Nrthwnd

Cool. The castle show and the recently re-opened Jungle Cruise look great! Another couple of reasons to get back there to Tokyo Disney Resort.

I would add, any of them in the world can count. Sad, really. The 'corkscrew' drawing, both sides of the name is actually a nice, different touch. But wait - wasn't it in some...movie???

Repeating myself, but I'm also interested, if anything that has been done lately (retracking, renovating, anything!), and improved the ride of these three coasters? If any. Two for France: Goudurix (Parc d'Astrix); Anaconda (Walygator). And from Germany: Bandit (Movie Park)

Boulder Dash does not = Balderdash.

SPOKHUSET Welcome Video! And the rest of the Grona Lund visit... After I'd had my beer and smoke, I went back into the park, and headed for an old credit I hadn't ridden on this tour: Vilda Musen, the Gerstlauer bobsled coaster. A mouse-like track that weaves in and out of Jetline and is just a great coaster to ride! But, I didn't know where the "fastpass" entrance for TPR would be. So I went to the entrance, showed the ride op my TPR wrist band, and then....then she put her finger up to her lips and said to me, "shhhhhhhh." Then she opened this door we were beside, point to it, and then me to get in - and up I went in The Secret Elevator! Which was cool and freaky at the same time. That's when i decided to make a video of the (ahem) journey up to the loading station. Here it is again... [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=MVI_5579_ue6l[/coastertube] After that ride I had some lunch, and then headed over to the park's walk through haunt house, called Spokhuset. It was supposed to open an hour after the park opened. What I didn't know, was that the denizens and local ghouls of the place put on a "Welcome to Our House" musical number! So, I got most of it, and here it is, with some pretty energetic dancing, too... [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=MVI_5595_sxs0[/coastertube] And after that, and a great tour through the house, and a few more rides on Twister, Insane, and Jetline, a few souvenirs to buy, and then we all had to re-group and leave the park at 3 pm. )o: But that was okay, We were heading for our final ferry trip, this one being the overnight cruise, from Stockholm to Helsinki! And I was definitely looking forward to this one, like the one we did five years ago. The Secret Elevator, leads to this great bobsled coaster, Vilda Musen! Lunch time! I decided to try the cone for fries with a glob of garlic mayonnaise on top of it. It lookedc great, till I got half way through it, and realized there was more mayo than fries, now! The remains of lunch. Next time - less mayo. (o; Jetline whizzes by Blataget dark ride. When Spokhuset opened, these two appear, first. Then, several more - and then they went into the musical Welcome number. It was great! Couldn't resist. My kind of eyewear, heh. Also found a great park t-shirt here. Dessert after lunch. Coffee was fine; the donut, not so much. Thai food at at this theme park Rocks! Yes. Yes Thai food does rock at Grona Lund. Another wave swinger shot. Saying bye bye to Twister. Awesome wooden coaster. I loved it! The ferry that travels all around the nearby water area. There's a Grona Lund stop, too! I do like to take photos of swings and such. Street entertainment - and yes that is a gp on the shoulders of the performer! Would they allow this in Canada or the USA? One more workout in Grona Lund's awesome Fun House. Don't hurt yourself, guys. Last shot in the park. And another great thing the park provides. Blankets on the benches in the bar area. For the colder times. In North America, these probably wouldn't last two minutes there. THANK YOU for a wonderful visit, GRONA LUND! I do want to come back and visit again. (o;

^ I loved him in the re-do of "Miracle on 34th Street", as Mr.Claus.

Well, I tend to forage, from time to time.

The park is landscaped to bits all over the place. With a fairy tale area, plazas with fountains and gardens, the place is packed with visual beauty, besides the rides, lol! And more carousels/merry-go-rounds, than you ever believed existed in one park! Have a great visit! I miss Efteling, myself.

Great coaster. With neon orange OR yellow trains.

Grona Lund, continued... After all of the morning ERT had been done, the park was about ready to open, at 11 am. I started to notice groups of people (tour and staff) figuring out their next move, ride, coaster, etc. So I decided to take a short break outside the park, and ended up at a very nice pub less than a block away from the park's entrance. Which gave me an "interesting" video of Insane, mostly of the "sounds" coming from it, from where I sat at my outside table. Here's the video. I call it "Insane Sounds"... [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=MVI_5551_ufcj[/coastertube] And here's some more photos, into the afternoon at Grona Lund... After ERT, everybody re-group! Another re-group! A small re-group. Staff Group. Bigger Staff Group. (o; And a THANK YOU to all the Grona Lund STAFF for such a great day, there. You all really are a Big Part of what Grona Lund Park is all about - I can't wait to come back and visit with you again. A bathroom stop, before heading out of the park. But then I thought, when I saw This.... "It needs this facade, from Tokyo Disney Sea." (from the 2013 TPR Japan Tour) The Public enters the park! And I exit, returning in a couple of hours. This is the pub I found. Looked friendly. TPR still ascending Eclipse, on the outside. Even though it's in Swedish, I understood it! Woo hoo! The lovely staff at O'Leary's Bar. And one with yours truly in it, lol. Where I sat, drank, had a smoke, and taped that "Insane Sounds"video. Sky doesn't look good, but it was a really nice day, into the afternoon. There's the entrance, back into the park, Busy, huh? (o; Great set of concerts coming here in the summer! I was told there was a full ship over there, brought up from the deep, in it's entirety! But the walk to get to it was too long (far away) for me. Maybe next visit. Like the ABBA Museum, lol. Duh, I think this was an aquarium of some kind. (o; Liked the entrance with how they did it with water effects. Hmm. Dark clouds rolling in. No matter. The day went fine.

^^^ Well, there were two planes, side by side, sometimes duelling each other, which was cool. But yeah, eight persons at a time. Well, it is/was such a big deal (still) at Tivoli, everybody was willing to queue up, and wait it out for their turn on it. But after watching it run a cycle, you could tell who wasn't going to ride it, on their life, lol!

This, I like.

Just to add on, I found the ultra twister to be much smoother, when hitting the brakes, etc. Two years before that, when the coaster and corkscrew were on the other side of the park, ooooeee there were at least two brake STOPS, not slow downs. Very abrupt, throwing you forward into your OTSR. This time, a -ma-zing.

Big Thunder at Disneyland Paris. This is like the experience you got, when you entered Tokyo Disney Sea for the first time. You don't see a castle in the middle of the park. It's a volcano! Mount Prometheus, actually. I found this exactly like BTM in Paris. You enter Frontierland, and you don't just see an island with the Rivers of America going around it. Big Thunder Mountain is ON the island! Not Tom Sawyer, like in Disneyland and WDW MK. Brilliant. I always love looking at it and watching the trains rush by, at various spots you can see. Can't wait for the 'date' with BTM, one year from now.

I ultra twisters! All of 'em. In great shape...or the other shape. Great flashback to Nagashima Spaland! I want to go back to Japan. Seriously.

It was so great, re-riding this thing on the TPR Scandi Tour in June. And I actually enjoyed the programmed cycle better than our having to hits buttons, ourself. I understood they could put the cycle back into "manual," (during our ERT?) and watching you guys go backwards was an extra Woo Hoo! Robb. And 'TURBO' Rocks and Rules!

06-24-14 ~ Grona Lund by (cloudy) Day Today was a lot of stuff to be doing before the park visit and during the visit. First, we had to lad up our luggage on the bus, and not be able to touch it until the following night! That's because, on the overnight ferry we were boarding later in the day, no access to the bus was possible. So we had to do that first. Then, a bit of breakfast at the hotel, followed by more breakfast in the park, before we started our next ERT session. Several of the people on the tour had put out charity money, for a chance to get on TOP of Eclipse's (their star flyer) main mechanism (holding the swings), and then rise to the top of the tower, get photos taken,then back down to terra firma. Took awhile, but they all got it done, and money was raised for a great cause, Give Kids The World. ERT was offered again on Twister, Insane, Jetline, Wild Mouse, and Kvasten. I really enjoyed riding Insane in daylight. Better than at night, for myself. And Twister was (another) insane! Several times during rides, I thought the ride had ended, then another twist and turn in the tracks to say otherwise, lol. Great coaster. This was one of the ones I was really looking forward to riding, and it didn't disappoint. (more to follow...) Schedule for the day, including (eventually) our overnight ferry to Finland! The early ones heading out to the park, for their Eclipse Experience. The rest of us waited to go over to the park. Yep. There's an "ABBA The Museum" here. But I was more interested in that Swedish Music Hall of Fame. Unless they're one and the same thing. No matter. Maybe next visit... Look! Giraffe! Sort of! People on top, ready to (literally) ride on up to the top of the Eclipse tower. Too intense for me. Fear of heights, fear of falling off...usual stuff. After breakfast in the park, somebody (Anth) had bought a new hoodie, so somebody else (Robin) decided that this was the right time, to get rid of the old one! Um, better to take it off the body first, right guys? Twister stats. Good stats. And the last stat, height, just kills me how amazing it really is! Twister seats. Nice and comfy, they were. Noted. With everything built over, around, and under each other, (I call Grona Lund the "Blackpool of Sweden"), this sign isn't a surprise. First drop. And the whole coaster just goes and goes and goes! Catching a shot as it whizzes by. Yes, I remember! My painful experience five years ago, reminded me not to do the same again. And this was the coaster I 'barely' hit tips of my fingers on a metal tunnel, the coaster is heading towards. And it felt like my whole hand was on fire - I learned, since then. The Jetline coaster. Interesting way to do a coat hanger. (o; In the queue for Kvasten. Oooo, what's this? It's narrow, dimly lit. But it leads.... To the front row of seats on Kvasten, the park's suspended family coaster! That was AWESOME, Grona Lund. Thanks! Speaking of the front row... there's Happy ... and then there's Extreeeemly Happy! Enjoy the ride, guys.

I only got to ride it in the late 90's, but for myself, my fave part of Sky Rider was the little "tilt" near the end of the run. That was a surprise the first time I rode it. And I loved that. Cheerio SkyRider. You will be missed.

Heh, heh, the garbage can in back adds a nice touch to the 'culture,' Chris.

^ Of course! Totally forgot. Thanks Thad.

Listening to opera on the radio, even as background noise, can get a bit tiresome.

Hansa really has a thing for enclosing it's lift hills, lol. Fluch Von Novgorod, Die Schlange von Midgard, and now this one. Maybe it's something to do with the decreasing the scream levels. But I would like to think, they're just being innovative with their lift hills. EDIT to add: Come to think of it, this park is the only park I know of in the world, that will have three coasters with enclosed lift hills. Is there any other park in the world that has this many, or even more? Just curious.

I love how around 1:45, she just lets go of 3/4 of the bucketful, and all the water flies over her head, LOL. Great video, Robb and Attractions Magazine. Nice t-t-t-touch at the end too. One can never have too much ice water dumped over them.

Before I get to posting how our day visit went at Grona Lund, here's a little video I took during that time, one that I suppose, sets up the question of where and wtf is this???? [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=MVI_5579_ue6l[/coastertube] A (not so) secret elevator. To where?