robinschroder

Another amazing update - thanks so much! Your current collection of cameras (and your creative use of them all) have really taken the TPR videos to the next level!

Big Mike - many congratulations on Episode 2! I'm impressed by your showmanship and enjoyed the new streamlined format. I'm convinced there is a career waiting for you in TV! This has really taken the Road Show to the next level - looking forward to some Japan segments in Episode 3. Good luck to everyone in Big Mike's Super Epic Contest!

^ Hi Ivan - Glad you managed to get this rare credit, and also survived to tell the tale!

One of my colleagues just pointed this news story out to me. Sounds like they were stuck for quite some time, although everyone was safe and well in the end. BBC News: Nine rescued from Strathclyde Park rollercoaster

Very much enjoying the rider-cam footage from this trip! Always fun to watch Big Mike's on-ride pieces to camera!

Interesting stuff - thanks for the replies!

I was explaining to a friend of mine how Expedition GeForce and Balder always run better on hot days, especially towards the end of the day once they've had chance to warm up. He then asked why that was, arguing that if anything he'd expect a steel rollercoaster to run fractionally slower as a result of the fractional expansion in the steel track against the wheels due to the increase in heat! Ha ha - I wasn't really able to answer, except to say that they do definitely run better on a hot day and then I mumbled something about "Er... it's probably to do with the Polyurethane wheels"... Now - why is it that rollercoasters generally run better on a hot day, or at the end of the day after having had the whole day to warm up? Is it down to the wheels? Or is something else at play? It doesn't really matter of course, as long as GeForce and Balder are running nice and fast to maximise our airtime opportunities - but I'm sure one of you will know... please enlighten me! Thanks!

What an amazing Nagashima Spaland update - thanks so much Robb! And I love that mug - this is terrible!

Oh WOW - what an amazing POV of Pyrenees, and so great to see the new for 2011 Escalator Ride video; I loved it when the classic "It's - the - es-ca-la-tor - ride" music kicked in at the end! Thanks for these wonderful updates Robb - great that you're all having such an amazing time!

Another fantastic update - thank you!

Hans, did they play the Dutch National Anthem before you entered the park?

Loving the updates so far - and thanks for the videos too! Glad you're all having an amazing time out there!

Such a shame you didn't get to ride the coaster - it looks so strange! RCDB says 'This is being called an "Energy Free" coaster. It will use solar power as well as power generated by cross trainers operated by waiting riders.' - how unique! Groetjes!

It's Thunder Looper from Alton Towers! I miss that ride!

Thanks for posting this TR - I totally agree with you about it making a lot of difference if you face the park on Atmosfear - terrifying!! Glad you had a great time at Gröna Lund, too - what a fantastic park!

I'm not really 'up' on my wooden coaster trains, I'm afraid - I'm sure someone with a lot more wooden coaster credits than me would be better able to answer this. However, I couldn't imagine anyone describing the Timberliners as anything but comfortable and roomy. I didn't think they looked too plasticy in person - in fact, I really liked the attention to detail on the trains. I don't know if this helps, but they felt as comfortable (maybe slightly more so) as the Millennium Flyer trains I've been on, with a slightly less weighty lapbar. That's not to say for one moment that the Millennium Flyer trains are bad!! And as for the Rugby playing - I think you might be thinking of another Robin Schroder...

Hello / Hej TPR!! Last weekend, Ryan, Russ & Stacey, Anth, Dave & Amy, Hans, Nathan and I travelled to Sweden so that we could visit Gröna Lund in Stockholm and Liseberg in Göteborg / Gothenburg. We had an AMAZING time - what an incredible weekend!! And we took lots of pictures and a film for you all to enjoy! Gröna Lund Gröna Lund is right in the centre of Stockholm, located on the Djurgården island. After all meeting up in the morning, we travelled down to Slussen on the T-Bana (underground train) from where we took the Djurgårdsfärjan (Djurgården Ferry) across to the park (which is fun in itself!). We had an AMAZING day, and everyone at the park made us feel incredibly welcome, for which we're very grateful! There's such a wonderful atmosphere at the park, it's beautifully landscaped, there are amazing views over Stockholm and the surrounding water, and so many top class rides all layered on top of, and in-between each other! Book your ticket to Stockholm now - seriously!! I can't wait to get back there. Twister We absolutely loved the brand new woodie, Twister! Don't be deceived by its compact appearance - it's every bit as good as its larger wooden coaster counterparts. It's fast, smooth, forceful, TWISTY (!!), much longer than it appears, and has some great airtime opportunities, some great interactions with the tracks of the other coasters, some crazy headchoppers, a beautiful waterfront setting, and some fun surprises along the way too - a really really great addition for an amazing park! The trains are very comfortable, as well (with lots of really nice little aesthetic touches) - hopefully we'll see more Timberliners out there soon. Twister is definitely up there with the world's top woodies! It really is that good! Get yourself to Gröna Lund and ride it ASAP!! Insane Well, what can I say - the clue is in the title!! This was my first ever visit to Gröna Lund, so I was both excited and apprehensive about riding Insane, having heard the reports from TPR's Scandi '09 trip! Our first ride was insane enough (obviously in a good way!) and totally lived up to its name, but on our second ride, we had a slight weight imbalance on either side which caused the car to tip backwards slightly as it travelled up the lift... We then experienced what I can literally only describe as TOTALLY INSANE, in fact ABOVE AND BEYOND INSANE: this time we navigated the whole course largely upside-down - laughing all the way, and even eliciting a round of applause from the car in front as we struggled to turn the right way up on our return to the brake run! What an incredible ride - words alone cannot describe the experience! Now I completely understand the 'What just happened?!?!' captions from the TPR Scandi '09 trip photos! You NEED to ride this to fully understand!! Jetline So smooth, so fast, so forceful!! How can this ride have been built in 1988?! These Schwarzkopf coasters continually astonish me - what an incredible ride, made all the more amazing by the mass of track from the other coasters surrounding it and the incredible views. A great, great ride! Vilda Musen This Gerstlauer Bobsled is, again, completely intertwined with the other coasters - particularly Jetline. It's fast, there's lots to it, and it all takes place very high up - definitely one of the better Bobsled coasters out there! Kvasten This Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster was really fun too - and we loved the "Welcome to Kvasten" announcements in the queue! There was so much freedom of movement with these restraints too - which definitely added to the theme of flying on a Broomstick ('Kvasten') - and we got to fly over Twister and Jetline too! Blå Tåget This Ghost Train has recently been completely refurbished (due to the construction of Twister). Gröna Lund have done a great job in producing a new, very modern take on the old classic ghost train design - this was really fun! There really are so many top class rides in this park! Spökhuset The others will have to tell you about the haunted house walk-through because I was too afraid to do it but I will say that I loved the fact that the actors kept coming out of the house, climbing around in front of the entrance and sneaking up on and terrifying quite a lot of on-lookers! Ryan made good friends with a couple of them! Like I say, I can't wait to get back to Gröna Lund - if you've never been, add it to your list of places you HAVE to go to!! Liseberg Very early on Sunday morning, we all met up at Stockholm Central train station and took the SJ X2000 train over to Göteborg / Gothenburg Central. The journey is normally just over 3 hours, although due to planned engineering work, it took 4 hours. We then took a Spårvägen / Tram (hopping off to drop our luggage off at our hotel) down to the Korsvägen stop and walked the short distance to Liseberg's entrance. Although the weather wasn't necessarily in our favour, we again had an amazing day! Another city-centre park which, again, adds to the atmosphere, much of Liseberg is set on a steep hill, which has allowed for rides with really unique opportunities. And it has Balder!! Balder Our first ride was good, although we knew it was capable of so much more - the wind was pretty high, which I don't think helped. Thankfully (and maybe because of the rain and the high winds dying down) Balder reached closer to its true potential towards the end of the day, and we were able to maximise our airtime opportunities over and over and over again thanks to light crowds by that point! What an exceptional ride Balder is - I love it!! We only lament that there are still just 4 Intamin plug-and-play woodies in the world. A tragedy!! I'm still not sure which I prefer the most - GeForce or Balder; although I'll be able to tell you in 6 weeks' time when I ride GeForce again. Hans will also be able to compare it to El Toro very soon too! Atmosfear I will freely admit that I was absolutely terrified of this ride, right up until the moment it dropped - at which point, I loved it!! It's quite simple - take Europe's tallest drop tower, put it on the top of an already large hill, add in a (new-style Intamin) restraint which makes you feel incredibly vulnerable, hoist the riders up to the top and watch even the most seasoned coaster rider TOTALLY FREAK OUT!! But, oh - what a drop! If you've been to Liseberg before and ridden the observation tower, try to remember just how high up you felt at the top, and then you'll get the picture!! Lisebergbanan Again, so smooth, so fast and so forceful!! (Especially so in the rain - which made it all the more intense!) How can this have opened up in 1987? Anton Schwarzkopf's favourite, Lisebergbanan, makes excellent use of Liseberg's unique hill terrain. And I really like the theming to Liseberg Stop C! (Stops A and B are located outside the front of the park on Gothenburg's Spårvägen network) Although do look out for the 'Broms' (brakes) at the end!! Kanonen Incredibly compact, Kanonen has a fun launch and then speeds like a Knex coaster through its inversions, twists and bunny hills! They've certainly managed to pack a large number of elements into a very small space! Spök Hotell Gasten True to form, I didn't do Hotell Gasten this time - mainly because after having done it in 2009, I decided that I'm far too easily scared by these walk-throughs! Film I made a short film of our weekend using a couple of my funny Japanese toy cameras! Enjoy! Pictures from us all will follow shortly! All the best, and thanks to Ryan, Russ & Stacey, Anth, Dave & Amy, Hans, Nathan, Gröna Lund and Liseberg for a fantastic weekend! Tack!! Robin

^ Agreed - I love Twister!! Full report coming very soon!

I have to admit that I quite often go straight to the forums rather than the front page... I'm usually directed to any major updates / trip reports via being on the forum so much / your update e-mails / Facebook status updates from you / other TPR friends that I tend not to always look at the front page. However, I am aware that having a trip report featured on the front page brings a huge amount of extra views. As it is, I'm not sure that it's 'broken', so I've voted accordingly. Robin

Interesting new article... At least it doesn't sound like there was another explosion, although the part flying off does sound a bit odd. Maybe we will see this open later this year after all!

It's interesting that the article quoted states that tests will be resuming after the VLN championship currently taking place at the Nürburgring... and that the ride should be opening in July this year. Can you imagine either of these things happening after 3 explosions now? That surely has to be a really hard-sell to TüV (the German safety authority)!

That's a LOT of posts! Congratulations Robb, Elissa and everyone involved in the running of the forums!

Andy's given you pretty much all the info you need! I'll add that finding the bus stop from Stoke on Trent station to Alton Towers is very easy - Go out of the front of Stoke on Trent station. On the same side of the road as you are on (and to your left) there is a bus stop. This is your bus stop! Useful bus information for the route can be found here: http://www.traveline.info One bus (bus 15 last time I went) takes 45 minutes to Alton Towers and stops at the hotels as well as the front of the park. Another bus (bus 14 last time I went) takes longer because it stops off at local villages along the way. Alton Towers isn't really in a residential area - more like in the middle of nowhere! So, it's good that you're staying at the Splash Landings hotel. The train from Stoke on Trent terminates at London Euston station as Andy says. This is actually just down the road from St Pancras station and is even walkable (take a look on Google maps). Allow enough time to make your connection from the return bus to your Stoke - London train (this train journey takes about 2 hours usually) and then to get to Euston - St Pancras with enough time to 'check-in' for your Eurostar journey. I've never been to Disneyland Paris by Eurostar, but I'm sure the Eurostar website has info on their special direct trains. I'm sure you've already figured out that when the train tickets first go on sale they will be cheap (but you have to specify fixed train times to get the lowest fares) and then they quickly go up in price! Robin

This book was mentioned on a recent 'Season Pass' podcast when they interviewed Steve Alcorn (worth checking out in itself) and it was also mentioned by Simon Baynham in the 'Coaster Books' thread here on TPR: http://www.amazon.com/Theme-Park-Design-Behind-Engineer/dp/1456309722/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303944291&sr=8-1 Take a look, maybe.

Having started this thread 5 1/2 years ago, I'm embarrassed to say that between then and now I got a copy (in German) on eBay pretty cheap whilst your backs were turned...