Loefet

Most likely Lisebergbanan, but it could also have been Lisebergloopen, no idea really, can't remember. I'm pretty sure that the first time I rode then was in the same year though, back to back.

It have gone up really quick, we are soon ready for topping out the ride with the spire/flagpole. From Gröna Lund FB page

New image from the web-cam: It's getting taller, and it looks like they are bringing the big cranes for this.

Balder is my nearest coaster, which I'm pretty happy with.

Well you can, but I doubt that Gouderix would be any better if you buffed it up to a high gloss

^ They just manufacture new pieces, and swap them out. Really easy. Since they are redoing large parts of the ride, they might redo some calculations so that the bankings and such are better than what they could come up with when the ride was initially built. But what this ride needs the most are the new trains, but then again I doubt that it will do any better in the Mitch Hawker poll whatever they do. Better to rip it to pieces and give the metal to B&M/Mack/Intamin and have them recycle the ride into something new/better.

Well, as Gröna Lund is in Stockholm, it would be hard to be the tallest structure in Gothenburg... But it will be the second tallest in Stockholm, only beaten by The Kaknäs Tower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaknästornet) It will still be the taller than all the buildings in Gothenburg, the tallest thing in Gothenburg is Liseberg's Atmosfear.

^ Sure, there are several potential smaller parks that have the possibility to expand easily, but it was more in response in having a park in Sweden investing in a B&M invert. New video update on Eclipse: This time we have a look on, the spire with the flag pole that will be attached on top, as well as work on the form for the concrete plate that will be the loading platform. There are also some words about the safety of the ride, since he have received many concerns about it.

^ That was just a concept of what they could do if they were allowed to expand the park into the nearby parking lot. So don't expect a B&M or Vekoma (more likely) to be built next, there is no space for one in the park as it is now, and by the reaction by the neighbours about that concept then there won't be any in the near future, unfortunately. Liseberg have a better future with loads of potential space to expand, so if any park were to get one of those here in Sweden look to the west

^ It would most likely be either stalls/shops or the queue for the ride. There is a large area around the ride, but I'm sure that they want to keep as much as possible of it, since it's where the spectators would be for the main stage near by.

Yeah they suddenly moved there a few years ago, they were at another location before, and since I rarely go to the southern entrance I couldn't find them. BK will most likely just have the standard menu so I doubt that they will get any. Hopefully they will still be at the southern entrance, there is however another place that might have them as well. It doesn't say anything about meatballs on the Liseberg web-page, but I think that they are still there, but I have to go there to absolutely confirm it. Yes, jam is a must have on pancakes/plättar (same thing here but different size), whipped cream or ice cream is a nice addition though. The meatballs at Liseberg are really nice, much better than the vile ones you get on IKEA and similar places, but then again they fade in comparison to home made ones Also today Liseberg posted this on Youtube: It's the official Kaninlandet tune, and I absolutely love it , definitely not annoying as the old Balder music was

It's now official. Gröna Lund is getting a 121 meter tall (worlds tallest according to themselves) StarFlyer, and it will be called Eclipse. Image from Gröna Lund Facebook. Facts about Eclipse Investment: MSEK 50 (USD 7.9 million) Location at Gröna Lund: Opposite the Main Stage (replaces the ride Extreme) Total height: 400 feet Maximum speed: 43 miles/h Ride time: approx. 2 minutes Height requirement: 47 inches Number of swings: 12 swings with two seats on each Capacity per ride: 24 people Capacity per hour: 600 people Weight: 210 ton Foundation: 700 ton Number of bolts: 80,000 Manufacturer: Funtime (Austria) Architecture from former times combined with Steampunk Interview with Gröna Lund CEO, and where the quote above comes from.

^^ Thanks, there will be more updates as I get a chance to do them. ^ No meatballs in this new area unfortunately (most likely really), a few years ago I thought that they had been removed from the park, since I couldn't find them at their usual location. I found them a couple of years later in the southern end of the park, but now when you mention them, I can't find any info about Meatballs on the Liseberg web-page This needs investigating once the park opens... In Kaninlandet they will open a new Burger King with 250 seats, there were a small one in this area earlier but it was the first thing to be demolished for the redevelopment. Apart from that there will be a sandwich cafeteria, called "Mackasinet", (that might serve sandwiches with Meatballs in them ) and a restaurant that is specialized in "Plättar", which will be called "Plättlagat". Plättar are a sort of thin pancakes, but they come in a smaller shape, something like: this. It's really strange that they don't serve Meatballs in this section, I mean, most kids loves them. More on this as the park opens.

^ Thunder dolphin is still closed, but the rest of the rides are back in operation as far as I know. Have a look at their web page: http://www.tokyo-dome.co.jp/e/attractions/

New image from inside the park was posted on Facebook today: They are really making progress, compare this image to the one posted about 3 weeks ago: Here on TPR, posted on the 14:th. Image from: Liseberg - FB page.

Construction update of Kaninlandet Last time I walked past Liseberg were in November and I didn't see anything that was really noteworthy. Today however there were loads of construction going on. I mean I knew how much they were doing in the park due to the concept art they released when they announced Kaninlandet, but when I walked around the park today I was really taken by surprise by the massive scale of the project. They have loads of work to do until everything is done and just 3 more months... Pictures: The building with the curving roof behind the tree is the station for the new coaster New building for the Coffe /Teacups Overview from the nearby parking garage They have really opened up the park towards the small river going next/through the park It will be really nice when they open up the board walk along it Making foundations for the two spinning drop towers, which will be called "Hissningen" Looks like they have added the roof structure to the new Old-timer cars station (which was featured in the last image) Overview over half the park, loads of construction going on...

Yay, now we can finally know how the steel coaster rates as well Tried to do it with the helper, but it's too much of a chore to individually place every coaster in comparison with all the other ones, especially if you have 150+ entries. So I used the text file I got from the helper and did it the old fashion way, in Notepad Arranged it the same way as last year, in groups: * Top 19 (no. 1-19) * Great coasters (no. 20) * Better than average (no. 30) * OK! (no. 40) * Meh... (no 50.) * Bottom 20 (no 51-70) Here are my top 19: Dodonpa Fujikyu HighLands Favorite Wood Coaster Any Park Anywhere Blue Fire Megacoaster Europa Park Goliath Walibi Holland Insane Grona Lund OzIris Parc Asterix Pyrenees Parque EspaNa iSpeed Mirabilandia Nemesis Alton Towers Katun Mirabilandia Kawasemi Tobu Zoo Piraten Djurs Sommerland Phaethon Gyeongju World Atlantis Adventure Lotte World Eejanaika Fujikyu HighLands Olympia Looping Traveling Oblivion Alton Towers Venus Space World Krake Heide Park

^ You mean on Helix? It's next to the tower on the right hand side of the tower, where the roof is split open and you can see the track.

New image from Liseberg on their facebook page, on the construction of Kaninlandet: Source - Liseberg FB This will be the new Old-timer cars for the park. The space have before been occupied by the coasters: Hang-Over, Lisebergloopen and Super8, as well as some other attractions. But since Hang Over left it have been occupied by some fountains and hand/foot prints of famous artists and athletes. It have really been just a large dead space in the middle of the park, so I'm really happy that they finally integrate it into the park, just wish that they plant some trees in the area so that there will some shade there in the future and improve the atmosphere as well. In other news: Västlänken, a train tunnel that will go underneath the city in the future, were initially planned to go underneath the street in front of the main entrance of Liseberg, it's a project that is much needed for the infrastructure of Gothenburg, but will cause great inconvenience for Liseberg according to the plans as the were. Parts of the park's north east corner would have to be demolished as they dig up the whole street in front of the park during construction, this will also block of all access to the main entrance and might also require them to move parts of it as well. However according to newer plans then a slight shift of the tunnel to the south, which will not only ease the construction at the big public transport hub next to the park (which would get a new station), this will put the tunnel underneath Liseberg instead. The good news of this is that the disruption would be as small as possible, but also that no parts of Liseberg would be destroyed thanks to it. Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration) are certain that they are able to dig through the mud under the park in one or two winters (when the park is closed). This is really good news, but these plans are not completed yet, but hopefully they could get a good solution that will get the desired tunnel but also disrupt the public and Liseberg as little as possible. SOURCE - GP.SE [swedish] Liseberg have received a lot of acclaims from the public in their goal that they will not only hire youths to staff the park during it's seasons, but try and recruit people that are 60+ years old. This mix of eager and experience will increase the atmosphere of the park. SOURCE - GP.SE [swedish] Finally, CEO Andreas Andersen writes on his blog about how the digital world should interact with the analog Liseberg, how they should implement virtual queuing in the future, etc. How Disney recently introduced MyMagic+ and how things like it could be implemented to Liseberg. He writes loads of interesting things in his blog, and it gives you a good insight into thoughts about running a large theme park. Unfortunately it's all in Swedish, but Google or other Translation Service could help with that: http://www.lisebergblogg.se/andreas/

This would mean that Bannister and other enthusiast that have been to NK have to go back

Bet one must be the Bumper cars at Tusenfryd. They may not be the fastest or the most powerful hits, but they are really fun, since you only need to nudge someone for them to spin out into oblivion. They are the only ones that I know of that you can power slide through the track as well Just pure fun!! The bad ones are those with too much H&S, like one way driving, no head on collisions, too cumbersome restraints, etc. That's not what Bumper cars are for...

Oriolat: No, problems!! I'm pretty sure that they said that they were only going to run 3 trains, it doesn't have the dual loading station or a slow pre-ride section like Blue Fire, so I doubt that they can run more trains than that. However if they manage to meet the 1200 riders/hour capacity then it will still be better than Balder (which only have long queues during high season), so I don't think that capacity will be an issue. Sure the queues might be longer during the first year, but then again when I visited Liseberg the day after Balder had its première I waited no more than 15-20 minutes. So I doubt that Helix will be much different, just avoid July and beginning of August, and queues won't be a real problem. Nothing is known at the time about closures of other rides due to construction, so it's hard to say. But they have 2 months before the park opens, and the the park isn't open every day until June, same thing from the middle of August, just weekends until October. So there is plenty of days to work when the park isn't open, and if they start early then they could do stuff before the park opens at around noon. I'm pretty sure that they will do everything they can so that they won't have to close down any of their signature rides. But I will post more as more info surface, I will ask them on their project web page, so I'll get back to this if I get a reply. It's still early, most parks won't announce their 2014 projects until later this year, and there is really a good chance that some of them, like Skara Sommarland and Gröna Lund, might counter with something, like they did when Liseberg build Lisebergbanan. But it will still be a good year to visit. UPDATE: Got a reply from Liseberg about the possible closure of rides, but they said that at this point they are assuming that all rides (except Maxxima, which will be transformed into the station of the ride) will be working during the coming season. Which is really good news for everyone, so it seems like they have done a work schedule that will not interfere with normal operations.

Liseberg have updated the facts for the ride now, after they announced that they had finalized the layout, and there are a few changes: Investment: 200 million SEK Manufacturer: Mack Rides Track length: 1381 m (before 1355 m) Top speed: 100 km/h Height: 41 m G-Force: 4.3 G (before 4.2 G) Ride length: about 130 seconds (before 110 seconds) Capacity: about 1200 riders/hour (before about 1310 riders/hour) Inversions (7): Corkscrew Corkscrew Pretzel loop Zero-g roll Inverted Top-hat Inline-twist SOURCE - projekthelix.se And according to the comments that the Liseberg people have posted on to the Helix website, then they will start the construction in March (most likely the point when the Rabbit land would be complete, so that they could transfer the construction crew to their new project). About 400 footers will be made for this new coaster, so they have plenty to do before next off season, so that they could start to erect the ride. I'm pretty sure that the inverted top-hat is the main source for the changes of the statistics of the ride. The inline-twist is hopefully be as sublime as the one on Blue Fire, but the section between the second Corkscrew into the Pretzel looks just as great. Speaking of Kaninlandet, they have released some newish pictures of the construction on their Facebook page, not much to see, but progress non the less: Logo Playground

I wouldn't really call it unique, it's basically just 2 corkscrews with a turn in between, and the fact that Blue Fire (+ future clone) does the exact same thing as Maverick reduce the uniqueness even more. The new ride at Alton would be pretty unique to me, since it's more or less just a mess of track, but also includes some really nice inversions.

A little dodgy g-log of a S:UF from a few years ago, our accelerometers have gotten a lot better since then: Blue = Vertical forces, Red = Linear forces, Green = Lateral forces (Note that these are when sitting down at first, then the tilt will change the directions on the Blue and Red lines, as A.J. described on the previous page)