TPR Scandi Trip 2014 Mini Updates!

^That's the first thing one of my friends at the office said when I showed him the photos of TPR at the top of Eclipse.

That climb up Eclipse...wow! Looks like a terrifying and amazing experience rolled into one! Great photos. Grona Lund looks absolutely incredible.

Wow...I would have been shaking like a leaf on top of that Star Flyer, but I am sure that I would have tried it if given the opportunity.

This trip just looks too awesome...I will have to save and save for the next one. Europe is just so awesome - I would love to live there.

And congrats to the newly engaged couple...you couldn't have picked a more original place to propose!

Looks like an amazing trip! Everyone looks like they are having a blast.

As cruiseferries are a hobby of mine, I just have to comment here, even if it's a bit off-topic...

2. The ship you sailed with is actually, along with her sister ship, the first ship in the world to incorporate the promenade walkway in the middle of the ships. It's also the only two ships in the world who have the promenade walkway open all the way up and covered with a glass roof (I'm not sure if you noticed that). It's really fire dangerous, and they are operating on exemption and can never be sold or moved. None of the big cruisers in RCCL can have that (except of course the Oasis ship, but they are fully open).

The promenade concept was developed by Wärtsilä shipyards together with (the 80's) owners of Silja Line. Silja Serenade was the first ship in the world to have this innovation followed by its sister, Silja Symphony. There are some "prototype issues" with the design, which were modified in the later cruise ships and cruiseferries that used the same idea. Those glass windows is one such thing, which was by later maritime standards banned. It's a rather hypothetical risk really, as these ships have been sailing for a quarter of a century without any accidents. But for those who are into ships and ship design, these two are the original ones and for many (ship-nerdy) people worth a visit only because of that.

The ship is also, again along with her sister, two of the oldest ships operating between Sweden and Finland and Estonia. They are still by far the best and most unique. They were all built during the happy 80s when this area was like a middle Caribbean for us Scandinavian people. The came the 90s recession and all the ships suddenly got much more realistic (read boring).

Newer ship designs are not any more boring, if you pick a right ship to visit. Viking Line's Viking Grace is the world's first passenger ship (and by far the biggest ship) to use LNG fuel, which makes it interesting for those who care about such things. Even if that doesn't matter, it has a cool nightclub with enormous LED screen on stage and panorama windows showing the sea (and LNG tanks) in the aft, and a buffet covered with panorama windows (all of which are seriously absent from every Silja Line ship...).

It should also be mentioned that the new Grande Buffet (just renovated this spring) on Silja Serenade had much of its interior design copied from Viking Grace. It is seen by many as only a poor copy of the original design. Also, it seems that TPR liked the Silja buffet. Good for them. Personally, I never even think about Silja buffet, as it's just not worth of money. Viking buffet, on the other hand, is definitely worth the money, much more quality and much more choises.

OK, sorry about that. The ship geek got the better of me. Let's get back to coasters now.

We are live tweeting the entire trip! Follow us on Twitter @themeparkreview

Today's update! PowerPark!

[vine]

Riding Thunderbird at PowerPark and spreading some GCI love!

It is currently 11:15pm here at Powerpark in Finland...but you'd never know it by looking outside!

The TPR Grand Prix is underway!

Powerpark's karting track isn't your typical amusement park karts. These go 50MPH!

Round 2 of the TPR Grand Prix at Powerpark ready to race!

KidTums cheering on Elissa in the background!

The Powerpark karting track is huge. Over 1 kilometer and is used in the official Finland karting circuit!

Our top three TPR Grand Prix winners! Ben, Adrian, and Ruben! Congrats!

And in true theme park marathon fashion, all TPR Grand Prix racers got a medal, regardless of how well they did!

Like other medal wearers we went around with a pretentious attitude showing them off bragging about our achievement.

Of course, we all know who the real winner of the TPR Grand Prix is!

With the TPR Grand Prix over, it was time to enjoy our visit to Powerpark.

PowerPark is home to one of the best GCI woodies - Thunderbird!

For a park in the middle of Finland, they sure do a really nice job of theming up their roller coasters!

I was able to get up close & personal with this awesome GCI woodie to bring lots of photos & video to you!

You know... Just climbing around Thunderbird at Powerpark

Yes!!! House on a stick!!!

Yay! Powerpark has a Mach Tower that actually works!!!

And not only does Powerpark have a Mach Tower that works but they operate it in two modes!!!

PowerPark also has one of these crazy Technical Park flat rides!

Soupy and Garbles trying out the new log flume thingy at Powerpark.

Next to the log flume are markers for the launched Gerstlauer coaster the park is getting next year!

Hello Boomerang with weird Vekoma trains, how's it going?

Here's a close up of the TPR Grand Prix medals. We made sure to wear them ALL AROUND THE PARK!

This is not unfamiliar for Garbles.

On our last visit to PowerPark we set a TPR speed record on Thunderbird. Can we break it this year?

We need to break 41.83 seconds as our fastest lap time in 2009.

We started off not doing so well at around 44 seconds...

So we started to take some of our heaviest riders and assemble a "fat train" to beat the TPR speed record!

We did a bit better but we needed to send the train around more to warm it up!

KidTums loves her GCI woodies!

We had two hours of ERT on Thunderbird so we had enough time to warm it up!

We sent out several fat trains, hands down, slouched or hunched over to be more aerodynamic.

"Ok, fat guys! Assume the position!!!"

We finally assembled the fattest train we could! Can we beat the record?

We came close, but not quite... I guess we need to get a bit heavier before our next visit!

Was a great time hanging out with Powerpark owner Vellu. Always great company!

TPR had a great visit to Powerpark! Next time we will beat our speed record!

Looks super fun! American Thunder is one of the best woodies and I think Thunderbird would be even better for not being at Six Flags.

The Grand Prix looked awesome! I've always wanted to do that. I'm so jealous about all the amazing and unique things you have planned! What an amazing trip!

Looks like you guys are having a BLAST!! I should join a TPR trip sometime.

PowerPark is a lot of fun. Thunderbird is a great GCI woodie, and I like their shooting dark ride, too. The hotel is great.

What is the record?

What is the record?

41.83 seconds

What is the record?

 

41.83 seconds

I am a proud member of the record-holding Fat Man Train of 2009.

^one of the few occasions the words "proud member" and "fat man" go together...

Has it been proven that a train full of heavy riders increases the speed all-around? I think it would be interesting to experiment with different weight distributions and see which one makes the ride fastest. Maybe Club TPR can start a theme park Mythbusters mini-show and test this idea out.

We are live tweeting the entire trip! Follow us on Twitter @themeparkreview

Today's update, Sarkanniemi!

Today, TPR is at Sarkanniemi in Tampere, Finland for some Intamin fun!

We are starting our morning at Sarkanniemi off on Tornado. An awesome Intamin inverted roller coaster.

I am taking a selfie with Ross because he's sexy!

The day-glo orange train on Tornado might be my favorite coaster train ever!!!

Is there a train on the coaster? I can't tell...

Tornado's awesome element is the inversion right above the station going trough the mountain! It's amazing!

You can see where the track goes through the mountain in the aerial shot of the coaster.

Quite a few of our members did the speedboat ride. It looked pretty crazy and really wet!

After our Tornado ERT we went over to Half Pipe for some more ride time

This was KidTums' first ever Disk-o "coaster" and she loved it!

Are you guys ready to spin?

We even tried to unbalance the ride to get it to spin more!

Next, we checked out the new Angry Birds Land. It was a really nice kids area!

The new kids play area is themed to the structures in Angry Birds that you knock down.

And yes, there is a slingshot!

KidTums had fun playing all the Angry Birds themed games.

And she won some very strange prizes!

Damn, that Tornado train is just sexy!

Nice beaver!!!

Some of us did the log flume.

Apparently the log flume altered Craig & Garbles' life!

We also checked out the dolphin show.

Yes, dolphins can play ball...

I'm not exactly sure what this is, but I think it's worth 2 Euros to find out!

LOOP PENETRATION!!!

This character was at the entrance to the petting zoo. It's like something out of Animal Crossing!

There is an iconic tower right in the middle of Sarkanniemi - Let's check it out!

The view of Tornado from the top of the tower.

Here is the section of the park where the Schwarzkopf coaster used to be. There is a Power Surge there now.

The dolphin theater from the tower.

Motocoaster and Angry Birds Land from the tower.

Tornado is such an awesome coaster! I feel it doesn't get the attention it deserves.

We had a great visit to Sarkanniemi today! Look forward to getting back here soon!

Has it been proven that a train full of heavy riders increases the speed all-around?

It was proven in 2009! We don't need no stinking science. I'm a proud participant in the original fat train. So glad you did the Grand Prix again, still my alltime favorite TPR Trip moment.

Nice to hear tornado is a good ride. I don't know why but I had the idea that it was somewhat rough. Well, never mind.

Looks like fun

Looks like a sweet Intamin. Now if we could only get those trains on Volcano The Blast Coaster...

Thanks for pointing out the train on Tornado. I wouldn't have been able to spot it any other way.

In other news, I think the Disko location is awesome! Swinging out over the water? Hail yeah!

I actually don't think it is. Man that train is so cool. I'm not sure if it's red orange or hot fiery death

Nice to hear tornado is a good ride. I don't know why but I had the idea that it was somewhat rough. Well, never mind.

Looks like fun

It's a lot of fun. I especially like the "underground" inversion.

To anyone who has also ridden the one in Spain (parque de atracciones de madrid), how do the two compare? Because I'm probably going to that one for the first time in August.

Looks like a sweet Intamin. Now if we could only get those trains on Volcano The Blast Coaster...

Volcano's train is almost completely identical...

^ They are orange, but not in-your-face-make-your-eyes-burn-and-fall-out-of-your-face orange!