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Fårup Sommerland is located...um, I dunno, in Denmark somewhere. I wasn't driving. But it definitely felt remote! Or at least out in the woods. The park is wooded. That's what I should've said. 12: Hooked on Fønix If there's an award for "Worst Park Layout," Fårup Sommerland wins. (Or, um loses?) It's just dead ends on dead ends. It's like Six Flags Over Georgia had a baby with Six Flags Over Texas and it died. Okay, that was dark. To be fair, a bad layout doesn't actually ruin a park, in my opinion. In fact, this park is pretty good. And it is mostly flat, so I guess it's not that bad. Look, I have to talk about something, okay? Dammit, Daniel. I'm trying to take a photo of Smisty! This ride actually has a really interesting layout. And the straight sections were pretty smooth. But the turns were super shuffle-y. Orkanen is one of those fun Vekoma family suspended coasters that dives into an underwater tunnel. There are better places to take photos of it, but I like this one. In the background, on the left, you can just make out the park's onsite hotel. [Transition!] I think the official lunch was another pizza buffet, but I wanted to check out the hotel restaurant, and avoid a possible rush by eating lunch early. Which worked out spectacularly. Food was pretty good, too. And they even had ice! Fårup means "sheep's cry." I did not see any sheep in the park. Their mascot is a hedgehog. My wife refused to wait one more train to ride in the front seat. Or, to put it another way, will use any excuse to not sit with me. Fårup Rafting was mildly fun and not too wet. We hung out with Hawk and Doug a lot at this park. Or, to put it another way, they had a hard time avoiding us. I blame the dead ends. The queue for the rickety spin mouse is not wheelchair accessible. Flagermusen spun a lot for our unbalanced asses. Wild in the best way. Flagermusen means "bat." Getting from there to Dracula is up to you. Lynet means "lightning." And Gerstlauer over-the-shoulder-restraints means "not riding." This looks inviting. An outdoor obstacle course maze and slides kind of thing. Followed by an indoor fun house crooked house kind of thing. Not sure how I got Misty in here, but this was the only time for all three European trips. Wasn't sure what this was, exactly--but it looked cool from out here, so we went in. Turned out to be a roller skater. And kind of rough and bumpy compared to most. But surrounded by trees, so that was cool. Another park without a proper dark ride, but at least it had this outdoor tracked car ride. SMIIIL The last train of the morning that got to ride again if they participated in a "hand, shoulders, knees, and toes" demonstration and sing along. Another look at the Saven family boomerang, this time from the park's train. More Danish Mexican food, because we just can't help ourselves. Fårup Sommerland also has the largest water park in the country. A fact I'm choosing to share with you in conjunction with this photo of sand. I like how this little carousel has photo of other rides in the park. The pirate ship is actually part of the "advanced" obstacle course. I think. I didn't go anywhere near the thing. Was too busy defending my ice cream. Fun story. Back when we were at Tivoli Friheden, I sent some work friends back home that photo of Smisty on the Ferris wheel with the Space Needle fan, and they recreated it with a homemade "Tivoli Friheden" fan. This started a whole weird thing, of which the following might've been the highlight: So there you go. We like log flumes. And we were going to ride this one. But when we got up to the station, the ride op insisted that we ride up front together. Not so that more people could ride with us, mind you, but "to balance the log and keep you from getting so wet." Now, I've never been on this particular log flume, so I could be wrong...but that don't sound right to me. Also, the station looked like this. So we bailed. Rides are like dark alleys. If it doesn't feel right, don't go. Okay, now, I don't normally do this. I try to be very selective with what I post. But I'm going to spend the rest of this report just spamming Fønix photos: Like an octopus in the wilderness. You heard me. Me: "These restraints are really good for me." Someone else on the trip: "These restraints are good for everybody." This ride is so smooth, so well-engineered, so..."confident"...that it makes all other manufacturers look like amateurs. The best coaster of the trip, for my money. Didn't think I'd like the stall very much, but I did. At this point, new Vekoma might be able to make me like broccoli. As great as it is, I do prefer Lech. Fønix has more airtime--but Lech is wilder, more out of control, and more intense. None of which should be taken as a slight on Fønix, which currently sits at #3 on my top 10 coaster list. Smisty says Fønix is her favorite steel coaster. And she's also been on Lech, so there you go. Fårup Sommerland's score: 8 (But it's mostly that high because of Fønix.) Next time: The debut of a new shirt!

The "kids these days are lazy" is such a nonsensical thing and it's nice to see it de-bunked here. That kind of talk is the excuse of a poorly run company. The whole "Six Flags is understaffed" seems like a relatively simple thing to me to diagnose. Maybe not fix, but diagnose. The company pays horrible and is horrible to work for. It's that simple. Also yeah, being out in Eureka does somewhat make it harder to find kids than say, somewhere in St. Louis county, so we can add bad location to to those other two, but I think that's a bit of a lesser thing. A company operating a theme park can probably get away with paying crap to bottom rung employees moreso than others because, at least in theory, it's a fun job that has cool perks.....if it treats its employees well. Six Flags, as noted in the example posted by Kim above, does not. I don't know what kind of culture Cedar Fair has at their company, but I'm hoping at the very least it's an improvement over Six Flags. That alone would help improve park operations here, though that kind of thing takes usually a couple years. Given how seasonal a theme park is though, if the right people are put in place in management a turn around on that front can be probably happen quicker than other types of businesses.

Porcupine??? I thought he was a hedgehog. and I LOVE you for getting a pic of folks doing Head,Shoulders,Knees & Toes on Saven. .as folks I've told about doing that tend not to believe me it happened

I mean it could be an RMC dive machine for all we know. Not that I'm trying to influence anyone that may be reading this... Seriously, though, I'm kinda hoping they go for a Guardians-style rebuild to differentiate themselves from Disneyland. AFAIK every other Space Mountain is it's own thing and only Tokyo and DL are the same layout.

I wasn't trying to disrespect any other Presidents or overlook that he may have access to more, just using him as a clear example of 'what could be' and one that I have first hand knowledge of since I have actually spoken to him face to face. He's pretty awesome though! And so transparent with what is going on and what the timeline is and why they are doing what they are doing. I think a lot of parks could avoid some grief and complaining if they just publicized what is going on behind the scenes and why. No reason for a shroud of secrecy all the time

Well before the merger I already thought every park president should train under Siebert somehow. Unless he doesn't want an expansion of his duties in that way. But now Six Flags parks have access to the park and the chain that trained Jeff. They actually can set up a career path for that.

It really is all about leadership. I don't even think there is intent to treat employees like second class citizens, there just isn't anyone at our park to hold supervisors accountable and properly direct them. I'm guessing at SFFT where they have a President that borders on legendary the culture is totally different. I do hope this gets addressed with the merger.

^ It's actually going to be a new stunt show arena where the cast just rides T3 over and over for twenty minutes seven or eight times a day. Real dangerous stuff, I'm surprised OSHA is allowing it.

The comparison isn't Kentucky Kingdom, it's Sears/Seritage. And the investors wanting an REIT don't care if theme parks operate or not, they want maximum return on their investment. In any case, my wife sobered me up some last night and basically made the argument that it didn't matter anymore for us and she's right. I'm not on YouTube generating revenue when people click on my theme park content. I do financial analysis and administration for Sub-saharan African economic development projects. There's not one of these parks in my community where it would have a significant impact on us if it closed down. If they want to bulldoze half of Kings Dominion to build an eSports center that will fail miserably, why should I feel bad?

I always figured an RMC Boss was the absolute best case scenario for this park. That was until this merger/acquisition was announced though! I trust that Cedar Fair will probably decide that in order to make more money at this park it's best to invest in attractions and experiences that make people want to actually buy tickets and spend more money at the park. Or sell it off. I don't see a sell off happening here though. Too much good shit to work with. But yeah, it'll either be improved or sold. Better for one or the other to happen, IMO. I feel like this whole deal ends the days of perpetual "just gettin' by" that this park has operated under as long as I've personally been visiting it. Or at least finally numbers the days where it's like that.

A terrible accident occurred this past weekend at the park. Even though it did not involve a ride, it is still tragic nonetheless. Fright Fest scare actors riding in a van in an employee access area crashed, ejecting one of the team members who later died at the hospital. My thoughts and prayers are with their family and everyone involved. https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/cobb-county/employee-killed-car-accident-six-flags-officials-say/RPQQCOJWGJFWNDOALKUXE4DVSA/