Kolmården photo TR: viking86 rides his first RMC...

So ever since Kolmården announced that they were building Wildfire I knew I had to make the trip over to Sweden during the opening season to check it out. Having never ridden an RMC before, I was very excited to finally have one “only” 570 miles away.

I would not be disappointed...

This was the lovely weather I left behind (which had pretty much been our weather for most of the summer...)

I had ordered a small Totota Aygo for the 2 hours drive from Arlanda down to Norrköping, but the rental car company gave me a Skoda Octavia estate instead. No complaints from me, great car!

Fast forward one day and I made it to Kolmården. This was my first view of Wildfire!

Look at that drop! I’m usually calm when riding a new coaster, but for this one I actually felt a bit nervous (but in a good way!)

I love the structure! I know there are plans to fill it with wood, but I hope they keep it like this.

So how was my first rides on Wildfire? Well, I rode it first in the front seat and then in the back. The first half was really good, the drop was amazing, but it was kinda crawling towards the end. But this was on a cold morning with a near empty train, so I decided to withold my final judgement and let the ride warm up a little.

Thanks to Kolmården employee and fellow TPR-member Niclas who came out to ride with me in the morning! Always great to meet a fellow enthusiast, even if it's just for a short time!

A near full train screaming down the first drop! They started the day with one-train operation, but added the second train later in the day.

The train zooming through the barrel roll.

Niclas reccomended that I went on the Safari ride early before the crowds arrived, so I decided to follow his advice.

The first view you get from the gondola is a great view of the turn leading into the second inversion on Wildfire.

I give this view thumbs up!

You also get a good view of the airtime hill which you cannot see much of from inside the park.

The outward banked hill. Look at that view!!!

Okay, let’s focus on the actual gondola ride and the animals.

I loved the concept of this ride. It zig-zags back and forth over the various animal enclosures. The ride is quiet so it doesn’t disrupt the animals, and it gives you some great views as it goes fairly close to the ground in many places.

Here’s a look at the savannah.

Who’s up for a game of “spot the zebra”?

Male lions doing what big cats do best...

Here are the mommy-lions with the kids.

Heading back to the platform. Again, look at that amazing view!!

The ride has some pretty cool theming in the queue line.

Moving on through the park, here’s one of the monkey enclosures.

The savannah.

Kolmården has all sorts of animals. Here’s an elephant...

...and here’s a camel that couldn’t care less about people watching it.

Kolmården has a huge-ass playground where the kids can injure themselves in all the ways you can imagine!

In 2015 Kolmården opened “Bamses Värld”, a kids area based on the cartoon character Bamse.

The new area looked really good!

For the kids (and the credit whores) there is a Zierer family coaster. I didn’t ride, but the kids seemed to enjoy it!

They also have a small amphitheatre.

Overall I thought the whole area looked really good. There is a good selection of rides for the kids, and I was surprised by how large it was.

Moving on to more animals... they also have your typical farm animals.

A look at the Safari Restaurant. I didn’t eat there as it was full inside (and too cold to sit outside).

The view from the outside tables.

I was really looking forward to see the “TPR members locked in a cage” exhibition. Unfortauntely there were no animals to be seen...

“Did anyone mention TPR members??”

There are a-holes in this world, and then there are d-holes...

This guy was being a proper d-hole....

Okay, time for some more Wildfire.

Love the theming around the station building.

Here’s a look at the station building itself. Looks great! It also had some great theming inside, but I didn’t get any pictures of that.

The first drop is just amazing!

Going over the top...

WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

The train dissappearing into the structure!

This hill may look innocent. It isn’t....

A couple of hours after opening the ride was running a hell of a lot faster than it did in the morning. WOW! And during the day it started to rain. This just made the ride even more insane!

This is what riding Wildfire in the rain does to your face! I don’t even want to think about what it did to my pants!

FIRE!!!!

Every time a train came to a stop on the brakerun it was followed by the wiping of tears and hysterical laughter!

The park also has a Vekoma family coaster and a swinging ship, both rides being completely overshadowed by Wildfire.

So that’ it! What did I think after riding my first RMC?? It’s an absolutely amazing ride! The first half up until the second inversion is absolutely crazy! When Robb described this ride as being "f*cking insane" he wasn't lying or exaggerating in any way. It tells you something about a ride when the second inversion is the first point where you’re able to catch your breath properly! There were also far less people riding with their arms up than on your average coaster, something which I also believe can be credited to the insane intensity of this ride! (and maybe a little to the fact that the park maybe doesn't attract your average thrill-seeker clientele) The people on the Swedish east coast are very lucky to receive this ride, it truly is a masterpiece!

I also enjoyed the rest of the park, lots of animals and the exhibitions seemed fairly well done! Overall a great day at Kolmården!

Thanks for reading!

Some really great photos you got there!

Only two weeks to go now..

Fun TR , but did or didn't wildfire warm up at the end of the day, and which seat did you prefer, the front or the back?

^Thanks! Yes, it did go a lot faster than it did during the cold morning runs! I edited my trip report slightly to reflect that.

As for which seat I prefer, it's definitely the backseat.

Only two weeks to go now..

You really have something to look forward to. Just make sure that if it feels slow in the morning there is no reason to feel disappointed, as it will become a lot faster throughout the day. Have fun!

Great TR, some day I hope to make it over to Kolmarden to see the animals and get on Wildfire!

Nice pictures! Glad we were both able to ride it after the lap bar fiasco the Friday before.

Now where's the TR from our awesome trip to Tusenfryd?!

That view though!!

Awesome report!! Glad you had fun!!

^Yeah, Kolmården really is in an amazing location! The view from the top of the lift of Wildfire has to be one of the greatest views from a coaster ever!

Nice pictures! Glad we were both able to ride it after the lap bar fiasco the Friday before.

 

Now where's the TR from our awesome trip to Tusenfryd?!

It would have been really sad to miss out on such an amazing ride, so great that we both got to ride!

As for Tusenfryd, I don't think any TR could describe how "awesome" our day was...

^Well, now I feel we should hear the story!

I really enjoyed Kolmarden. That cable car safari blew us all away.

Yes, the cable car safari was awesome! And a little bit scary on the high bits as it was quite windy on the day of my visit. One thing I really liked is how quiet it was, as opposed to noisy diesel trucks driving through the animal exhibitions. I felt that it had minimum impact on the animals. All the enclosures were also really large, which is good.

^Well, now I feel we should hear the story!

Let's just say that Tusenfryd was trying really hard to make their operations as shitty as possible that day....

(which to be fair wasn't much different from my visit last year)

I knew very little about Kolmarden outside of Wildfire, and ended up liking the park a lot. The cable-car safari and animal habitats were very well done--and Wildfire was excellent (particularly that last inversion--whew)! Getting around the place is quite a hike.

^Well, now I feel we should hear the story!

The park was just set up for failure.

It took about a half an hour to park because of no traffic control with people crossing the street from the parking lot to the park.

1 train operation on Thundercoaster the majority of the morning. I think we ended up waiting almost an hour and a half through the 1 train operation. Finally as we were about to get into the station they put the second train on (the park had been open for 4-5 hours by this point).

We ate at the Rockburgeren diner outside of Speed Monster and spend over a half an hour waiting for our food. After giving up waiting we walked up to the counter and were given our food almost immediately (and we didn't complain we just stood there and continued talking to each other) which seems to me they weren't paying any attention (there wasn't any line for food at this point in the day).

They had a sign posted that the Supersplash would be closing at 5:30P. We assumed this was so they could get people through the line and have the ride closed by 6P when the park closed. We showed up at the line at 5:13P and it was already closed off.

We ended up leaving the park before the 6P closing because nothing was open anymore besides the games.

The positives were that the Loopen crew and the Speed Monster crew (all 2 operators at each ride) seemed to move at a decent pace to get people through the lines.

The park was packed and it staffed to operate as if they were planning on it being one of the emptiest days of the year. We all agreed we wished we had spent a 3rd day at Liseberg instead of including Tusenfryd in our trip which is surprising because we all love visiting new parks!

---Not to completely hyjack Yngve's thread though, I agree the Safari ride was very cool! It gave a unique perspective on the animals as if the almost didn't realize people were floating above their heads. When you go to your typical zoo the animals usually just sit there and stare at you but we didn't get that from this ride. I just ended up having to ride it being pouty that I couldn't ride Wildfire that day.

1 train operation on Thundercoaster the majority of the morning. I think we ended up waiting almost an hour and a half through the 1 train operation. Finally as we were about to get into the station they put the second train on (the park had been open for 4-5 hours by this point).

You forgot to mention that they spent 10 minutes swapping the trains as we were halfway through the line. Yes that's correct, they added a second train, but removed the first train from the ride, meaning that they continued with one-train operation until we were nearly at the station.

It should also be mentioned that with the line for Supersplash having been closed off, we decided to go ride Thor's Hammer (dark ride in the same area) as the line for this was open (it said on the sign that this ride would also close at 5:30). As we were almost ready to ride the girl who was operating the ride informed us that she had closed off the line too late, and would have to fill the ride vehicles to max capacity (six riders per car), meaning our group of four had to split up. I guess she had been ordered to close off the ride at 5:30...

The positives were that the Loopen crew and the Speed Monster crew (all 2 operators at each ride) seemed to move at a decent pace to get people through the lines.

The Speedmonster crew has been pretty good on all my visits to Tusenfryd, and the ride has always been running two trains. The only example of bad operation I have seen on Speedmonster was last year when they closed off the line early and then had to re-open the line as they realized there would be no riders left to ride 20 minutes before the park closed.

Overall I think it's a sad situation, because Tusenfryd has the potential to be a good park. It has a very nice location, and a decent ride selection. But the poor operations just seems to ruin everything. The whole park just seems to be understaffed in every department. I don't want to blame the ride operators, because when it's the same pretty much throughout the entire park, and for several years in a row, you know the root cause for the bad operations lies with the park management...

Wonderful 'perspective' shots of Wildfire from the gondola. Thanks, Viking86!

I really give credit to Kolmarden for creating such a unique safari experience. For animal and wildlife lovers, that is a true fantasyland!

Alice

Overall I think it's a sad situation, because Tusenfryd has the potential to be a good park. It has a very nice location, and a decent ride selection. But the poor operations just seems to ruin everything. The whole park just seems to be understaffed in every department. I don't want to blame the ride operators, because when it's the same pretty much throughout the entire park, and for several years in a row, you know the root cause for the bad operations lies with the park management...

So, what you're saying, is that Tusenfryd is the "Six Flags" of Norway!

So, what you're saying, is that Tusenfryd is the "Six Flags" of Norway!

Pretty much, it desperately needs Parks and Resorts.

For myself, it follows along the same lines as Fuji-Q Highland park in Japan: Some great attractions there,

but the ride operations could be a bit....uh....better?

So Tusenfryd falls into "that category" for me. It did the first visit, and the same for visits #2 and 3.

IMhO. (Pardon the 'jump' to the other park, here.)

So, what you're saying, is that Tusenfryd is the "Six Flags" of Norway!

Yeah! Problem is that we have no other "good parks" to compensate. Tusenfryd is the only park in Norway which has something to offer for coaster enthusiasts, the remaining parks are all small parks aimed at families.

(Pardon the 'jump' to the other park, here.)

Well, the visit to Tusenfryd was the day after Kolmården, I just wasn't planning to do a trip report from this park. But I think this discussion is fine in this thread, it was from the same trip afterall.

(I edited the topic sub-title slightly to reflect that )

Actually I wasn't planning to visit Tusenfryd at all, until Bryan messaged me their trip plans and I decided to meet up with them. So yeah, thanks a lot Bryan!

Nice report! Wildfire really looks awesome.

It's interesting (and good for you) that you got a better car than the one you paid for. I guess that's what most rental companies do when a certain model is not available but last year in Ireland the opposite happened to us Hope it doesn't repeat this year haha