It made my top ten instantly, I would highly recommend it to those who like their coasters to have 'Bucking Bronco' vibe.
On the way out, (after multiple re rides of Piraten and Juvelen) I bought a watermelon. No, that's no a typo. I actually managed to buy a healthy item of food in a theme park! :--D Well done Djurs Sommerland! I wish more parks were like this one.
The next day I visited Skandinavisk Dyre Park, because I bought a Djurs Sommerland season pass - I was entitled to half prince entry here, and at many other theme parks / zoos across Denmark. It worked out loads cheaper than paying on the gate for everything. The Dyre Park was a wonderful 'culture cred'; it had brown bear cubs, polar bear cubs, arctic foxes, moose, musk ox and wolves. But best of all, these animals weren't banged-up in zoo enclosures; they each had acres of land with lakes, hills and caves to roam around. It was amazing to see little polar bears swimming around in a big lake. This place is endorsed by the World Wildlife Fund and is well worth a visit if you fancy a break from theme parks.
In the evening I visited Tivoli Friheden, because it was a lot cheaper to go at night and the map told me not to expect much from this place. It turned out to be pretty alright for a city-based amusement park. There was an array of sea-side creds - a Pinfari looper, a spinning mouse, and a Wacky Worm. Plus a weird orange invert made by 'Sartori' - who I'm assuming are some sort of derivative of Pinfari? This invert 'Cobra' felt very similar to Tsunami at M+Ds - same seats, same sluggish inversions and jerky lift hill.
The best thing at Tivoli Friheden was the 5D dark ride 'Desperados' - a simulator ride with shooting and an on board camera, it was really immersive and bought out a lot of competitiveness! They also had a standing flat ride where you stood in a fire truck that moved up and down, whilst aiming a water gun at 'fires' on different levels of a wall that was painted like a block of flats. Hard to describe but a good, quirky little ride.
Next up was Farup Sommerland; where I was spited by the fab-looking Vekoma SFC 'Orkanen'
which opened the day I flew back home. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the juxtaposed smooth airtime hills and skull-rattling corners of their wooden coaster 'Falken.' This coaster has that bizarre combination of being rough as hell but extremely re-rideable. Farup also has a Reverchon spinning mouse which was slightly more spinny than Tivoli Frihedens Zamperla Spinning Mouse; plus some average water rides and a fun kiddie spinning drop tower.
I was mostly looking forward to riding Lynet this day, as I hadn't ridden a Gerstlauer launch coaster before. After a slightly claustrophobic indoor queue, I found myself in the front seat, ready to roll into what turned out to be a mega smooth launch - one of the smoothest I've ever experienced. Into a cute little top hat and a nice air-time hill. The more I ride Gerstlauers, the more I find myself noticing that they make those popping airtime hills very well.
The pace gradually peters out after the MCBR, there's a couple of hang-timey inversions and helixes but nothing that really takes your breath away. It's a shame that the intensity of the first sections of Lynet couldn't last for the rest of the ride. Overall an enjoyable coaster though, and easily the best in the park.
Park-wise I didn't like the way Farup was laid out, with the car park slap bang in the middle; and preferred Djurs Sommerland overall.
The following day I was off to the oh so juvenile Bon Bon Land, which is a bit like the theme park Viz magazine would create given the chance. It has lots of cheap looking themeing which is amazing in it's tackiness (the cat-carrier station for 'Han-Katten' was a personal favorite) but the rides aren't great. Somehow, the lady working at the gate mistook our Djurs Sommerland passes and let us in to Bon Bon Land for free (?!) I was glad I didn't pay after about 30 minutes of wandering around, given the state of this place. Giant character figures lay toppled over, there were bits of foil and litter on the track of Vild-Svinet, animatronics on the river ride were broken down and mouldy, ride signs and entrances were covered in cobwebs. This is the park that maintenance standards forgot.
Considering Vild-Svinet is the first Eurofighter ever built, it isn't as rough as I expected. It's also not very good though; it has a very short, dull layout and one of those awfully round Eurofighter loops <//3 ugh. Han-Katten is equally disgusting, a real puke-inducing inward facing spinner. I don't like facing inwards on Spinning coasters, it makes the ride all too Waltzer-esque.
The best coaster at Bon Bon Land is Viktor Vandorm, which is like a huge Wacky Worm on steroids. But it's not enough to salvage this dismal park; I ended up getting the creds and the log flume then leaving.
The next day, I decided to try and visit two parks in one day - Tivoli Gardens and Bakken. I'm not sure if getting next to no sleep the previous night in an baking hot, uncomfortable tent put me in a bad mood, but I didn't find Tivoli Gardens that enjoyable. Their small B+M floorless is quite interesting, it picks up a fair bit of speed during it's pre-drop helix - but for a B+M, it just doesn't have the 'wow' factor that I've come to expect from their coasters.
The classic 'Rutschebanen' however, was brilliant. This was my first ride of a coaster with a brake man, and I loved it. Some great airtime and a surprisingly smooth track. They were operating two trains and each had their own brake man, I rode it multiple times as it had no queue; and it was really interesting to feel the difference where one brake man was braking the absolute minimum required, whilst the other was a bit more reserved.
Nothing else particularly stood out in this park for me, apart from the airtime crazy kiddie cred 'Karavanen' and the suspended magic carpet ride with water fountains - very snazzy.
Headed over to Bakken in the evening, which looks more like a fun fair than 'The Worlds Oldest Amusement Park.' Rode their Kumbak tampered Ruschebanen sans brakeman to compare and contrast with the one in Tivoli Gardens. Bakkens' Ruschebanen was extremely rough and slowed to a near stop on the corners, it wasn't a patch on the one in Tivoli Gardens.
Next I headed for the infamous SPINtamin 'Tornado' - a coaster which many CFers recommended to me before I went to Denmark. This coaster is just mad! It features a dual chain lift which hurtles you up the lift hill, into some sort of mini-launch? (I tried looking back for magnets at the crest of the hill but the car was moving to fast to see anything) I don't know how they do it, but you literally fly down that first drop, it's absolutely fantastic. The spinning and the track complement each other well, so the ride doesn't get too sickly as it plows on through the many sharp helixes it takes. One of the best spinning coasters around.
Got the rest of the creds which included a rickety Zierer Flitzer, a Mack Wild Mouse (which was one of the better of this weeks mice) and a brilliant Intamin Mine Train called 'Mine Train Ulven.' If only the layout of Thirteen were as good as Mine Train Ulvens - it has a great first drop and some lovely S-bends, and is a very smooth ride. Rode a really old-school ghost train with bits of string hanging from the ceiling, it made me think of John Wardleys autobiography (which turned out to be a far better read than it's pixellated cover implied) and how they create these effects.
Bakken is quite nice, but as the trip went on, I felt more and more aware of how much I prefer theme parks to city-based amusement parks. The immersion and escapism just isn't there in amusement parks, too many transportable rides and stalls trying to rip you off at every turn.
On the last day, I got the ferry across to Sweden to visit Liseberg in Gothenburg. What a lovely park - with some really breathtaking coasters and flat rides. Balder instantly made my top 5, it's certainly puts the 'fab' in pre-fabricated track :wink: This coaster has so much wonderful airtime, one hell of a first drop, and just a generally great pacing right up until the final brake run. I absolutely loved it.
The Schwarzkopf 'Lisbergbanan' is very smooth considering its age and it makes great use of the big hill upon which it resides. Having said that, Lisbergbanan does just do one thing - a swooping turn-drop to the right then back up, over and over again. It's fun, but could do with a bit more variation in the layout.
The other coasters at Liseberg didn't really do much for me, with the painfully slow top hat of Kanonen, and a couple of kiddie creds. It was down to their gigantic drop tower 'Atmosfear' to really get the adrenaline really racing - and that it certainly did. What a rush!
So there we have it, the end of another cred-happy trip to Europe with a few new entries into my top 10 coasters. Next stop - Finland! :--D
I began my tour of lateral forces at the fabulous Djurs Sommerland, and was delighted to discover that it's one of those rare theme parks that doesn't blast out music absolutely everywhere across the park. I instantly liked the park for it's relaxed atmosphere; and once I had rode their two Intamin beauties, my like quickly transformed into love for Djurs.
Started off with the new coaster Juvelen, a furious little ground-hugging double launch coaster which really pushes the limit of the term 'family ride'. The indoor queue is well -themed with dangling tree vines and plastic jewels glowing in the darkness, it's like a cute, scaled back version of Wodans queue at Europa Park.
When I first saw a picture of Juvelens' AV Bike trains I thought they looked as though they had come straight out of the Argos catalog. However, in the context of Juvelens' adventurous theme they work well. It was actually really nice to board something a little bit different to a regular sit-down train, and the leaning forward ride position added to the fun of the ride.
The pre-show features more pretty jewel lights, exciting music and some animatronic stone people things - which was much more than I was expecting. Then it's straight into the first tire launch - it's smooth, it's gradual, and so enjoyable - it rides like an extended version of Thirteens' 'back into the station' launch. Unlike it's American big brother Cheetah Hunt, Juvelen doesn't instantly slow down post-launch. It takes the first swoops and bends at a graceful speed; before plowing into a faster, second launch where the forces really kick in. Now at it's maximum speed, the second half of this coaster is a wonderful blur of whizzing around waterfalls and through rocky walls. Overall, I'd say it's the best family coaster I've ever ridden, it has huge re-rideabilty and makes a great addition to the park.
Rode Juvelens' neighboring flat ride 'Solguden' - a self-controlled, 'avoid the water jets' spinning thing that looks as though it's been themed to a kebab. It has ultra catchy ride music which remained in my head for the rest of the week. Pottered over to Thor's Hammer, a pleasant but unremarkable Gerstlauer Bobsled that does some nice airtime hills over water at the end. Did the obligatory water rides and flat nonsense before heading over to Skatteoen - a Mack water coaster with a funky octopus at the start. I'm not a fan of Mack water coasters - I find them too short and dull, so Skatteoen was a non-event for me.
Last but not least was the Intamin Mega-Lite I'd been anticipating ' Piraten.' This coaster really did not ride like I expected it to. I though it would simply be a tamer version of a mega coaster; but no. This is pure ejector airtime craziness from start to finish. Like the smaller B+M Inverts, the Mega-Lite seems to pack more of a punch due to it's lack of height - on Piraten there's no time for floaty air or sluggish big turns. It made my top ten instantly, I would highly recommend it to those who like their coasters to have 'Bucking Bronco' vibe.
On the way out, (after multiple re rides of Piraten and Juvelen) I bought a watermelon. No, that's no a typo. I actually managed to buy a healthy item of food in a theme park! :--D Well done Djurs Sommerland! I wish more parks were like this one.
The next day I visited Skandinavisk Dyre Park, because I bought a Djurs Sommerland season pass - I was entitled to half prince entry here, and at many other theme parks / zoos across Denmark. It worked out loads cheaper than paying on the gate for everything. The Dyre Park was a wonderful 'culture cred'; it had brown bear cubs, polar bear cubs, arctic foxes, moose, musk ox and wolves. But best of all, these animals weren't banged-up in zoo enclosures; they each had acres of land with lakes, hills and caves to roam around. It was amazing to see little polar bears swimming around in a big lake. This place is endorsed by the World Wildlife Fund and is well worth a visit if you fancy a break from theme parks.
In the evening I visited Tivoli Friheden, because it was a lot cheaper to go at night and the map told me not to expect much from this place. It turned out to be pretty alright for a city-based amusement park. There was an array of sea-side creds - a Pinfari looper, a spinning mouse, and a Wacky Worm. Plus a weird orange invert made by 'Sartori' - who I'm assuming are some sort of derivative of Pinfari? This invert 'Cobra' felt very similar to Tsunami at M+Ds - same seats, same sluggish inversions and jerky lift hill.
The best thing at Tivoli Friheden was the 5D dark ride 'Desperados' - a simulator ride with shooting and an on board camera, it was really immersive and bought out a lot of competitiveness! They also had a standing flat ride where you stood in a fire truck that moved up and down, whilst aiming a water gun at 'fires' on different levels of a wall that was painted like a block of flats. Hard to describe but a good, quirky little ride.
Next up was Farup Sommerland; where I was spited by the fab-looking Vekoma SFC 'Orkanen'
which opened the day I flew back home. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the juxtaposed smooth airtime hills and skull-rattling corners of their wooden coaster 'Falken.' This coaster has that bizarre combination of being rough as hell but extremely re-rideable. Farup also has a Reverchon spinning mouse which was slightly more spinny than Tivoli Frihedens Zamperla Spinning Mouse; plus some average water rides and a fun kiddie spinning drop tower.I was mostly looking forward to riding Lynet this day, as I hadn't ridden a Gerstlauer launch coaster before. After a slightly claustrophobic indoor queue, I found myself in the front seat, ready to roll into what turned out to be a mega smooth launch - one of the smoothest I've ever experienced. Into a cute little top hat and a nice air-time hill. The more I ride Gerstlauers, the more I find myself noticing that they make those popping airtime hills very well.
The pace gradually peters out after the MCBR, there's a couple of hang-timey inversions and helixes but nothing that really takes your breath away. It's a shame that the intensity of the first sections of Lynet couldn't last for the rest of the ride. Overall an enjoyable coaster though, and easily the best in the park.
Park-wise I didn't like the way Farup was laid out, with the car park slap bang in the middle; and preferred Djurs Sommerland overall.
The following day I was off to the oh so juvenile Bon Bon Land, which is a bit like the theme park Viz magazine would create given the chance. It has lots of cheap looking themeing which is amazing in it's tackiness (the cat-carrier station for 'Han-Katten' was a personal favorite) but the rides aren't great. Somehow, the lady working at the gate mistook our Djurs Sommerland passes and let us in to Bon Bon Land for free (?!) I was glad I didn't pay after about 30 minutes of wandering around, given the state of this place. Giant character figures lay toppled over, there were bits of foil and litter on the track of Vild-Svinet, animatronics on the river ride were broken down and mouldy, ride signs and entrances were covered in cobwebs. This is the park that maintenance standards forgot.
Considering Vild-Svinet is the first Eurofighter ever built, it isn't as rough as I expected. It's also not very good though; it has a very short, dull layout and one of those awfully round Eurofighter loops <//3 ugh. Han-Katten is equally disgusting, a real puke-inducing inward facing spinner. I don't like facing inwards on Spinning coasters, it makes the ride all too Waltzer-esque.
The best coaster at Bon Bon Land is Viktor Vandorm, which is like a huge Wacky Worm on steroids. But it's not enough to salvage this dismal park; I ended up getting the creds and the log flume then leaving.
The next day, I decided to try and visit two parks in one day - Tivoli Gardens and Bakken. I'm not sure if getting next to no sleep the previous night in an baking hot, uncomfortable tent put me in a bad mood, but I didn't find Tivoli Gardens that enjoyable. Their small B+M floorless is quite interesting, it picks up a fair bit of speed during it's pre-drop helix - but for a B+M, it just doesn't have the 'wow' factor that I've come to expect from their coasters.
The classic 'Rutschebanen' however, was brilliant. This was my first ride of a coaster with a brake man, and I loved it. Some great airtime and a surprisingly smooth track. They were operating two trains and each had their own brake man, I rode it multiple times as it had no queue; and it was really interesting to feel the difference where one brake man was braking the absolute minimum required, whilst the other was a bit more reserved.
Nothing else particularly stood out in this park for me, apart from the airtime crazy kiddie cred 'Karavanen' and the suspended magic carpet ride with water fountains - very snazzy.
Headed over to Bakken in the evening, which looks more like a fun fair than 'The Worlds Oldest Amusement Park.' Rode their Kumbak tampered Ruschebanen sans brakeman to compare and contrast with the one in Tivoli Gardens. Bakkens' Ruschebanen was extremely rough and slowed to a near stop on the corners, it wasn't a patch on the one in Tivoli Gardens.
Next I headed for the infamous SPINtamin 'Tornado' - a coaster which many CFers recommended to me before I went to Denmark. This coaster is just mad! It features a dual chain lift which hurtles you up the lift hill, into some sort of mini-launch? (I tried looking back for magnets at the crest of the hill but the car was moving to fast to see anything) I don't know how they do it, but you literally fly down that first drop, it's absolutely fantastic. The spinning and the track complement each other well, so the ride doesn't get too sickly as it plows on through the many sharp helixes it takes. One of the best spinning coasters around.
Got the rest of the creds which included a rickety Zierer Flitzer, a Mack Wild Mouse (which was one of the better of this weeks mice) and a brilliant Intamin Mine Train called 'Mine Train Ulven.' If only the layout of Thirteen were as good as Mine Train Ulvens - it has a great first drop and some lovely S-bends, and is a very smooth ride. Rode a really old-school ghost train with bits of string hanging from the ceiling, it made me think of John Wardleys autobiography (which turned out to be a far better read than it's pixellated cover implied) and how they create these effects.
Bakken is quite nice, but as the trip went on, I felt more and more aware of how much I prefer theme parks to city-based amusement parks. The immersion and escapism just isn't there in amusement parks, too many transportable rides and stalls trying to rip you off at every turn.
On the last day, I got the ferry across to Sweden to visit Liseberg in Gothenburg. What a lovely park - with some really breathtaking coasters and flat rides. Balder instantly made my top 5, it's certainly puts the 'fab' in pre-fabricated track :wink: This coaster has so much wonderful airtime, one hell of a first drop, and just a generally great pacing right up until the final brake run. I absolutely loved it.
The Schwarzkopf 'Lisbergbanan' is very smooth considering its age and it makes great use of the big hill upon which it resides. Having said that, Lisbergbanan does just do one thing - a swooping turn-drop to the right then back up, over and over again. It's fun, but could do with a bit more variation in the layout.
The other coasters at Liseberg didn't really do much for me, with the painfully slow top hat of Kanonen, and a couple of kiddie creds. It was down to their gigantic drop tower 'Atmosfear' to really get the adrenaline really racing - and that it certainly did. What a rush!
So there we have it, the end of another cred-happy trip to Europe with a few new entries into my top 10 coasters. Next stop - Finland! :--D
