Barge84

The only one I can compare it to is Xcelerator (I think that still has t-bars?), which I didn't have any issues with. I haven't been on any of the other megalites though. Piraten is the only T-Bar I've seen where the restraint had to be set at a lower level. MF and others don't seem to be as strict, but Piraten's seat belt was also a lot bigger than MF and Xcelerator. So it's 6 of one, 1/2 dozen of the other in my opinion. Juvelin was a nightmare for me. I'm 6'6" and have big thighs, and I could barely get out of the seat. My legs were pretty heavily bruised after that ride.

^ Thanks. That's about the only thing I could find on the internet, but we'll be there on a Saturday. I'm fine paying full price because I love the park, but my friend isn't as willing as I am.

I'd say: Skyrush post-lift neuter I-305 Maverick Mega-Lite Skyrush today Skyrush 2012 (destroyed my thighs, but I also didn't know how to ride it back then)

I've searched the forum and the web, but I'm not having much luck. Does anyone know of any discounts for 1 day tickets at SDC?

Unfortunately, that's the hill I'm thinking of. It was basically reduced to a small floater air hill. I remembered the ending always being some of the craziest air, even the 2 small hills that came after that used to produce something. Maybe we were there at a bad time, but it definitely wasn't the same ride that I've loved in the past.

I could definitely feel the one by the Stengel Dive, and I'd never noticed them in the past. I even loved it last season when they slowed the lift hill down. It just felt a lot different to me this year. No air time at all on the last couple of hills near the brake run, and those used to be pretty intense. It's still in my top 5 steel, but nowhere near what it used to be. I probably had about 7 or 8 rides in the 2 days we were there, and it was pretty much the same experience each time.

The weather was pretty much perfect. The ride had a really bad rattle as well. I noticed the new trims, and I think that's why the ending is so lackluster now. Hopefully they tone the brakes down a bit next season, but I doubt they will. ***Edit: I wouldn't say they were bad rides, but it just wasn't the same OMG awesome ride that it used to be.

Wood - Back seat of El Toro Steel - Skyrush. Any seat.

As others have mentioned, it should be fine. I was there on Sunday with TPR and it was running really well. It did go down for a couple of hours at one point, but was running again in the evening.

Having just returned from the East Coast trip, I have to echo this. Skyrush was my #1 steel, but it just wasn't the same this year. The drop is still great and the first half of the ride is awesome, but the ending was really slow and disappointing. The back row used to deliver some absolutely insane rides, but it really left me feeling unsatisfied. The front was still pretty great, though. Lots of airtime.

Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. I thought the glow ride in 2012 would never be topped, but this did it! Phoenix was kicking all sorts of ass on Friday night. I can't believe it actually started smoking because it was running so fast! Can we go back to Knoebels now?

^ you can show them to me in a couple of hours!

I'd say that it's closest to Expedition Everest. Verbolten is a great ride, and a really nice starter coaster for someone new to the hobby. I think it's my favorite family coaster. She could also give Lochness Monster a try if she's ok with inversions. I'd also try to get her to ride Apollo's Chariot, because it's not all that intense, but gives a great ride.

Thanks, everyone! I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the next update finished before I leave for Mini East Coast on Wednesday, so it might be awhile before my next update. Thanks for being patient!

Day 3 – Bakken and Copenhagen at Night After an eventful first day and another night of very little sleep, we had to be downstairs in the lobby around 9:30 AM. A crowd started forming a little earlier than that (Rule #1 on TPR trips… ALWAYS BE ON TIME!), and we were all just standing around talking. Ross decided to wear my favorite shirt of his today… Bears. Always talking about Bears... A few minutes before we were going to leave, Jolie (mappingcat) walked up to me and asked if I was Thad. I said yes, and she said, “You might want this.” It was my passport. It had apparently fallen out on the stairs of the hotel. Wow. The day hadn’t even started yet, and I’ve already been a moron. Thanks for finding my passport, Jolie!! I quickly ran it up to the room (it was almost 9:30) and put it in the safe. When I got back downstairs, the group was already walking towards the buses. Luckily, I caught up with the group in time. Whew! We had another double decker bus today, so everyone piled on and we took off. It took about 30 minutes to drive to the park, and it was nice getting to ride the bus around Copenhagen, seeing parts of the city that I hadn’t seen yet. When we arrived, we were greeted at the entrance to the park and they invited us in. Bakken is a very different park than what I’m used to in the USA. First off, it claims to be the oldest park in the world, opening in 1583. This park is almost 200 years older than America! There’s no admission to the park, so you just walk through the entrance and you’re on your way. People can buy ride bracelets, and pay for each ride or get an unlimited pass for the day. The park had a really interesting vibe… You could tell that the locals loved coming here to hang out on the weekend. There’s a ton of restaurants and bars inside the park, so it’s almost more of an entertainment district instead of just an amusement park. I’m not sure what it is with Scandinavia, but they love building parks on top of hills. Bakken was no exception. We walked all the way up the hill, and then made our way over to Rutschebanen, the oldest coaster in the park. This is where our ERT would begin. We were met by the ride’s caretaker, Jens, who’s worked on the ride for 17 years. Rutschebanen translates to “Roller Coaster”, so it’s a pretty exciting name for a ride. It’s a side friction wooden roller coaster, built in 1932. In case you don’t know what side friction means, it’s basically a ride that doesn’t have any wheels underneath the track (upstop wheels) to keep the ride from flying off the tracks. Most of the side friction rides run with an actual brakeman, who rides on the train with the other riders. They manually control the brakes, slowing it down when it’s running too fast. Bakken replaced their classic trains with updated trains that control the brakes using a computer. That means no more brakeman. Sadness. Having never been on a ride with a brakeman, it was disappointing to hear that they’d done away with that classic touch. We were escorted inside the coaster’s layout, into a private area that parks guests never get to see. They had a courtyard, with fountains and old version of the train. There’s also a house inside of the courtyard, where 2 of the employees live. This is so that they can always be around to work on the ride. Insane! Jens explained the ride to us, including the history of how it was built. Then he fielded some Q&A. I’m usually not too interested in the Q&A session on trips, so I started investigating the courtyard a little more. Rutschebanen entrance The old train Close up House where the employees live Nerd gathering (me included) More of the courtyard Ross, Steve and Shawn hanging out during the Q&A. The picture was originally supposed to be Steve and Shawn since they were wearing hats, but Ross decided he needed to be part of this. This is the last time you'll ever see Steve in that hat. He lost it soon afterwards. I was thirsty After everyone nerded out and got their questions answered, it was time to start ERT on Rutschebanen and Tornado! It seemed like the entire group wanted to ride Rutschebanen first, so our group headed over to ride Tornado. Tornado is basically a spinning wild mouse, but it’s absolutely insane! Today our group consisted of: Me, Ross, Shawn, Joe, Steve, Priscella, Chris, Jere, Alan (clarinetman) and Cary (CaryB). There were a few others that would join up with us for a ride or two, but this was our core group for the day. When we got to the Tornado station, they told us to walk up the exit ramp. One of the TPR members was trying to get buckled in, but couldn’t get it the seatbelt to connect. The ride op looked at him and said, “You don’t need it.” He sent their train out. Europe! Being a bigger guy, I was worried about some of the rides in Europe, because people are much smaller than they are in the USA. I can say that I didn’t have any issues on the roller coasters this trip, which pretty much never happens. Needless to say, I was very surprised about the more forgiving seat restraints over there! Tornado This thing is insane! Tornado was built by Intamin, so we had a feeling it was going to be good. This was easily the best spinning ride I’ve ever been on! The lift hill moves at a ridiculously high rate of speed. It moves so fast that it basically launches you over the top, and creates one of the craziest first drops I’ve experienced on any coaster. Our first train had me, Cary, Steve and Priscella on it. It was nuts! Not knowing anything about the ride, I was shocked when we flew up the lift hill like it was nothing. As the train crested, we all were taken off guard by the intensity of the first drop! We were thrown over the top like we’d been shot out of a cannon. Our entire train was laughing/screaming throughout the whole ride, and we spun like I’ve never spun before. Amazing ride! I can’t believe more parks haven’t installed one of these! A line was starting to form now that the others group member had started showing up. We decided it was time to give Rutschebanen a few rides. By the time we made our way back to Rutschebanen, the station had cleared out for the most part. Our group filled in wherever there were openings, and boarded the next train that came in. I chose to go near the back. After pulling the restraints down, we were sent on our way. Rutschebanen has one of the strangest lift hills I’ve ever seen. It actually curves slightly back and forth as you’re being pulled up. It also has a cable lift, and it moves pretty fast as well. I’m not sure if this was a new addition in 2010, because I can’t imagine this was the original lift from the 1930’s. For the most part, the ride seemed pretty tame. There were a few pops of airtime, but nothing too crazy. It was very smooth, and for the most part was an enjoyable ride. Many people said that it was definitely watered down compared to the 2005 and 2009 trips. What a shame. Still, a fun ride, but I wish I could’ve ridden it in its former glory. We rode it several times, trying out various seats. I found the front seat to be the best, giving more airtime than any other seat that I’d encountered. Oh, and I know most of you have seen the infamous tunnel on this ride, but just in case you haven’t, I’ve attached Theme Park Review’s picture. World's best tunnel. Photo belongs to Theme Park Review. We took a little break to have some water and sit down for a minute. Someone had some sort of taffy or candy (Steve?), and I tried some. It was delicious! After the break, we wanted to ride Tornado one more time. This time we tried to make it go off balance. Steve and I rode on one side because we’re both big guys, and Joe and Priscella rode on the other side. The first drop was even crazier this time! I couldn’t even control my body because of the forces. My arms and legs both flew straight forward, and I ended up kicking Joe pretty hard. Sorry, Joe! I couldn’t help it! We didn’t spin a whole lot, though, so our over-balance experiment was a failure. Even with less spinning, it was still a great ride! Waiting for another ride on Tornado The rest of the park was getting set to open, so our group walked over to the park’s wild mouse, Der Vilde Mus (can anyone translate?), so we could ride it before the line was too long. Apparently everyone else from the trip had the same thought. There were already about 20 people waiting in line when we got there. We waited about 10 minutes before they opened the ride, and only had to wait a few minutes before we were boarding the train. This was a pretty standard wild mouse, but less painful for me than most of them, so that’s a plus in my book! Der Vilde Mus (Thanks to Garbels for the picture) Ross, Me, Joe and Jere on the Der Vilde Mus (Shawn's picture, thanks!) We continued walking around the park in a clockwise pattern, hoping to get in all of the roller coasters before lunch. Bakken has a cool coaster called Racing, which is an old Flitzer. When I was really young, probably about 8 or 9 my family made its first trip to Adventureland in Des Moines. They had a Flitzer, but I was too scared to go on it. It was nice to finally get to ride on of these, since I’ve always regretted being a chicken when I was younger. The train looks like a race car, and you sit down on a bench type seat. You can cram 2 adults into a car, but it’s not very comfortable. The ride doesn’t even have a seat belt, you just hold on to the bars! It was a really fun little ride! Racing Steve in his race car Hi Garbels... Shawn and Ross. How cute, they got a pink one! How fitting... Chris/Soupy (COASTER FREAK 11) Once we all finished riding Racing, it was off to find something else to ride. Just walking around Bakken is fun. The park is really nice, and has lots of interesting places to eat and drink. Not to mention, some downright wacky games to play. We saw one where you sit on a toilet, and have to spray water into a hole in order to make the game work. They LOVE potty humor in Scandinavia! Random shops/food stands Beer! Toilet seat game. Someone in our group mentioned that they’d heard the funhouse was a can’t miss attraction, so we wanted to check it out. The only funhouse I ever remember going through was the one that would come to the Dubuque County Fair every summer when I was a kid, and it was pretty lame. Pretty much every park that we visited on this trip had a funhouse, and most of them were really well done! I think Bakken’s might have been my favorite of all of them. It was really well themed and had a ton of different rooms to walk through. It had all the tricks you need in a funhouse… Moving walkways, the rolling barrel thing, slanted room, the tunnel that you walk through and it makes you think the room is spinning. Yep, this one had everything. I wish I’d taken some pictures inside of it, but we were so busy goofing around and having fun, that I didn’t even think of it. I nearly got stuck trying to climb into one of the slides, right after I told Steve that it wasn’t that hard to climb into. Sometimes I forget I’m not a normal sized person! Can we get some more funhouses in America, please? The outside of the funhouse, with a ton of sunshine. We kept walking in a circle, and part of the group was very interested in doing one of the flat rides that we were walking by. It was called Polyp, and it’s basically a cross of a scrambler with a monster/octopus ride. The ride spun in a circle, like a scrambler, with each arm also lifting up and down at the same time. Along with that, your ride car also spun separately. Essentially, you were spinning 3 different ways, and most of us loved it! Some people, like Alan, don’t like spinning so they sat this one out. We ended up riding it again later in the day because we enjoyed it so much. Polypp Starting to bounce now I'm ready! (Ross's picture. Thanks!) Another can’t miss attraction is the old school dark ride called Spogelsestoget. You get in your little buggy and ride through mostly dark scenes. Personally, I don’t like these things. I just hate being scared, so I’m constantly freaking out on these rides. About halfway through the ride, I nearly pissed my pants when the scare actor jumped out at me. I’m pretty sure I yelled, “Holy s**t!” and got a laugh out of him. The rest of the ride was pretty standard, but well done. I made the mistake of letting my group know how much I hate those kinds of rides. Thad Rule #2 of TPR trips… Don’t let anyone know what you’re afraid of. I made that mistake last year when we had a bunch of Star Flyers on the trip. Those things scare the crap out of me, and I was somehow forced into riding several of them. Never again… Spooky Since we were right next to the 5D Cinema, we wanted to give it a try. Plain and simple, this thing was awful. For most of the show, you couldn’t see anything out of the right eye of your glasses. I can’t even explain how bad it was, so I’m not even going to waste time trying. Skip it if you’re ever there. It’s a huge waste of time. Conversely, the Crazy Theater was a very fun and interesting attraction. The room is full of horses that everyone climbs on top of. You have a gun and a scoreboard, and you have to shoot different targets on the screen. We had a lot of fun, but it’s obvious that you want to be in the front row if you’re hoping for a high score. Unfortunately, Aussie Steve had the highest score, so we had to deal with him being insufferable for the rest of the day. Of course, he also made backhanded comments about thinking he’d take last since Americans love their guns so much. It’s a fun attraction, and we made sure to do these at any park that offered them, even though it was the same ride at each park. We still had a little time before lunch at 1 pm, so we pushed forward. One of the more unique attractions was Dillen. Apparently, most of the Legoland parks have a version of these themed to Jet Skis, but I’d never seen one before. This was themed to Alligators for unknown reasons. Guests board their own alligator, and the ride spins in a circle over water. It reminded me of a Whip crossed with Flyers. You could control the speed of your alligator by turning the wheel, so if you timed it right you could snap into a turn and cause water to fly everywhere. This was another really fun attraction, and once again we rode it a second time later in the evening. Chris and Alan riding their alligators That's me on my gator! (Thanks for the picture, Steve) Our final ride before lunch time was the last “real” coaster credit in the park, Mine Train Ulven. This doesn’t look like much, but it really packs a punch for a small mine train ride. A lot of people compare it to Skull Mountain at SFGAdv, but I thought this was a much better ride. It was surprisingly long and it had some decent forces on the helix. It’s one of the better family coasters I’ve been on! This was another ride that we hit up again later in the day. Mine Train Ulven After riding the mine train, we made our way across to the park so we could meet up with the rest of the group for lunch. We were served a buffet with a decent variety of park food and local cuisine. Lots of options on this one, so I think everyone found at least something that they wanted to eat. We hung out for a bit after lunch, trying to decide what we were going to do next. Joe’s ankle was really bothering him, so he said he was just going to sit there for awhile and meet up with us later. Bakken definitely isn’t a park that I’d want to traverse with a sprained ankle. Too hilly! Poor Joe! The rest of our group said goodbye and headed towards another pathetic kiddie credit. I stood on and watched while my friends rode the ladybug coaster. I’m pretty sure if the train looks like a lady bug, you shouldn’t be riding it! Priscilla and Jere Jere, Cary and Steve Priscilla, Jere trying to be cool (he's not), Cary Cary, Steve and Shawn Joe actually ended up meeting us at the kiddie credit, and told us to let him know where we were going so he could meet up with us after he was finished riding. It sounded like the park was going to offer up a special ride for TPR members. We were supposed to meet over at Extreme, and they’d run the ride on its most insane ride cycle. I sat this one out, because the normal cycle already looked crazy enough. I’m glad I passed, because this thing was crazy! It was easily the most insane ride that I saw on the entire trip. Looking back, I wish I would’ve done it, but I guess I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life. Extreme was intense After watching my friend get tossed around like socks in the laundry, our group worked its way back one of the park’s newest rides. It’s a flat ride that rises about 50 feet in the air and spins in a circle. Each person has their own plane, and you can control how much it rotates right or left by messing with the flaps on each side of your seat. Some people would get it spinning right away, and have some really awesome ride. I didn’t get the hang of it until the very end, getting mine to turn upside down a couple of times, but I couldn’t get a complete revolution. It was another really unique and fun attraction that I’d like to see some more of over here in the states. Spinning plane ride Someone has it figured out! A lot of the group was leaving the park in the next 30-45 minutes because they were going to do the ropes course that evening. A lot of my group didn’t sign up for it, so we’d planned on just riding the train back to our hotel when we were finished with the park. Some people wanted to take a break and grab a beer, so we found a little café that had outdoor seating. Cary bought a huge beer that I believe cost somewhere around $35 USD. He didn’t seem to mind, though, since he’s a pretty big fan of beer. Cary took off after he finished drinking, because he was heading to the ropes course with the rest of the tour. When we’d had enough drinks and rest, it was off to try out some other rides and hit some of our favorites again. I always check the tables before we leave to make sure that no one forgot anything, and luckily I noticed that Cary had left his backpack on his seat when he left. I shot Robb a note to tell him that I had it, and was a really nice guy and carried it around the rest of the day for him. See, I’m not always a jerk! Our group had been reduced to me, Joe, Steve, Priscella and Chris at this point, but we made the most of it. We made Joe go through the funhouse since he’d missed it earlier. I don’t think it was the best choice for his bum ankle, but we still had fun! Bakken also had some of the inflatable bumper cars, so we did that next. They weren’t as good as the one at Sommerland Sjallend, but it was still OK. Right next door was the S&S Double Shot tower. Priscella sat this one out, and the rest of us hopped on since the line was only about 10 minutes long. This thing had some serious kick to it! We got launched, and hit the peak of the tower. We were going so fast that all of us were thrown up into our restraints! Probably the best pop of air I’d ever had on one of these. We even got thrown out of our seats again the second time we bounced up to the top! This ride was great! Ready to be launched We started re-riding some of our favorites in the park, and also decided that it might be a good time to start thinking about dinner. Unfortunately, none of the sit down restaurants had English menus displayed, so it was hard to determine what each place was serving. We kept walking, and eventually went by a burger stand that smelled delicious! While we were staring at the menu, one of the locals came up and told us that this was the best thing to eat in the entire park. They were also eating one of the burgers, so that sold us! We found a table that was tucked away from the rest of the crowd (the park was packed by this point!). The local was right, these burgers were delicious! We sat and talked some more, while some people got some ice cream or coffee for dessert. We decided that we’d done everything that we wanted to, and it was time to figure out how to get back to the hotel. Here are a few random shots of the park from throughout the day. What the hell is this? A cannibal ice cream cone? Very strange. Swan ride. I'd never seen one of these in person! Creepy clown. Why do all the parks here have clowns?!?! Bakken's exit. What a fun day! Do you remember how much trouble I had getting from the airport to the Central Station on my first day? Well, this trip went about as well. Bakken isn’t really close to anything, from what I could tell. In order to get to the train station, you had to walk through an enormous park. We kept stopping strangers and asking them if we were heading in the right direction. A few minutes later, we finally found the train station. Great, we just need to buy our tickets and we’ll be on our way! Well, as usual, the ticket purchasing didn’t go as well as we’d hoped. We couldn’t tell which ticket we needed to buy, or what train we needed to get on. After wasting a ton of time, someone was finally nice enough to come over and help us. Seriously, people are so friendly in Europe! Thank goodness for that. We finally found our train, and we were off. The train was pretty empty, and it gave us some nice views of the city. Chris has apparently never ridden on a train before, because when the ticket checker walked through our cabin, he had no idea what he did with his. After about 2 minutes of him checking his pockets, the lady just shook her head and walked away, never coming back. Nice work, Chris! Stupid American tourist… Walking through the park Copenhagen Copenhagen Copenhagen Copenhagen Central Station Central Station Central Station We beat most of the group back to the hotel, and some of us met outside in the courtyard so we could hang out. No one really wanted to do much that night, even after the rest of the group came back. Steve and I decided to take a walk around town to see the sights. Copenhagen is a really beautiful city. It’s clean, has beautiful architecture and the people are just so nice. We spent about 2 hours walking around and chatting. It was a nice way to end such a fun day. On the way pack we passed by Tivoli Gardens all lit up for the evening. It’s such a gorgeous park, and I couldn’t wait for our group to visit it the next morning. Walking around LEGO Disney Store Cool plaza area Starting to get dark. Copenhagen Another side street There were a bunch of classic American cars driving around for some reason. Copenhagen Statue Beautiful Copenhagen Copenhagen Not sure what this was Tivoli at night All in all, I really enjoyed Bakken. It had some of the best flat rides of the trip, and each of their coasters was unique in its own special way. I think I really loved the vibe the most. There was just a ton of energy in the park, and you could tell that the locals loved coming there and hanging out. What a great first (official) day of the trip!

Day 2 - Sommerland Sjaelland (Add-On Park) After some sleep, it was time to get up and head to the trip's add-on park, Sommerland Sjaelland. I have absolutely no idea how to say that second word, so don't bother asking. To be honest, I only decided to do this park because it seemed like everyone else on the trip was going. I figured, why not? It's better than walking around the city by myself all day. At a wedding in April, Steve, Priscella and Joe all told me that they weren't doing it. Great, I just spent a bunch of money for some kiddie park! I could've just slept in! Oh well, I've already paid, so I might as well go. The bus left around 8 or 8:30, if I remember correctly. Since the entire group wasn't going, we didn't need 2 buses. A double decker tour bus showed up, and we all hopped on. For most of my last 2 TPR trips, Ross has been my seat buddy. Let's discuss Ross... He's honestly one of the most kind hearted people I've ever met, and he's got an amazing sense of humor. (start with some compliments...) Ross works as a flight attendant, and lives in Australia. He's a big fan of "bears", as I'm sure will be discussed at some point in this trip report. He knows nothing about roller coasters. I don't think I know anyone that enjoys eating ice cream as much as he does. He's perfected the art of the selfie. Oh, and finally, he has the most foul, vulgar mouth of any person I've ever met. I'm pretty filthy, but he says things that would make a porn star blush. Let's just say he provides a lot of entertainment for me and pretty much the entire bus during long trips. He's also been known to cause people to leave our bus and move to the other because they get offended. For example, every morning Robb would ask Ross what the word of the day was. I'd guess that about 70% of the time it's was c**t. Now, in America that's basically worse than most of the four letter variety, but apparently in Australia it's used in every other sentence. So, if you're ever on a TPR trip with Ross, and he's on your bus, you've been warned! Bus buddies! Jeremiah and Nicole getting some sleep! After about a 90 minute drive, we pulled off the road in the middle of nowhere. There it was, in the middle of a field. I saw a tiny parking lot, and a front entrance. That was it. What the hell was I doing coming to this place? I'm going to be bored out of my mind! I was dead. Wrong. While it's definitely intended for a younger audience, they had some really cool things for it being a small, family owned park. Actually, I shouldn't say that it's small because Sommerland Sjaelland is ENORMOUS! I was shocked at all of the different areas they had. The owner, Kare, was standing outside waiting for us. Kare was nice enough to open the park for just our group! He welcomed us to his park, and invited us inside to discuss the future of the park. It sounds like he's got a lot of ideas for the park (more on that later). A nice little park entrance Kare greets the group Future plans Kare escorted us into the park, stopping to point out some things of interest. The park's newest addition was the driving school academy. They've had one for awhile, but they completely overhauled it, including adding some new cars. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of it, so I'm borrowing Nicole's (MoonCadet), because it's awesome! That's a heck of a playground! Vildkatten. We'll come back for this later. Nicole being awesome! Further and further we walked, into an area with a lot of really small rides, clearly built for children under the age of 6 (hint, hint). Up front... wait a minute! What's that?!? Oh no. It can't be A Wacky Worm clown? It even had clown shoes It's a Wacky Worm. Themed to a clown. I loathe clowns, they scare the crap out of me. Great. For all the crap I give people about riding kiddie coasters, I have ridden one Wacky Worm. I was trying to be nice to my friend, Brad, at Lake Winnie. He didn't have anyone else to ride with. I told him I'd go on it to make him look a little less creepy. As we crested the lift hill, about 15 of my friends came around the corner. All I heard was, "Thad's on the Wacky Worm!" in an Australian accent. Yep, Aussie Steve and several others saw me, and have never let me live it down. With that said, here are some nerds riding this one. Lee, Chris, Holger. Nerd, nerd, nerd. Gus, Daron, Bob. Nerd, nerd, nerd. Victor. Nerd. Now get this. Kidtums, Robb and Elissa's 7(?) year old daughter came over and sat with me on the bench. She didn't want to ride it! When Robb told her she was going to be in the video, she ended up ditching me. Understandable. They started up another ride for us, and I thought it would be fun to ride this spinning Tugboat thing, but I was wrong. It was pretty lame. Spinning Tugboat Thing After all of the excitement was over, the owner told us we could wander around and check out the self-operated rides. They had a chair lift, that after you sat in it, you hit a button and started the ride. The restraint didn't lock, they just trusted that you'd be intelligent enough to not be stupid. This could never happen in America. The park would get sued in about 2 hours, I'd guess.The cable would lift up in the air, and your chair would roll backwards down the zip line. When you got to the end of the line, the starting point automatically lowered so you could roll back. You would get caught, then the ride would repeat. At the end, you were lowered down, and you let yourself off. Cool and super easy, right? David on the chairlift Well, for everyone but me. I climbed in, hit the button and off I went. Sliding down the line backwards, just like you're supposed to. When I got the end, the line lowered. After a few seconds I noticed that I was going pretty fast. As I reached the end, I slammed into the catching mechanism. My chair swung pretty far forward, then it swung back. The momentum caused me to break free from the mechanism. I slowly rolled backwards. The cable lifted up again, but because I wasn't at the top of the line to begin with, I didn't have enough momentum to reach the end of the line. Because of this, when the cable lowered again, I didn't have enough momentum to get back to the starting point, and I valleyed. After sitting there for about 5 seconds, I started to panic internally. How in the hell was I getting off this ride? Of course, everyone is just standing there laughing their asses off. I finally said, "Can someone walk out here and get me?" I completely forgot that the ride would lower itself again. I'd like to go a day without embarrassing myself on this trip. 0 for 2 so far! Can someone please help me? Since I'd had enough "fun" on the chairlift, we started heading over towards the area where lunch would be served. Before we got there, the owner stopped some of us to show off some of the technology he'd installed at the park. In the lake, there was a pirate ship, and you could control it through text messages. He could set cannons off, smoke, and a few other things. It was really cool! You could just see how proud of the park Kare was, and today was a chance for him to show it off. Pirate Ship! We walked over to the Wild West area. Awesome! An American themed Wild West area. How cool!!! That's crazy that they'd have an American themed area in a park in Denmark. Fast forward 3 weeks, and after seeing a Wild West themed land in just about every damn park in Scandinavia, I hope I never see another Wild West themed area! I'll admit that this park's was really nice, especially considering they built everything on their own. Wild wild west!!! Panning for gold Pretty well done! Sure, it's not Disney. One of the rides in that area was a self-operated horse ride. You got on the horse, then pulled the cable, and the horse took off. What a great park for kids! It went around on the track and the horses bounced up and down. Inside the station there were some animatronic talking chickens. Yes, I meant to say talking. They spoke like people. Welcome to Europe! Horse ride entrance Hop on, pull the cord and go! I must have been stalking Victor. Talking chickens! It was time for lunch over at the saloon. The park went all out. They had a buffet with a ton of different options. Chicken, pork ribs, sides, etc. It was great! Free beer, too! I passed, but plenty of others enjoyed a cold one. The owner spoke to us again while we ate. He told us about the water cannons that can be controlled from a website, so you can sit in your cubicle and spray people in the wading pool at the water park. Kare also told us about how you can take some gold home with you while you're visiting the park. Huh? Yep, he actually buried real gold in several places throughout the park. I believe that there were 3 or 4 still remaining. If you turn it in, he pays you cash, right on the spot. One of the craziest ideas I've ever heard of, but I guess it gives people a reason to come back! Saloon entrance This was the health inspection sheet. They rate you by smiley faces. I don't remember the confederacy being in the wild west After lunch, Kare wanted to show us the rest of the park. On the way to the waterpark, I saw a small graveyard, so I walked over. There were some interesting tombstones, to say the least! OK Mr. T is dead?!? I laughed Ummmmmm... He stopped at the water park, and showed us how you can operate the water cannons. This guy has some really cool ideas! Hopefully his park starts getting more attention. The water park looked like it has some fun slides, but we weren't going to get a chance to check it out today. Water cannon I zoomed in with my sweet phone for this picture Looks like a fun water park! We continued by the lake where you can go canoeing. One of the employees told me that when they walk out in waders in the morning to retrieve the boats, some of the other employees set the cannons off on the pirate ship so they get splashed! Canoes The next thing we came upon was a giant cannon, and 2 guys sitting in chairs by it. Wait, was this a human cannonball show? I've never seen one of those! OMG! HUMAN CANNONBALL!!!! We continued on to the go-kart track, which was open for us. The line was pretty long, so Kare told us we could go anywhere in the back of the park. I decided to keep moving forward to see what else they had. After walking a little, I realized that I'd completely lost my group. I looked over at an island, and Ross was standing on it by himself. Wanting to know what he was doing, I yelled "What the hell are you doing over there?" He replied, "There's cute little bunnies over here! Come look!" I just kept walking. Stupid rabbits Go karts The park put in a jungle themed land, and they really went all out. The first thing we saw was a jungle boat ride. On the way to the entrance, there were several empty cages and other decorations. All of the sudden, we heard people laughing. I looked over and there was an animatronic man that vomited every 15 seconds. Since I have the mind of a 12 year old, I thought this was one of the funniest things that I'd ever seen. It even dry heaved! You're in luck, I just happen to have a video of it! I know. I'm pathetic. After I regained my composure, a few of us hopped on one of the self-operated jungle cruise boats. Once again, this was all done in-house, so I'll give them kudos for what they did with a small budget. There's a lot of crazy crap going on as well. Monkeys in the jungle boat ride station Kare greets the group More monkeys King Kong Yep, they're dead I don't know what this was supposed to be What the hell is going on with this ride? Oh, that's just the most terrifying thing I've ever seen. No big deal. Another goner Next up was the park's obstacle course. It seemed like just about every park had some sort of course on the trip. And some of these were legitimately difficult. Sommerland Sjaelland's course was easily one of the best that I saw on this trip. They even had 2 different paths, so if you wanted to skip something, you could just walk on by. Now, I'm 6'6" and wear size 15 shoes. How well do you think I do on balance beams? Yeah, you guessed it. I definitely took the easy way out on just about any balancing obstacle. About 1/2 way through, they had this random photo opportunity, so of course we had to do it. I'm a cheetah! Stacy is a warthog! Awwwww. Get moving, guys! One of the obstacles that drew a crowd was the rope swing over the water. Now, I knew within 5 seconds of seeing this that: 1. There was no way I was doing it. 2. Someone was going to fall in. 3. I should start recording this. Here's Bob(gisco) giving it a shot. Nice work! OK, how about Dan(CoasterFEV)? Woah, that was close. At this point, I'd filmed about 6 or 7 people. I announced that I wasn't leaving until someone fell in. Then this happened!! Sorry, Jeremiah(Homeboy23)! Time for someone else to embarrass themselves! I'm just glad it wasn't me for once! We actually spent a ton of time in the Jungle area. We finally decided to head to front of the park, because they were going to open Vildkatten, their other roller coaster, for us. While walking back, a crowd had gathered near the human cannon. I got all excited! Was I going to get to see this actually happen?!? Alas, he had already done it. I got to hear how great it was from everyone else. Some day, human cannonball. Some day. As we continued our walk to the front, I noticed a strange little statue. It was supposed to signify the Mens restroom, but it looked like Abraham Lincoln taking a crap. It even had its pants down. Such a strange place... Taking a dump on slavery Vildkatten was testing, so people were starting to line up(MBF). There are times where I can just look at a ride and know that it's probably going to injure me. At the end of these trips, my legs are always cut and bruised. It can be a very painful hobby for a big guy. Vildkatten had me worried. It didn't look like it had much legroom, and it was more than likely going to be rough. I sat down and pulled the restraint over my head. OK, not so bad. We went up the lift hill and got yanked over the drop. This ride was actually pretty fun. There was only one real painful turn, but otherwise I was pleasantly surprised! Not a bad first coaster for the trip. Vildkatten There was a ropes course and a few small flat rides nearby, so people were trying everything out. Some of us went on the inflated bumper cars (I don't know what else to call them). They were pretty fun, and if you hit someone just right they would spin in circles. Blow up bumper cars! The owner arrived with his wife, and they told us that everyone could have some free ice cream before they left. I skipped out on mine (trying to be good!) and walked around a little more. Like every other park in Scandinavia, Sommerland Sjaelland has a ton of trampolines. People LOVE trampolines over there! Brian on the trampoline Now, how well do you think a tour group full of coaster enthusiasts did on the trampolines? Let's watch Neil(rctneil) have a go... Have you ever wondered what it would look like if I filmed Ross on a trampoline, while he thought that I was waiting to take a picture the entire time? Wonder no more! Sorry, buddy! That's one of my favorite moments from the trip. They also had some of the huge blob trampolines, but I didn't get any pictures of them. I'll include them in another park's trip report. It was time to head back to the city. We thanked Kare, his wife, and all of the employees for opening just for us. What a great little park, and easily one of the biggest surprises of the trip for me. I honestly had a blast that day! When we walked out, there were 2 buses waiting for us. I spent most of the ride just catching up with Ross some more, and enjoying the beautiful countryside of Denmark. Here's a couple of pictures from the bus. Some cool factory we drove past Pretty A few minutes into the drive, we overheard the discussion going on behind us. People were comparing various Wacky Worm credits from around the world. It was pretty sad, but it at least prompted this picture from Ross. Ross is pissed! I believe this was the first time he brought out one of his favorite terms of endearment for people. F**k knuckles. He used it a lot on the Texas/Midwest trip last year, so it was exciting to hear it come back for this year's tour! When we got back to the hotel, it was time to head to the welcome dinner a few blocks away. This was the first time that I got to eat at a Wagamama. It's a Japanese restaurant, with tons of different options. We had a lot of credit to use (around $75 USD), so I ordered some edamame to share, and some potstickers for an appetizer. Apparently, no one outside of my group of friends in Iowa like edamame, because no one would eat it. Sadness. I ended up getting some sort of chicken and noodle dish for my entree, and it was pretty delicious. Yum! Our table had a lot of very inappropriate discussions, as we usually do, and some people started drinking. I gave some of my credit to Shawn so he could order a bunch of wine. And that's when things like this happen. Uh oh. Good night, Shawn! After filling up on some tasty dinner, we all headed back to the hotel to have a quick meeting. Robb and Elissa explained all the rules and gave us our shirts, bags and lanyards. After the meeting, a lot of us stayed out in the courtyard just sitting around talking. Some people had more drinks, and plans started to form. Oh, Joe found a snail. Poor guy Steve, Priscella, Joe and I decided we were going to wander in a different direction until we found a bar that looked appealing. About 2 steps out the door, Priscella decided she wasn't going with us and was going to bed. We later found out she went out to the gay bar with a bunch of people until the wee hours of the morning. We were ditched! I'm guessing it was more fun for her than the bar we chose. I think we found the only dive bar in Copenhagen. On a Friday night, there were about 6 people in this place, and they were all watching the Netherlands and Spain play in the World Cup. It was great. We all caught up some more and headed home after about an hour. I think I saved Joe's life about 13 times from being run over by a bicyclist. Those bike lanes are everywhere! After saying good night, I went up to the room and was in bed around midnight. Thanks for reading! Indy?

^ There's NO WAY that it could POSSIBLY compare to the 2009 trip reports, Fran.

I'm enjoying the TR, Bill!

^ Yes, how silly of me to document my once in a lifetime trip to Scandinavia! ***Edit: BTW, when do I get to change my avatar picture to be something that I want?

By the end of this trip, I probably gave TPDave a run for his money. Just wait! And I'm definitely not as nerdy as he is. Thanks, Kevin! I've told you this before, but these TPR trips just make me check my brain at the airport for some reason. You guys make it too easy! You were pretty riled up about him. I was loving it!

Day 1 – Traveling and Exploring Copenhagen When I’d originally made my travel plans to Scandinavia, my plan was to fly to Chicago early on the morning of June 11th. I was going to spend the day at Six Flags Great America with my friend Cameron (Cameron) so I could check out that new beast, Goliath. As luck would have it, it didn’t open in time, as I’m sure we all know by now. This left me scrambling about 10 days before my trip, trying to figure out what I was going to do. I ended up switching my flights until later in the day, and ended up working so I didn’t have to use PTO for that day. My flight from Des Moines to Chicago took right around an hour, and gave me about 7 hours to explore everything that O’hare’s international terminal had to offer. After about 3 minutes of exploration, I ran out of things to do. I found an area that was completely empty, so I put my earbuds in and listened to some podcasts. Since I’m a pretty picky eater, I figured that I should probably eat something before my flight left at 10:15 PM. I just had a feeling that I wouldn’t be a fan of the airline food, and I was right! After checking out the options, I grabbed some food at a place called Big Bowl, and it was pretty decent. I had some pork potstickers and a bowl of some sort of spicy meat on top of noodles. While I was eating, Jere (jbottgen) found me in the food court. Jere’s been on both of my TPR trips that I’ve done, so it was nice traveling to Europe with someone that I knew. We actually randomly ended up sitting next to each other on the flight. Luckily for me, I was able to get one of the bulkhead seats. I’m 6’6”, so I’d been pretty worried about flying coach on an 8+ hour flight. I popped some Dramamine to help me fall asleep, and I ended getting about 5 hours of sleep on the plane, which is very rare for me. Sorry, no pictures of the plane or anything like that. If you want to see planes, you can go check out Garbel’s trip report. He likes planes. A lot. Our SAS flight landed in Copenhagen around noon, if I remember correctly. You could tell from the outside that the Copenhagen airport wasn’t really that big. It was much smaller than I expected, with it being a pretty large city. We got off the plane and made our way towards customs. It looked like a HUGE line, but we got through it in about 5 minutes. The customs process consisted of handing them my passport, having them look at me for 1 second, then stamping it. I love Europe! Yes! I'm finally here! The happiest country in the world. Jere and I made our way to the baggage claim area, which was just about the biggest clusteryouknowwhat I’ve ever come across. They were only using 2 of the baggage carousels, but had about 5 or 6 flight’s bags being sent to those 2 carousels. There were TONS of people waiting for their bags. While we were waiting for our flight’s luggage, I noticed that Victor (Vtafro) and Stacy (Shagan6) were standing just a few feet away. I know them from last year’s Texas/Midwest trip, so I walked over to say hello. Surely, with 4 fairly intelligent people we should be able to figure out how to get to our hotel, right? Well, I guess we aren’t as smart as I thought, because we looked like complete morons trying to figure it all out. I usually like to think that I’m not a stupid tourist, but this wasn’t my best hour! Knowing that we had to make our way to Central Station, we walked up to the self service kiosk and tried to buy a ticket to Central Station. Hmmmm…. Central Station wasn’t listed as an option. OK, we’ll head upstairs to the main terminal and I’m we‘ll get this figured out. Nope. Just as clueless. There were a lot of people queued up in various lines, seemingly knowing what they were doing. We just kept walking around like idiots, not knowing which line to get in. Eventually, I saw my good friends Steve (spongey) and Priscilla (Priscilla) from Australia. Well, Steve is Australian, but Priscilla was born and raised in the US. Somehow he convinced her to move to a country where everything wants to kill you. Steve seemed to have a good idea of what we needed to do, so we hopped in line for one of the self service kiosks. This was our first experience trying to use a credit card without a PIN. I’ll just say that it didn’t go well. We ended up using cash just so we’d stop holding up the line as the locals were getting pretty frustrated with us. Sorry, Denmark! After our 45 minute adventure ended with us scoring some tickets, we made our way down to the platform to board the train. Luckily, it was sitting there waiting for us. Our train was PACKED! All the seats were taken, and even the people standing were really crammed inside the car. It didn’t help that everyone had luggage with them. The train ride took about 15 minutes and before I knew it we were in Central Station, located in the heart of the city. We lugged our heavy suitcases up the huge stairway to get to street level, and only needed to go about 2 blocks to find our hotel. This would be our base camp for the next 4 nights, which is a luxury on any TPR trip! We stayed at Hotel Ansgar, which was a nice hotel in a great location. Home for the next few days. The employee at the desk checked me in, and I was off to my room. Steve told me he’d get a hold of me to let me know what the plan for the afternoon was. I needed a shower after all of that traveling. One of the quirky things about Hotel Ansgar is how their elevator works. It actually stops in between floors, and you either have to go up or down a flight of stairs to get to your floor. Seems like an odd design, but I’m sure the elevator was added in many years after the hotel opened, or at least that’s what I told myself. Floor 4 1/2? All of the Scandinavian hotels have black out blinds, because the damn sun never seems to go down during the summer time. I lowered my blinds, having not turned the lights on yet. My room was pretty much completely dark. I stumbled around trying to find a light switch, but none of them were working. Great, my lights don’t work. On top of that, I must have pulled the shade down too far, because it wouldn’t retract. Yep, it was stuck. So there I am, in complete darkness, trying to figure out what I’m going to do. I ended up climbing up onto the desk, then over towards the window. If you know me, you can only imagine how graceful I was while doing this. In order for me to get the shade back into place, I had to manually turn the cylinder at the top of the window. Success! I can actually see now, and I didn’t fall off and break my neck! My room was pretty small, but that’s to be expected in Europe. I could actually stand in the middle and almost touch both walls! When I first walked in I saw the bed and thought it looked pretty small, but it was actually really long and comfortable! My room. If you look closely, you can see a pair of my underwear! I finished cleaning up and went to meet up with some my friends. Steve had sent me a note telling me which room they were all hanging out in. Everyone was in Joe (Joe Cool) and Chris’s (deguy123). I’ve known Joe for a few years, but this was the first time that I’d met Chris. This was one of the few times that I Chris awake over the next 3 weeks (more on that later). Joe had already hurt his ankle somehow by just walking around the city, and was lying in bed trying to ice it. Great start to the trip, Joe! Shawn (SuperShawn) and Ross (rosscoe) showed up, and we started trying to make plans for dinner. Steve, Priscella and Joe (along with others) were heading to Noma that night, which is the #1 restaurant in the world. They’re all foodies, and Joe is a chef, so they wanted to make sure they went there while they were in town. I prefer to spend $250 on things besides eating flowers and fried moss, but that’s just me. This is where I mentioned to everyone that my lights weren’t working, and someone showed me that you have to put your hotel key in the slot to make the power work. I’m an idiot. I’ve seen that before, but didn’t notice it when I walked in my room. So within 2 hours of me being in Denmark, I’d already made 2 “Stupid American Tourist” mistakes. Sigh. A group of us left to go walk around the city for a bit, and to find a place to get dinner. Shawn, Ross, Chris, Jere, Jake (Nyteowl), James (coastercrzyjames), Adrian (Aglend42), Harrison (harrisonkohn) and I just kind of chose a direction and started walking. After a couple of blocks, we were standing next to Tivoli Gardens, the amusement park located in the city. I was really excited to check out the park, but we’ll talk more about that in a few days. Tivoli Gardens - See you in a few days! Ross had seen a steak restaurant earlier in the afternoon, so our group thought that sounded like a nice place for dinner. When we got to the restaurant we noticed the sign on the front door that said they were closed for summer holiday, and that they’d be opening again in August. Apparently, Ross hadn’t noticed that small detail when he was there earlier in the day. This was one of the weird things about Scandinavia. Everything is closed at night. I’m pretty sure most stores close around 5 or 6 PM, which seems very weird to me. America is such a 24/7 place, and I can get anything I need whenever I want it. That took some getting used to. We ended up choosing an Italian restaurant that had outdoor seating. It was probably around 60-65 F, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. My short sleeve shirt and shorts weren’t enough to keep me warm by the end of dinner, but luckily most restaurants have huge blankets for all of their guests. I was able to cover my legs up and at least not freeze my ass off during our meal. As for the meal, it was fantastic. Honestly, probably the best pasta I’ve ever had. You could tell it was made fresh in the kitchen. Oh, this was also the first time that we’d seen tuna on pizza, because that’s what Jere ordered. This wouldn’t be the last time we saw tuna on pizza, though. Apparently they love it in Scandinavia! Everyone else loved their food as well, so I guess it was a successful night out! Well, that is, except for one thing. The restaurant had a trio of musicians walking around. There was a singer, a guitar player, and a clarinet player. For the most part, it was fine, but there was just something a little weird about the singer. He just kept showing up at our table, almost like he knew that we were annoyed by him. Ross became pretty annoyed with the guy, so I’ve included some of the pictures that Ross took of the singer always lurking around our table. All in all, it was a great meal, and it was great catching up with some old friends and also meeting some new people. Ross's friend, the singer! Ross is no longer amused. The group walked around a bit more after dinner, before finally heading back to the hotel. Some of us went out to the back patio area, and continued our conversations. Lots of TPR folks were starting to congregate, so it was great seeing a lot of people that I knew, and also being able to finally meet some people that I’d been talking with on the trip board for the last few months. I called it a night around 11, hoping that I’d be able to get some sleep. I was fine until about 4 am, because that’s when the sun starts to creep in. I’m a light sleeper, and it really bothered me. This would be a recurring theme throughout the trip, so get used to hearing about it! Thoughts from the day: - Everyone in Copenhagen is beautiful. - I’ve never seen so many people on bikes. - If I lived in Copenhagen I would be dead, because I’d get run over by a bicyclist. - Copenhagen is a beautiful city. - Scandinavia is really expensive. - I’m an idiot. Here are some random pictures from around Copenhagen. Enjoy! Copenhagen Copenhagen Hard Rock Cafe, just outside of Tivoli Gardens. Copenhagen Copenhagen Some really cool building. Copenhagen Cool building - different angle. Pedestrian street in Copenhagen Ross is happy to be here! Fountain This is where we ate dinner. Loved it!

Yep, don't ask the guy that just cracked his iPhone screen to hold onto your phone throughout the day!

^^ how many pictures of me taking pictures did you end up with? Oh, and how's your phone doing? Is it still in immaculate condition?

I want to see the video commentary from Balder as Thad described all of the technical components and specs of Balder. Daron Ha! TPDave and I tried to do some commentary, but after the lift hill it turned into, "Oh s**t! Holy crap! Wow!"

Day 0 - Intro Day 1 - Travel Day and Exploring Copenhagen Day 2 - Sommerland Sjaelland - Add On Park Day 3 - Bakken and Copenhagen at Night Day 4 - Tivoli Gardens Day 5 - BonBon-Land, Ferry and Drinking in Germany! Day 6 - Hansa Park Day 7 - LEGOLAND Bilund, Part 1 Day 7 part 2 - LEGOLAND Bilund, Part 2 Day 8 part 1 - Djurs Sommerland and Tivoli Friheden, Part 1 Day 8 part 2 - Djurs Sommerland and Tivoli Friheden, Part 2 Hello, everyone! For those of you that don't know me, my name is Thad Bargman, and I live in West Des Moines, Iowa, coaster capital of the central Iowa area. The Scandi tour was my 3rd TPR trip (New Hotness 2012 and Texas/Midwest 2013), and it was far and away the best vacation I've ever been on. I love reading all of the trip reports on the board, and having never done one before, I thought I’d finally throw my hat in the ring and try to write one. A little about me… I’m an avid sports fan. Football (the American version) and basketball are my two favorite sports. I love being a jerk to people, but I think most people figure out that I’m joking. I can be very sarcastic, so it can be hard to tell if I’m being serious or not. Obviously, I really enjoy riding roller coasters and visiting theme parks. Our family vacation was always WDW when I was a kid, and I’ve probably done somewhere around 50-60 trips down there over my lifetime. Am I a coaster nerd? Sure. No one would sign up for a trip to Scandinavia to ride them if they weren’t, but I definitely don’t think I’m as serious as most people are in the hobby. I WILL make fun of you for riding kiddie coasters. That’s just a fact. I’ll ride anything as tall as Grover at BGW, but that’s as low as I’ll go to get a credit. Sure, it can get lonely sitting on the bench while the entire tour group rides a Wacky Worm, but at least I have my dignity! I signed up for the Scandi trip, not really knowing much about the parks/rides on the trip. A lot of my “two week friends”, as I call them, had done one of the Scandi trips in the past, and everyone told me that it was incredible. That was good enough for me! I sent Robb and Elissa my deposit as soon as I returned home from the Texas/Midwest trip last August. Usually, I have a pretty good idea of all the parks and rides that a TPR is going to visit, but I avoided reading much about the parks on this trip. I thought it would be really cool to be surprised. Sure, I knew about rides like Balder, Helix and Piraten, but I think everyone has heard of them. Staying in the dark about the trip was a great way to experience some new parks! I honestly can’t remember the last time I went to a park without knowing anything about it. It was kind of refreshing because I was doing more exploring, instead of having a plan of attack before I set foot in the park. OK, that’s it for now. I’ll try to update my arrival day tonight, but I’m not going to promise anything. Who's excited?!?