Barge84

Since I switched jobs and have had to wait 2 months between paychecks, along with a trip to Japan mixed in between them, money was a little tight. As of this morning, though, I've purchased my WCB tickets for this year. Sorry, Robb and Elissa, you'll be seeing me again soon!

Nothing like a trip down memory lane, thanks Benny! This reminds me, I probably need to get back to working on my Trip Report...

Just the purchaser. From Robb's post: "We apologize that we were unable to offer Club TPR discounts this year, but we are offering early ticket sales for you to purchase and guarantee admission to the event. You may buy as many tickets as you need for any guests you might bring to the event."

I don't want to alarm you, but someone may have hacked into your account. I was wondering if you or Thad would be the first one to make that comment Had I been logged in earlier, I would've made a comment. Elissa wins.

This ride looks like a winner. Hansa is a great park, and I can't wait to get back there and try this thing out.

I feel the same way. Now all of these people I don't like will be visiting...

People are making a big deal out of the log flume on their Facebook page, but the water park is really nice and is part of the park's admission. A thrill ride was more important to the park's future at this point.

I give Adventureland a hard time, but this looks like a great addition to the park. I'll actually be visiting the park next year to try this out!

It's been mentioned already, but I didn't know anything about El Toro when I rode it in 2012 (I'd been out of the hobby for a few years). The Rolling Thunder hill was ridiculous. Still haven't been that surprised on a ride.

The trick track section of Thunder Dolphins was pretty lame, along with the drop into the final brakes. Otherwise, I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I'd always heard lackluster reviews. I'm still full from all that Yakatori last night.

Can we ride Speedy Gonzales Hot Rod Racers together? I'd prefer it if you didn't make eye contact with me that weekend. Ha! The Elissa Bat Signal strikes again.

Can we ride Speedy Gonzales Hot Rod Racers together? I'd prefer it if you didn't make eye contact with me that weekend.

Against my better judgement, I just cashed in some reward miles for a flight to LA and back. I'm still undecided if I'll go, because that's a huge football weekend for me. Big rivalry for my college team, and the NFL starts that weekend. I'll be damned if Twisted Colossus doesn't look amazing, though.

The last 2 rows of Volcano are a little more forgiving for some reason. I-305 is pretty roomy, so you shouldn't have to worry. Someone else already mentioned the big boy seats on Dominator. I think you'll be fine.

Interesting. I'd always wondered why I-435W was so sparse.

Well you do got a great point there. I really like how they are trying to keep it alive. I think his point was that the park wouldn't exist if Cedar Fair hadn't purchased it.

Pretty sure I have a series of pictures somewhere of Jake trying to pick up the hot danish ride op and her face showing that she was less than impressed. She basically locked herself in the control booth to get away from him. We need to see these pictures!

Day 8 – Djurs Sommerland and Tivoli Friheden, Part 2 Hi. How’s it going? That’s good! Me? Things are going well. Um… So… It’s been awhile… Sorry about that. Please take me back, baby… When I last spoke and you listened, a few people in my group had just taken off on some sort of bicycle apparatus built for four. Michael and I decided that we might as well join them, so we jumped on a bike and started peddling. It was a nice little ride around the lake, giving us some different views of the park. We eventually caught up to the group in front of us since they had two people peddling for four. There may have been a smallish collision somewhere on that trail, I can’t really remember. I just remember having issues finding the brakes at one point. Oh no. Now I've joined in on the fun. Brakes! Brakes! Where are the brakes?!? With our quick cardio finished up, we were supposed meet up with the rest of our group and check out the rest of the park. Now leaving Thor World. Everyone had heard that Djurs had a great ropes course, and most of the group wanted to check it out. After my embarrassing obstacle course run at BonBon Land. I wasn’t in any rush to try out another one. I gave it a half-assed attempt, but after falling off the first couple of things right away, I decided that the hammocks looked like a lot better use of my time and energy. Also, someone from the group had to document everything with pictures, so I was happy to oblige. Another fantastic ropes course. I tried out the hammocks course. This was much more difficult to do than the lying in a hammock. Cary does it like a boss. A few more people decided to give up, so the hammocks were quickly filling up with TPR members. All I wanted was a nice relaxing few minutes, and all of my idiot friends had to ruin it. Thanks, guys. That's a lot of leg. Sorry. Shawn creeps me out. Throughout the trip, most of our group had started to notice that Ross had taken a shine to Joe and his flowing locks. Apparently, today was the day to make a move! Finally! Ross has a chance to make his move on Joe. Unfortunately, this love story was thwarted by a large, hairy, Australian man. But Steve ruins it. If you’re under the age of 17, please put on your ear muffs for this video… Joe is about to speak. Sorry to say, that mother f*****r didn’t break. Instead, I give you videos of people running on stones across water. I was really hoping I’d catch someone falling in… Yes, that’s me you hear, hoping that someone falls in. I’ve never said I was a nice person! We ended up spending about an hour in this area, so we clearly liked it. It was a nice break from the crazy pace we’d been on the first part of the trip. There was still a little bit more to explore in the park, and we also wanted to get a few more rides on Piraten now that it had had a chance to warm up. Some people decided to ride the rapids ride, and the rest of us moved on towards the Wild West area. As always, there were some strange things that you’d never see in American parks. Just like KC! Without a doubt, one of the strangest things on the trip was the “Guy Taking a Crap” exhibit. Now, I’m not sure if that’s its official name, but that’s what I’m going to call it. The exhibit consisted of an outhouse, and the door would occasionally open to show a man with his pants down, sitting on the toilet. Djurs didn’t think that was disgusting enough, so the character actually spits at you. I’m pretty sure almost every park in Denmark had some sort of farting character. That’s my kind of humor! I can't believe I didn't get video of this guy... To top things off, here’s one of the manliest things I’ve ever seen. I hate these trips. I guess this is called a dismount… Ross hates my trip reports. A small patch of rain hit the park, so we took cover under one of the nearby picnic pavilions. It was good timing, because the rain slowed us down long enough for the rapids riders to catch up. After only a few minutes, the rain let up. We only had about 90 more minutes in the park, so it was time to ride Piraten some more before we had to leave. There was a small line, and they were only running 1 train, but the line was moving at a decent pace. We were waiting anywhere from 10-15 minutes for each ride, and it was worth it. I didn't notice the pirate band that morning. Oh baby. An upskirt shot of Piraten. Time for a cold shower. I hope to visit you again, someday. Piraten had really warmed up, and it was delivering some serious airtime! I decided to focus mostly on riding in the front of the train. Piraten was kicking some serious ass that afternoon. This was the mega-lite that I’d always heard about. I really liked it during our morning ERT, but the afternoon rides made me love it. Shawn and I picked a great time to ride in the front seat, because Garbels and Robb were standing at the bottom of the first drop taking pictures. Thanks to Garbels! I liked the picture so much, that I asked Garbels if I could use the image for a picture at home. I think it looks great! Looks great at the new house! Since Robb LOVES it when I talk about roller coasters, I should mention that Piraten slid into my #6 steel spot. Just behind Millennium Force, and just ahead of Goliath at SFOG. This was the first great ride of the trip. I can’t wait to ride another one at Tobu Zoo next month! The entire tour group was starting to gather, so we knew it was time to stop riding. YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THE BUS! Time to head back to the hotel for some rest and relaxation, right? Nope! This is a TPR trip, so there’s still a LOT more to do. Robb and Elissa had arranged for Tivoli Friheden to open for a few hours, even though the park was supposed to be close that day. How great is that?!? We took about an hour long bus ride to get to the park. Tivoli Friheden is another one of those “city parks” that seem to be common in Europe. For just being a small little park, I ended up having a great time here. Warning… My phone died, so I only have 3 pictures and a video. Sorry! Everyone unloaded from the 2 tour buses, and the park owner met us outside of the park gates. He welcomed us and informed our group that there would be a few rides open for us. If I’m remembering correctly, there were about 10 rides. Oh yeah, there’s also that thing called a SCAD Tower. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, there’s a weight limit. Several fatties had to sit that one out. Maybe they should make the nets out of the same material that Djurs had in their hammocks. Those things were sturdy! Park's closed. The European Pole Cat out front should have told you.* *Note: I did a search for animals indigenous to Denmark, and that was about the only one that wasn't normal. Everyone took off for the credits because the SCAD tower was closed when we got there. It was too windy, but the owner was monitoring the wind speed, and Robb would notify us the moment that the tower was open. My group went into the funhouse (Illusions Factory) because we’re weird. I think this had been newly remodeled for 2014, but I don’t feel like looking that up. I remember it being one of the more entertaining funhouses from the trip, and there was a big slide at the end. Everyone seemed to like it, so it’s hard to beat an endorsement like that. Next up was the swinging pirate ship. The girl working it seemed surprised that we wanted to ride, but seemed to enjoy having some visitors. We exited the ship after our exhilarating ride, and some employees started talking to us. They were working the Haunted House 5D ride and definitely seemed bored. We asked them about the ride, and they told us that it’s basically a zombie ride where you shoot things. OK, sounds good. If you remember, I absolutely hate haunted houses and other crap like that. Of course, the ride is completely in the dark, and you can hear zombies all around you. Every once and awhile, your car would come upon a screen, and 3D zombies would run at you. This is where your gun came into play. I thought it was a fun ride, especially for a small park like this. There were some other scare gags inside the ride, but I won’t ruin anything. We rode it a couple of more times throughout the evening. We figured that the lines for the coaster had probably died down by this point, and we were right. We walked onto the park’s spinning coaster, Tyfonen. This was probably the least spinny spinning coaster that I’ve ever been on, but I didn’t really mind. Tyfonen - The park's spinner. One of the more intriguing rides at the park was Cobra. I have no idea who built it, but it looks like a portable inverted coaster. I found out after riding that it killed several people a few years ago, so that was nice to hear. If you’ve ever wanted to see some great teamwork, you should’ve been in Cobra’s station while we were there. The restraint was a bit of a tight fit for several people, but between a few of us, we made sure that everyone got the credit. Aussie Steve figured out a method where he’d hang off the side of the restraint, and someone else would buckle it. It worked like a charm! The ride op even commented on how great he was at doing it. This little ride packed a punch. I was warned that the cobra roll was a bit of a headbanger, so I leaned my head towards one of my shoulders and it prevented me from having any issues. Cobra exceeded my expectations for it. I was genuinely worried about riding it when I saw it, but it wasn’t too bad. It was nearing time for dinner, but Steve and I wanted to try out one of the flat rides. I’m not good with flat ride names, but this one basically spun you on three different axes. It was a bit uncomfortable in certain areas for men, but I had a good time riding it. It did have a strange ending, where you were lowered incredibly slowly to the ground. It probably took 3 minutes for the ride to “end”. I should probably mention the very friendly and beautiful ride op that seemed to be enjoying our company until Garbels showed up. Thanks, Jake. Steve rode again with some people, and the ride had some technical difficulties. They were stuck for about 15 minutes, all while I sat on a bench in comfort. Glad I didn’t ride again! The mechanic was finally able to get them down, and we took off for the dining hall. The park put out an impressive spread for dinner. I don’t think I’ve seen more variety in one meal, so I think everyone found something to enjoy. There was also beer. I made the decision that tonight was a drinking night. I had a lot of beer. It was delicious. About a dozen people ended up sticking around and having a few beers. It was nice catching up with some people that I didn’t know very well. Ron, Ste and Karl were very entertaining that evening. The other people were off getting the rest of the credits and experiencing the now open SCAD tower. Why are Joe and Priss holding up 3 fingers? Because this is the 3rd time they've ridden it. Not joking. This was the last thing my phone recorded before it died that night. It was one of the few people that didn’t scream. Just my luck… They had a fun 5D movie theater as well, where you shot at the screen. We liked it so much that we did it multiple times. I guess I should bring up the god awful Pinfari looping coaster at the park. There. I brought it up. It was terrible. Some of the worst head-banging that I’ve ever experienced. And that’s that. We boarded our bus back to the hotel. I packed up when I got back to the room then headed down to the lobby to drink a couple of more beers before heading to bed. All in all, this was a pretty great day. I was starting to get pretty sick, though, so I’m not sure drinking was the right choice. Tomorrow we’d be heading to Fårup Sommerland, and then taking a ferry to Sweden! Lots of big days to come! Hopefully the next update doesn’t take 3 months… Thanks for reading!

I must have missed this post, scf. Thanks for the kind words. This isn't the last park, in fact there are 9 or 10 more parks to cover. I can't remember the exact number. Norway, Sweden and Finland will all follow. Someday. I hope.

I wish I could say yes, but right now I don't think I'll be able to do anything before I leave for Japan in a month. I had a little free time the other day and started working on the next edition, but it was just a little piece. I promise that I'll finish, because I really do want to cover the rest of the parks. Most importantly, there's a little park in Sweden that you might know something about, Pontus. Chuck knows...

I wasn't planning on visiting this year (again), but those 2 new video games have me pretty excited about the park!

Larry, you're so helpful sometimes! I loved Orkanen, so any clone of that ride is good in my book.

^That's why I bring the stupid comments directly to your FB page.

It just seems like an odd complaint. That side of the park definitely needs something. Outside of us eating food there last year, we didn't spend much time in Italy.

Wait, people are upset that Apollo's Chariot and Tempesto are too close together? Too close?