robbalvey

^^ Thanks Barry! That contraption was Holiday Park's rig. Really cool stuff. I still think I get slightly better results with my lipstick camera mounted to the train, but the helmet did work really well! ^ Thanks Soren, we missed you today! Also, everyone, be sure to check out Soren's photo TR from Heide, it's GREAT! Here is the link: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=30092 --Robb "Going to bed now!" Alvey

Ok, first of all, let's drop the whole "Is Balder wood or not" debate. It's not really important. Real said it himself that it looks like a crazy ride. He can call it it made out of puddy as far as I'm concerned because it still doesn't hide the fact that it could very well be the best damn coaster in the world!!!! And speaking of best damn coasters in the world.... Day Twelve: Holiday Park Yes, I am here to report that Expedition GeForce STILL ranks as #1 steel on my list! It's just the same as it was three years ago. Unbelievable amounts of airtime, no 'Intamin rattle' that some of the other hypers have gotten, and just an all around crazy ride! I have to be honest, the first ride we took this morning worried me a little bit. It just didn't seem as crazy as it did in 2002, but then I remembered that due to the "Cathedral Expedition" we didn't get to Holiday Park until about 4pm. And yeah, give it a couple of hours and EGF was back to it's old self! One of the highlights of today was getting to walk up the lift hill of EGF to get photos. That was pretty crazy because as the train came by and went down the drop the whole structure shook like a 6.0 earthquake! It was pretty awesome! Got some good photos and video from up there and it will make for a GREAT video segment too! This time around since we had more than two hours to see the park, we got to do everything. The Intamin drop tower (in both elevator mode for photos and normal mode for fun) and this is a REALLY good one! The brakes seem a bit further down on the ride and you really felt like you dropped for a while! I had no idea that the reversing log flume had some really good effects including FIRE during the turning platform sections, and we finally got to do the dark ride complete with sex and boobs! I love Europe! Of course most of the day was spent on EGF. We got some really amazing footage thanks to the parks 'helment camera' rig where we got to mount our camera into this crazy helment contraption. Wait until you see the pics! Overall we got in about 20ish rides on EGF throughout the day and once again it was fun hanging out with all the guys from Onride.de. You'll all have to post pics of you with your screen names/real names because we really bad at remembering everyone's names. At the moment we are at Europa Park in the Castle Castillo Alcazar. We took a walk around the resort complex and ate at one of the restaurants in the Colosso hotel. It's such an amazing place, near Disney quality. Ok, so onto some pics!!! Expedition GeForce - Still the #1 coaster in the world! We got some very pretty picture from 200 feet up! Here we are on the lift hill for EGF! Check me out with my sexy Helmet Camera! "Bufffettttt!!!" This could very well be the best first drop on any coaster! Warning! Massive Airtime Ahead! The credit whores in this photo are the stupid people...the ones NOT in the photo are the smart ones! Bjoern and Peis show their true love for Vekoma! Got some nice pics from the Free Fall tower too! I'm still CRAZY German guy! Give me some candy! ...although I can't say the same about the other boat! Luckily our boat didn't get too wet... BEST. DARK RIDE. EVER!!! The hotels here are awesome! Almost on Disney level of quality. We can't wait to visit the park tomorrow! At the restaurant we got deadly meat skewers in wooden boats with real fire! Awesome!!! Here we are at Europa! The hotel Colosso is one of the nicest resort hotels! Here's one for the 'caption contest.' What's up with this? Some of our group from today. The rest of the group was off doing something silly like riding roller coasters or something...

Yes! The photos of Dan, Joey and the girls are hilarious! I especially like this one of Joey being attacked by the cleavage! If you haven't seen the photos yet, they are a couple of pages back: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17136&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=280 --Robb

Gee, thank you for "proving us wrong" Now let me explain what I meant since it wasn't obvious enough. This wouldn't be allowed in America IN A THEME PARK. Of course there are things like this in America, just NOT IN A THEME PARK! --Robb "Hates having to re-explain myself." Alvey

Day Eleven Part Two: Wild- und Freizeitpark Klotten (or just known as Klotten) We were told over and over that many people who were meeting up with us thought we would never be able to make it to this park and I'm really happy that we did! While we didn't get to ride the rapids ride at Phantasialand (line was over an hour and we didn't want to get soaked right before leaving the park) we feel like we really got to do everything we wanted to at Phantasialand, so we didn't mind leaving early to get to Klotten. The park was just about an hour away, and it's a small park, so even though we only had about 3 hours there, that was plenty of time to do everything multiple times. Again, this is one of those little European parks that would never be found in America. And we say that in a good way. There are tons of those "self-operated rides." Even more of them than at Bon Bon Land, and some of them even go upside down!!! :shock: The coaster here is a "Gerstlauer Bobsled" and after we saw video of this crazy thing we just HAD to get out and ride it. We are really glad we did because this was one MESSED up great ride!!! It uses similar cars as those found on the Gerstlauer wooden trains, but these didn't hurt because the ride is very smooth. It has this crazy helix of death that you just have to see photos of to believe. And then it has like 5 bunny hills in a row towards the end that each one of them produce 'Balder-like' airtime!!! :o This ride was GREAT! Upon looking at it, it looks like an overgrown Wild Mouse, but what it reminds me of are the Wild Mice I would create in RCT! Forget the typical layout, give me a bunch of crazy drops, airtime hills, tunnels, etc. That's what this ride is. Quite honestly, it was better than anything we rode at Phantasialand, so I would have been really bummed if we had missed this ride. Then comes the most strange 'ride of death' ever! The 'jumping boat' thingy. You guys all remember the 'boat jumpers' from our Japan trip last year, right? To refresh your memory, click here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/japan2004/sp3.htm While this wasn't quite as bizarre, it was up there! Picture this...it's a self-operated ride where you get into a single-man tiny boat on a track. You push the button and it pulls you up the spike "Boomerang Style" and when you get to the top it releases your boat. You fly down the track REALLY fast, hit a 'jump' in the track, fly about 10 feet into the air and *CRASH* into the water producing a HUGE splash! I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!!!!! Download the video clip, and you'll see what I mean! It was insane!!!! Anyway, we did a number of other things at the park, which you'll see the photos of below...but download the jumping boat thingy! While the coaster was amazing, that was really the highlight of this strange place!!! Onto some photos!!! And then SPLASH as you come crashing down into the water. And the most amazing thing...there isn't an operater ANYWHERE around! Europe is so awesome!!! To see this thing in action, download the video below.... Then the boat comes screaming down the drop and hits the "jump" and you go flying in the air! First the boat gets pulled up "Boomerang Style" And now...the self-operated 'jumping boat thingy'. Here are the instructions. I love how the rider has to "pull the cord" to start the ride! They have one of those "AquaZone" rides that you see at Legoland. The self-operated upside down flat ride. It was kind of like a rock-o-plane, except that you just pushed a button on the panel and it rotated upside down! Elissa is loving the trampolines all over Europe! Here we go, getting ready for massive amounts of airtime! Awww...doesn't Peis and Elissa look cute? There is "Balder-like" airtime on every hill! Airtime hills of death!!! The helix of death on this wacky Gerstlauer coaster. They had little RatTums' or "Sea Pigs" as they call these in Germany, so this alraedy is an "Elissa Friendly Park!" Welcome to Klotten! boatjump.zip

Ok, I just had to merge Soren's Photo DR into this thread! It was just too damn funny for it to be in the random thread especially with Dan & Joey and the German chicks! If you haven't seen it, scroll up and take a look! It's great!!! --Robb "Thanks for trying to hook the boys up, Soren...too bad they didn't score!" Alvey

Day Eleven Part One: Phantasialand Today we visited a park that we still wonder why on the ACE trip in 2002 we went to a catherdral instead of this park, but whatever, I guess for that day ACE stood for "American Cathedral Enthusaists." Oh, well, we're not members anymore and that was just one of many reasons why.... Anyway, the park was really nice! Very well themed and probably one of the nicer themed parks in Europe. That being said, there isn't too much to ride there, and what is there, while good, the park does seem like it's missing a really 'stand out' attraction. Hopefully this new B&M will help that. We rode just about everything the park had to offer except for the rapids ride, which we are told is VERY good, and a couple of the minor dark rides (we rode the two major ones.) First up was the Colorado Adventure or the "Michael Jackson Thrill Ride." Not only did this ride get the typical Vekoma jokes, but quite a few obvious Wacko Jacko ones as well! The mine train was actually quite good. Not as good as the Disneyland Paris mine train, but very good. After that we did a very strange ride, the Mystery Tower (I think that's what it's called). All we knew about this is that it was an Intamin drop tower completely enclosed. What we didn't know is that it is not your typical Intamin Drop ride, it's a totally different shot/drop combo tower, that actually reminded us more of a really big frog hopper than any other drop ride we can think of. Fun? Yes! Amazing? Not really. I wish it would have been a typical Intamin drop! Then we did Winjas, which really took us by surprise! This ride was GREAT! What we thought was your typical Maurer Söhne extended spinning mouse was actually a really well themed ride with lots of weird effects. It's got a elevator lift system, a 'tilting track' drop, and a 'broken track' effect where as you come into the brake run, a bit of track you are on drops a couple of feet, then moves back into place to give the feeling that you ride vehicle just broke loose. And on top of that both layouts of each side, which are completely different, were really fun! Lots of drops, spinning, tunnels and effects. This was certianly our favorite ride in the park. Then we did the Vekoma monorail, or the coaster in the box that puts you to sleep while seeing holographic birds and listening to new age music. Yeah...it's that weird. It wasn't really THAT bad...but I actually did come off it feeling a bit more tired than when I went in! We then checked out a couple of the park's dark rides. One that was like "Mexicans of the Carribean" which reminded me a lot of a Pirates type of ride, but in a train instead of a boat, and set in mexico instead of the carribean. But the scenes reminded me a LOT of Pirates. Then next came a really wacked out dark ride themed to Asia stuff. And I say "asia stuff" because some of it haunted, some of it was serious, some of it was aligators dressed in chinese outfits dancing! :shock: It used an omnimover system that was VERY similar to the haunted manion. And there were even hitchhiking ghosts at the end! Both dark rides were good, but nothing really spectacular. Overall, we had a really great day at the park, thanks mostly to all the people who ended up meeting up with us throughout the day. Thanks to everyone as the more people we meet really helps make our trip that much more enjoyable. We'll certainly be back to this park when they open their B&M inverted. It was a good park, but they really do need something else and hopefully this new coaster will fill that gap. I still don't get why we didn't come here in 2002 when we were only about 15 miles away from this park. Oh well... Onto some photos! As you can see our group got bigger by the end of the day. Thanks again to everyone for hanging out with us! This was the "Mexicans of the Carribean" dark ride. Everything stereotypical you can think of! Thuur seems to love it!!! It had everything from scary ghosts to dancing aligators! From chinese culture to hitchhiking ghosts! We couldn't figure it out! Geister Riskcha, the Asian themed dark ride, confused us all. Warning! Construction Photo!!! Pictures of dirt!!! New B&M here soon! Lots of filming going on today. We expect to see some great videos for next year's contest! From this photo it looks like a racing coaster, but both tracks are VERY different from each other. Two credits!!! Yay!!! Winjas was a seriously fun coaster! Some totally unexpected effects on the ride. Elissa and Fynn ride Winjas together. I think she's going to leave me for him! The Mystery Tower. Phallic? Yes! And it's like a really big frog hopper! Tom LOVES high speed Michael Jackson Vekoma rides! The Michael Jackson Thrill Ride..."Elissa, was that you touching me in the tunnels???" Here was our group first thing in the morning. You'll see that we grew throughout the day! We stayed on property at Hotel Phantasia. A very nice hotel which reminded me a lot of a Disney resort.

Dude, if you see this thing, you'll know that dying is totally possible!!! Farup's was an obstacle course, this one is certainly survival!!! -Robb

Day Ten Part Two: Toverland Toverland: We had no idea what to make of this place. All we knew is that it was kind of like Camp Snoopy at Mall of America with most of the rides inside, but a few of them outdoors also. This place was so much fun and for several reasons: - Booster Bike was actually really cool! - The Survival Course was INSANE!!! - Lots of indoor rides. - Really nice, fun place for families. Yeah, the Booster Bike was actually a lot of fun! It's kind of like a launched Roller Skater with cool trains. We thought this would be really rough, and it does rattle a bit, but it's not uncomfortable at all. I really think Vekoma should stick to making rides without OTSR's! The launch was just 'fun' not intense, but really fun! It was one of those rides where EVERYONE on the train just seemed to throw their hands up and have a good time. That's a sign of a great ride, IMO! Then some of us tried out the ultimate in the "never allowed in America" category - The Survival Course! This looked just like something you'd see on either Survivor or Fear Factor. If Universal wants a REAL "Fear Factor Live" attraction, they should really look into this. Basically, you are about 25 feet up in the air, the entire time walking a 'tight rope' around the whole course going though different obstacles. Only your safey rope and a helment keep you from meeting the ground in a not-so-happy fashion. This is NOT for the out of shape (which shocks me that Joey did this!!!) We really had a good time at Toverland. They had two decent coasters, even though they were of a smaller size, the slides were fun, the survival course was fun and this place is just more proof that you don't need the world's tallest and fastest coaster to have an amazing time with a group of friends. Onto today's photos! Once again we had a really great time meeting up with everyone and hanging out today!!!! (Where is Elissa's hand?!?!) Elissa has gotten herself into an interesting "position" Joey: "This was NOT a good idea!!!" The gap inbetween those is a LOT wider than it looks! This gives you an idea of how high up you are. Soren gets ready to go out onto the course. The survival course takes the "Never in America" award of the trip so far. Tom and Robb having a gay 'ol time on the Roller Skater. The ride was fairly smooth, and a lot of fun! It's like a 'launched Roller Skater!" Dan and Joey assume the position! The star attraction here is the Vekoma Booster Bike which we all really liked a lot! Toverland reminds me a lot of Camp Snoopy in Mall of America.

Day Ten Part One: Movie Park Germany Originally we were told that it would not be possible to do these two parks in one day. I'm happy to report that we were not given correct information. Had Movie Park been packed, that might have been the case, but since there were minimal crowds there, with the longest line we waited in was about 15 minutes for the Wild Mouse, it was very easy to do both parks in one day. Here are some notes about Movie Park: - Nicer than we were led to believe. The park itself was nice looking, although the ride selection leaves a lot to be desired. - The Coasters: - Bandit (Wild Wild West) is one of the roughest coasters I've ever been on. This is a Cyclone clone that is a LOT rougher than Psyclone! :shock: But then when you get the SoB team together (RCCA Ride with Premiere Trains) what do you expect? - FX or whatever they are calling Eraser now: Typical SLC. Pretty rough one too. - Cop Car Chase (Lethal Weapon): What a GREAT ride!!! We had no idea! We were preparing for something really terrible, but this ride was really fun! It was very smooth, and most of it is inside the building including the vertical loop. We were told that the ride used to have some great effects, which none of them apparently work now, but still this ride was the best in the park. - Drop Tower (Acrophobia clone): I forget what this was called, but it's the same as SFOG's Acrophobia, but this one actually turns and tilts like it's supposed to! Overall, we had a fun day. We met up with a lot of people from www.onride.de and we want to say thanks for showing us around. We feel that Onride.de is a lot like the German version of TPR, you guys like to have fun at parks instead of geeking out too much! Onto today's photos! Our group really grew a lot today! It was great meeting all the people from our boards and from onride.de! Joey "I'm never listening to ANY Europeans again when they say 'you don't get wet' on the water rides!!!" Bandit - When RCCA builts it and it has Premiere trains, do NOT expect a smooth ride! Ahh, just what the world needs...more SLC photos! Cop Car Chase (Lethal Weapon) was GREAT! Our favorite ride in the park! Smooth and was really unique. The park also has an "Acrophobia" style drop tower. Chicks love this...but it's not so 'guy friendly' The park is nicer than we were expecting, but it is still kind of like a Universal park with a MUCH smaller budget. Soren and Peis have met a new furry friend. Oh, please, PLEASE throw away the key!!!! Rainer and Eric from www.onride.de LOVE Vekoma SLC's! Elissa: "Oh, joy....another SLC" Soren: "Oh, joy....another SLC that I GET TO RIDE WITH ELISSA!"

Yes, the area around Colossos is the ONLY area of the park that is like that. It does seem as though the area was cleared, perhaps to build that coaster that was rumored, but never built? The rest of the park is awesome, though. --Robb

Europe Trip Update!!! Hey everyone! Sorry there was no update yesterday as our hotel did not have internet access. We are at the Hotel Phantasia now, which is VERY nice BTW, much like a Disney resort, and they DO have internet! Yay! But since it is already very late (we were in the bar with Soren trying to hook Dan and Joey up with some hot chicks) and I have three parks to do updates on, they will be brief. So here goes: Day Nine: Heide Park Heide Park is awesome. I never understood why the ACErs didn't like this park during our visit in 2002. But we love Heide for many of the same reasons we love Epcot. It's beautiful, relaxing, and although only has a few signature attractions, they are ALL great. Well, maybe except for the SLC! Here are a few notes about our day: - Heide is probably the best landscaped park in the world. Seriously, this place craps all over Busch Gardens Williamsburg, but for some reason never gets the recognition. I can't even imagine how much it must cost to keep this place looking as awesome as it does. - Colossos still runs GREAT after 5 seasons. There is a *little* roughness where you can feel the track joints duing some of the ride, but 90% of it is glass smooth. I can't imagine a park wanting any other manufactuerer to build their wooden coaster after seeing the quality of this ride. It's not quite as good as Balder, but by the end of our day, it was producing MASSIVE airtime, and it's smooth as can be. - We got a credit!!!! Limit, the park's Vekoma SLC was closed during our 2002 visit. We got that credit today! Yay!!! - Slides of death. This park has the best slides of death collection. They are everywhere. And the ones with rollers on them give you extra extra speed! - Scream! It was cool to see that one of the park's two observation towers has been convertered into an Intamin Gyro Drop. This one was just as good as PKI. - Other random stuff - It was cool to meet up with more members of the board including Soren and his brother, Sebastian and his girlfriend. Great meeting up with all of you! Now onto some photos! Our group for today at Heide! Top Spin = "Nut Buster!!!!" Elissa loved it!!! Scream used to be one of the park's two observation towers that was converted into an Intamin Gyro Drop. Elissa does the full 360 in the hamster wheel! The "Slides of Death." We played in the multiple slide areas a LOT today! While Colossos isn't quite as good as Balder, it's still one of the top 5 coasters in the world in my opinion. Colossos was still damn smooth and produces some MASSIVE airtime! Ahh, Colossos the real reason we were here! "I'm still a bear, and I've still caught a Dolphin...har, har, har...." Just what the world needs...more photos of a Vekoma SLC! Elissa finally got her credit on Limit, and Soren was happy to share the moment with her. Heide Park - If there was a place that could make a Vekoma Corkscrew look GREAT, it's here!

This thread should answer your question: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17014

Day Eight: Bon Bon Land and Hansa Park. Today’s update will be a little briefer since I have to cover two parks, it’s kind of late, and the internet wi-fi is REALLY expensive in this hotel! :o Bon Bon Land – This is one of the weirdest, screwed up parks ever! But I mean that in a good way. This park might as well be called the “bodily function park” in that just about every bodily function is covered. Let me explain. The park is themed with these bizarre cartoon animal characters, each one of them that seems to represent different things that your body does. From the peeing grasshopper to the farting dog, the vomiting bird and the crapping seagull. It’s all there! The photos will explain more. Needless to say, it made for some entertaining photos! We met up with some members of http://www.themeparkdenmark.dk/ again and they helped make the day even better. As for the coasters, the premiere attraction is a Gerstlauer 95 degree drop coaster. I have to be honest, after riding both of these I really hope those rumors for Dollywood getting one does not come true. While they are ‘fun’ they aren’t very comfortable and they ‘feel’ more like a portable ride than a permanent fixture. The other coaster is the “Dog Fart Coaster.” Now we had been hearing about this coaster for a long time, and we originally just thought it was some funny translation. No, were wrong, it REALLY is the “Dog Fart Coaster!” You ride in a train themed like a dog, and when the train travels through the ‘dog house’ you can hear the fart noise, and when you come out of the dog house you see the figuring of the dog crapping on the ground. No, I am NOT making this up!!!! There seriously is a speaker in the dog house where the fart comes from, and there even is poop on the ground! This should give you a clear idea of the sense of humor in this park. And if that isn’t weird enough, now comes the ‘self operated rides’ including a roller coaster and a pirate ship ride! These were everywhere in the park! And what do we mean by ‘self operated?’ Simple, there are no ride ops, these rides are on the honor system and you operate them yourself! The coaster was interesting, and it’s not really a ‘coaster’, certainly not a ‘credit’ for us, but it was a lot of fun! They also had a self-operated zip-line ride, I mean, a full sized zipline that probably was 100 feet long and about 30 feet off the ground! This wasn’t like your coin operated supermarket rides, these were REAL rides without any ride op at all! Seriously, it was REALLY cool! We left around 12:30 so we could catch a ferry into Germany and make it to Hansa Park. This was to be a ‘bonus park’ on the trip and it turns out we had plenty of time to do both parks in one day, especially since there were no crowds at either one. We had no idea what to expect from Hansa and we came out really liking it a lot! It was also a weird, screwed up park, again in a good way, and this time because of all it’s bizarre rides. As for coasters, they had a pretty good custom layout Schwarzkopf with a single loop and a CRAZY moment of airtime! They also had a custom layout Roller Skater and a Wild Mouse. But that’s where the ‘normal’ stuff stops. The new ride of the this year was the “Starflyer”, or at least that’s it’s common name. Basically, it’s a chairswing ride that is 150 feet tall and goes 40 MPH!!! Yes, once again, I am NOT making this up! This ride was seriously cool! It craps all over the Screamin’ Swings! I mean, you feel REALLY high up, and it goes REALLY fast. And all you are sitting in is what looks like your common chairswing, nothing much different about it. It scared the crap out of all of us, but we LOVED it! Hansa also had some of those ‘bouncy things’ that we encountered at Farup a few days ago. We probably spent more time here, again, than on the rest of the rides! You could really get bouncing good on these too. We bounced Joey and got ‘girls on trampoline’ footage. What more do you need? The other bizarre ride was the “Metro Liner.” The only way to describe this is a double-bayern curve. I have no idea who makes it or where this ride comes from, but it’s really cool! We took a spin, literally, on the spinning rapids ride. The same type that was installed at Astroworld and SFA a few years ago but this one was much longer and spun MUCH more!!! Elissa rode, and I’m not sure she was pleased with that decision! Anyway, we’re off to Heide Park tomorrow and more Intamin steel, I mean, WOOD coasters! Onto some photos from today! And here are the two trucks that collided and caused a 2 hour delay during our drive! Grrr.... Thanks to "German Tom" for helping us with the traffic information! This is that weird 'double bayern curve' thing. Anyone know what this ride is or who makes it or if there are any others like it??? Elissa got molested by the charaters! She really did!!! I'll post the video of it when we get better internet access! They also had one of those horse rides like Legoland, but adults could ride, then they hand you a gun, and you shoot targets for points!!!! This could totally be the poster for the park's gay day! Spinning rapids rides rule! A 150 foot tall chair swings that goes 40 MPH!!! Yes! And all that is holding you in is a seatbelt and those little chairswing chains just like the normal versions! But the coolest, most insane ride here was the "Starflyer." They also had a Vekoma Roller Skater with a totally unique layout. Elissa jumping on trampolines! They also had a bouncy thing. Kind of hard to describe, but that huge "pillow" is filled with air, and allows you to jump, do flips, and all kinds of stuff that no American park would ever allow! The park's Schwarzkopf looper was kind of like half of SFOT's Shock Wave. One loop instead of two, one crazy airtime moment instead of two. This was a REALLY good ride! We arrive at Hansa Park around 3pm with plenty of time to see everything the park has to offer. Here we are boarding another ferry on our way to Germany. The drop is fun, the rest of it is kind of brutal. Overall, not a bad ride, but I really wish these were smoother. Oh, yes...let's not forget the park's star attaction! The vomiting rat is yet another of the 'bodily function' characters at the park. There were plenty of boobs to be had all over the park. We didn't mind this at all! Dan plays 'ride op' for the zipline ride! "Wheee! Self-Powered Zipline is fun!" Apparently, he laid more than just a fart!!! Note the speaker on the left inside the dog house. That's where the 'fart' comes from! The dog fart coaster - see the train in the background? The dog mascot who poops and farts all around the park! The self-operated coaster was about 15 feet tall and loads of fun, but not a 'credit.' It felt more like a flat ride than a coaster! Instructions for the "Self-Operated" roller coaster. Could you imagine what would happen if this was allowed in America??? Bon Bon Land's "Peeing Ant." Our group photo with us and the guys from www.themepark.dk

Day Seven: Tivoli and Bakken Today started out with another ferry. A much quicker one this time, about a 20 minute ride crossing from Sweden to Denmark. We said goodbye to the country that breeds porn stars and hello to the one that breeds super models! Not a bad trade off if you ask me. Tivoli Gardens was not far from the port so it was a quick drive and we were at the park. Tivoli is a VERY different park from anywhere else on the trip so far, in fact, it's probably different from just about anywhere else we've been. It's kind of hard to describe. It's VERY traditional, but also very beautiful. It's part cultural experience, part amusement park. It's probably what you'd get if you combined the tradition of Blackpool, the landscaping of Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and the gardens of Bonfante. And yet you still wouldn't get Tivoli. It's just someplace you have to experience. The coasters were good fun. Daemonen was better than we expected it to be. It's got to be the shortest B&M ever built. But still it's a lot of fun. It's not as forceless as some other recent offerings like Silver Bullet or Talon, but it's not very forcefull either. But a great ride anyway. Tivoli also boasts a scenic railway which had some decent pops of airtime! What a great ride! Something so old that can produce so much fun! We took in the park, got some fun photos and hung out with some of the members of http://www.themepark.dk Thanks guys for showing us around! In the middle of the day we took a quick trip over to Bakken, about 20 minutes away. This was another interesting park. The only way to describe the park is that it's sort of like Wildwood, but without the water. Most of the amusement attractions are owned by different people, although if you buy the wristband, it gets you into all of them. Another scenic railway here, and this one was crazy! Probably the best of the scenic railway or side friction woodies I've done. Some insane airtime in both the front and the back, but beware, this one is kind of brutal also! Bakken also had an "Outdoor Skull Mountain" which was REALLY cool! Damn fast Intamin rides! Lots of other flats and random coasters like a Fireball with the longest most insane program ever. A Flitzer coaster, car race rides, and lots of candy and other 'seaside' type stalls and attractions, but no water! There wasn't even water in the dunk tank! Anyway, two really 'different' parks today, and two parks that look NOTHING like anything you'll see in the US. On to some photos!!! Awww...this reminded us of the Quaker! OMG, we're in the funhouse....Don't fall Dave!!! The Flitzer really reminded us of something out of Wildwood. This Frisbee had one of the longest craziest programs ever! "An outdoor Skull Mountain! Yay!" This coaster looks familiar... This one had some really crazy airtime! How does it stay on the track?!? With another scenic railway. Now some photos of Bakken...another traditional park. Group Photo! Thanks to the guys from themepark.dk we had GREAT tour guides. The "Viking Buffet" now this has ACE written all over it!!! Airtime on a side friction woodie. Scary, but cool! The brakeman makes sure the train keeps the correct speed. Otherwise, well....people would get a MUCH wilder ride! Enough culture! Back to the coasters! Tivoli's Scenic Railway is one of the oldest coaters in Europe. This is about as much culture as I can handle at a theme park! And you can even get some of the most bizarre photos ever! ...to narrow streets filled with unique shops and attractions. Tivoli is a very different kind of park from anything you'll see in the US. Parts of it are beautiful gardens with elaborate landscaping... Here is some vertical loop footage for Derek! This is probably the shortest B&M, but it's really good! Here is Daemonen, Tivoli's B&M Floorless. Here we are at Tivoli Gardens. A very interesting park. It's like part cultural experience, part theme park. This is ONLY funny to idiot Americans! On the ferry, I get to show off some of my talents! Our day started with another Ferry ride!!!

^ Yeah we missed it, sorry. Not really that much into walkthroughs. WE do HHN at Universal and that's our year's quota of walkthroughts. We were there for the coasters! And speaking of coasters at Liseberg, I have just posted a POV of Balder to the Members Only Forum: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=7 Enjoy! --Robb

BEGIN RANT! Ok Real, with all due respect, because I love your NL work, BUT...... I just have to comment about this. How could you NOT count a wooden coaster as a wooden coaster??? What characteristics does it not have? Roughness? That doesn't make any sense! It's not any rougher or smoother than Viper at SFGam, Aska at Nara Dreamland, Jack Rabbit at Kennywood, so do you consider those steel coasters also? It has more wood than Villian, so is that a steel coaster also? It has more wood than Coney Island Cyclone so is that a steel coaster also? It's structure is made of wood, it's track is made of wood, so how exactly do you classify it as a 'steel coaster?' It's not like it rides like Gemini, which, *IS* a steel coaster because it's track is made of wood. I have to assume you are kidding, because, while I wouldn't ever tell someone how to count credits, for example powered coasters, etc, but calling Balder or Colossos a steel coaster is so idiotic and stupid. It just make absolutely no sense at all. --Robb "I'm really REALLY hoping you are kidding because otherwise that's the most retarded 'coaster analogy' I've ever heard someone say!" Alvey /end rant

^ Well, I'm really hoping we can help move it back up Mitch's poll! I'm not sure why it fell either. Other than I think I remember some people complaining that it felt too much like a steel coaster and not a wood coaster and they didn't like that. IMO, I'd much rather have my woodies smoother and full of airtime than bone-jarring and rough and going to hell, like it seems most CCI's are these days. --Robb

Voting will go until about July 15th. I'll post a final date when we get back from Europe. --Robb "Likes seeing everyone's top ten list!" Alvey

^ 1am to be exact! BTW, I have also just posted the POV that we shot yesterday of TusenFryd's Thunder Coaster in the Members Only forum: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=7 Enjoy! --Robb

Day Six: Liseberg. O M F G - - B A L D E R!!!!! Wow...I mean....WOW That how you describe, that's how your face looks when Balder SLAMS into the brake run. It's incredible. It's a #1 woodie. Is is *thee* #1 woodie! What can I say? We came here psyched about Kanonen, the parks new Intamin Rocket coaster, and came away thinking "Yeah, that was good and all....but Balder....OMFG!!!!" I wasn't too sure what to expect with Balder other than I knew that Colossos at Heide Park was GREAT and could this be better? I mean, YEAH! If I had to rank my woodies, Balder would be #1, Colossos would be #2, and Phoenix would be #3. That is how good Balder is! If you've been on SROS and know what "SROS Airtime" means, then when I tell you that Balder has "SROS Airtime" on like 7 different hills, you can imagine how amazing this ride is. It blew us all away. I'll post photos and videos of it and you guys can see for yourself. Oh, and what about Kanonen? It's good...I mean, it's really good, and for it's little size it packs quite a punch especially through those wicked turns and the airtime hill. It's no XLR8R or Storm Runner, but still it's good. But when Balder is right next door, even XLR8R or Storm Runner would be pale in comparison! And let's not forget about that Schwarzkopf mine train they have! Could very well be one of the best Schwarzkopf's I've been on! It's right up there with Shock Wave, Mindbender, and the original version of Revolution. As for the park itself, it's really an amazing, beautiful place. Just as with all the other parks in Europe, there isn't a park in America that looks like this place. The entrance areas with all the buildings and shops looks like something out of Disneyland's Main Street, but not as 'plastic' looking. This is the real deal, not the replica. The park is clean, well landscaped, and the most important part, has the best looking female staff we've ever seen! It's important to point this out because the best looking female employee at SFMM wouldn't even be the worst looking chick here. Wow. To quote Joey "Sweden is where they breed porn stars!" Other cool things we noticed was lots of McDonalds everywhere! This made Elissa VERY happy as we ate the McDonalds near our hotel 3 times!!! :shock: And you know what? We saw the hottest looking chick WORKING AT THE MCDONALDS!!! We love this place! The park treated us all really well and we were able to strap our lipstick camera onto all the coasters so we'll have some really awesome POV footage for you all on our next round of DVDs! We also met up with some TPR readers Martin and Rob (Hi guys) who are also representing www.coasterforce.com as well as some of the local coaster enthusaists from the area (I'm horrible with names, sorry!) We had a great time and thanks for showing us the park! In total we had two days at Liseberg since we got there around 6pm last night. We're glad we did because the weather was awesome last night...a little rainy today. Not quite "typhoon weather", but certainly a bit wet! Sweden has it all...Great Coasters, lots of McDonalds, and hot chicks! Ok, now onto some photos! Hot Chicks everywhere...even working at the McDonalds! Dan and Joey are hanging with the WRONG crowd!!! ...ahh, they have accepted us into their culture! ...just trying to fit in... Here I am hanging out with the locals... Group photo in the mirror maze!!! Put your crap...er...I mean skräp in here! Why do we always get stuck riding all the spinning rides??? Martyn captured all of the crazy bumper car antics on video. Apparently, Sweden has dinosaurs wandering around the country. Day two was a little wetter than our visit the night before. Here's a good shot of Balder's layout. Every hill you can see there produces ejector airtime. But this was just rediculous, sick, crazy, insane...whatever word you use to describe it. Kanonen had some really great airtime moments too. Over the tophat, the bunny hull, the "twisty thing"...wow. We thought Thunder Coaster had awesome airtime, but Balder is in a totally different leauge. And the third full sized coaster also kicked ass! This park probably has the best ratio of AWESOME coasters on the whole trip! And this one was good too! OMG!!! What can I say, this is the best ride ever!!! At the Liseberg hotel, Dan and Joey had their own loft! What was that crash noise heard at 3am guys?

Same here! Looking forward to our trip in August. Anyone else from the boards want to meet up in the dells the weekend of Aug 12th? We'll be at the Dells on Friday and some of Saturday, and then SFGAm on Sunday of that weekend. --Robb

Day Five: TusenFryd So our day stated out on a boat...a ferry to be exact! After Farup Sommerland we boarded our "overnight Ferry" going from Hirstalls to Larvik. A couple hours drive later on Norwegian roads and we were at the park! When we arrived, we met with the park's operations director who took us around to film on all the coasters and the space shot before the park opened. First up was Thunder Coaster! We had heard really mixed reviews of this ride, and all I can say is OMG! Vekoma can do two things right...kiddie coasters and Woodies! This one was the roughest of the three we rode (the other two being Loup Garoup and Robin Hood), but DAMN, the airtime on this ride is CRAZY!!! It wasn't rough like "Ghostrider" rough where you feel each bolt as the train goes through the track, which is good, but it did have a couple of good jolts. Other than that, the ride was GREAT! We rode about 7 or 8 times, and we even got to strap the lipstick camera on the front of the train which resulted in some GREAT pov! We also did the Vekoma Loop-Screw, which, you know, as expected. A fun ride, good for this park, but nothing amazing. The space shot was fun, and so was the "worlds smallest coaster!" And yes, it actually was a credit! Then was "Super Splash" the Mack water coaster. This is certainly debatable if counts as coaster or not. Elissa and I not because IMO it's a 'water ride' but Joey who is more of a credit whore than we are will count it! The ride was awesome! It really is a splashdown boat, with a little drop in the beginning, then a REALLY good drop followed by a bunny hill into the water. And when you hit the water you don't get soaked like you do on most splashdown boats. You get wet, yes, but not drenched! So yeah, a water coaster with two good drops and you don't have to get your underwear soaked. Works for us! We spent most of the day doing the rest of the park, even was allowed to get our camera onto the skycoaster. This was Dan's first ever skycoaster and we still can't believe he had to go all the way to Norway to do one! On a sad note, we didn't see any oil rigs or polar bears as expected having been on Epcot's Norway attraction! (We did see a troll though, other than Joey!) Onto some photos!!! Joey and the troll! He feels at home now. Every European park seems to have crazy fun slides of death! But it's this second drop that uses the terrain to make it longer than the first drop and it also gives INSANE airtime! Thunder Coaster's first drop reminds me a lot of Hersheypark's Wildcat. Luckily we didn't get THAT wet! It's not called "Super Splash" for nothing! Dave is all prepared to ride! Ahh, Super Splash! The best ever splashdown boat! The "Japp" Space Shot! Here you can see the entire layout of the ride. It uses the terrain really well and it has INSANE airtime!!! That little camera taped to the front of the ride will capture all that INSANE airtime!!! Thunder Coaster! Insane airtime! A little rough...but did I mention *INSANE* airtime???? Wow! A somewhat good photo of the two of us! TusenFryd welcomes Theme Park Review! Here we are crossing from Denmark to Norway! (Where are the oil rigs???) The cabins were nice, but this is no cruise ship! Here we about about to board our mini-van into the ferry!

OK, I fixed all the Farup photos and captions....go back a couple of pages! --Robb

Ok, well this connection messed up some of the photos and caption, but I think you get the idea. EDIT: Ok, I fixed the pics above, so now all the photos and captions are correct! --Robb