Anac0nda

As a ride-op, this ^ The employee are there for you and they will help you because it's their job. Especially if you ask for their help in advance. So have no fear and don't forget to enjoy as well! But it's good that you asked.

Pepsi Max Big One?

You know what, I think I have just found the incentive to finally visit the United States. I mean I have always had it on my mind, but this baby here looks so insane and incomparable to anything else, that I just HAVE to ride this! It's a good thing that it doesn't open next year so I'll have some more time to save money Let's hope the final product looks and rides as good and/or even better than it looks on the video. The lift hill will probably take several minutes to reach the top and the first elements all the way up high must really induce some adrenaline!

I voted no, since I check-in at the forum regularly to read all the new posts. When I get the mail, I've already read all the hottest news and topics. I don't mean it's a bad thing to keep sending these mails,that way I'm getting a nice re-cap of everything that's been talked over during the week.

Piraten was our first ride when we arrived about noon. Don't get me wrong, I loved it and it's in my top 10, but it wasn't magical like Helix. I would've loved to have it as our last ride as well, but as I wrote we had to catch a bus so we had to leave the line. I guess I'll put Piraten right back to my bucket list to give it a re-run in the near future Also I haven't ridden Maveshark. It's a bit too expensive for a student to make a holiday trip from Finland to the States. But it's in my bucket list, of course. If I remember correctly, they were running 4 trains on Lisebergbanan with only one train stacking. It's one of the things that make me love Lisebergbanan. Sometimes I wonder too why this kind of block system isn't used in modern rides. Perhaps the length is the main issue...

Wow. In the end of July I had the most amazing trip so far in my life! I was a bit worried the legendary rides wouldn't hold up to my expectations, since I'd been planning this trip since January, but oh boy I was wrong! Our trip began on a Sunday morning with a flight from Helsinki to Gothenburg. We stayed at Scandic Hotel Rubinen for two nights, which turned out to be right what we expected: a clean hotel with a good breakfast. What little interaction we had with the staff it was all very easy and friendly. First on Sunday morning we explored the city and found it to be very nice indeed. What most struck me (as a Finn, this is a very common opinion) is how beautiful the people look. And I'm not talking about just young women, but everyone: from young to old and men as well, everyone looks stunning (at least compared to us Finns). Maybe it's the vikings' genepool doing its magic Anyway after a few hours of wandering, we couldn't wait any longer and decided to hit the first of the two parks in our trip: Liseberg. Liseberg I've visited Liseberg thrice now, and every visit has been even better than the last! By far Liseberg is my favourite park in the world. It's not too big and the queues aren't that long, but it's big enough to easily fill even two days visit. We grabbed our wristbands and entered the park. There was no debating on what would be the first ride. It had to be Helix. Helix, just wow. It looks and sounds intimidating as there's always a train rolling around. The green colour matches really good with the interaction with nature and landscape. But somehow it doesn't stick out to the eye, which I was a bit worried about when I saw how much of the vegetation they had to cut down. The queue is by far the best I've stood in. The maze is fun to walk through and the theme song blasts through providing a nice anticipation since you really can't see the ride from the queue. I especially liked the awesome app to keep you entertained while trying to beat the high score to receive a fast pass! Nevermind though that my Nokia didn't support the app, and I don't remember seeing anyone using the fast pass queue. After 40 mins we finally stood in the station area. It felt so surreal! I'd been waiting for it for two years and finally it was true! It was a no-brainer to head for the first row. I lowered the restraints and I was a bit surprised to notice that they only touched my thighs. Looking forward from the station is unique with the track dropping right away. I was ready to ride. The first corkscrew is smooth as glass and I didn't notice any snapping. I'd heard that the launches aren't that powerful, but compared to Zamperla's MotoCoaster, this was definately a better launch. The second inversion gave a taste of what the ride's going to be: because of the high heartlining you feel ejector in the beginning and end of the rolls, but positives at the peak. This means it's very disorientating in a good way, and caught me by total surprise! The small hill leading to the drop has nice airtime as well. The pretzel/norwegian was perhaps the most predictable element but that doesn't mean it's not fun. The hill after diving under Lisebergbanan's lift is taken with super fast speed and gives massive ejector! Then it's another disorientating zero-g. Exiting the zero-g gives a good punch of positives, but the next element is the dive into the helix, which provides first negatives and then turns you sideways. As a result, I was a complete ragdoll as it caught me by a total surprise! There's a small moment to breathe before the second, powerful enough, launch into a very intimidating tophat. While the tophat is asymmetrical, the entrance and the exit feel very different. There's also plenty of time to realize that you are upside down high above the park! After the tophat there's so much ejector happening in the next airtime hill that my thighs had a good workout and I almost imagined I felt some slipping happening, but the restrainst were tight enough to keep me in the seat. This hill is just pure bliss as it seems to continue forever and it has a magnificent view! Next are a couple of turns up the hill and a strong finish with a heartline roll, which also tries it best to throw you out of your seat. The ride lasts a good two minutes and has zero boring moments. After my first ride I was extatic. So far I've never had to have a break after any ride, but Helix was so much MORE than what I expected that we all had to sit down for ten minutes before continuing our day. So much positives and insane ejector, PLUS seven inversions AND two launches combined with comfortable trains and awesome layout. Liseberg really succeeded in building a world class coaster. Helix went instantly as my best coaster. Of course we rode all the other major rides as well. Balder delivered, smooth as always, but I couldn't help the feeling that the layout makes it a bit more boring than I remembered. Kanonen on the other hand was way more powerful than I remembered! But because of the new restraints, the parts after the loop didn't feel uncomroftable at all. No headbanging of neck slashing at all. Lisebergbanan had once felt massive, but after Helix it feels like Helix's little brother. But nevertheless it remains as one of my favourite family rides and is just pure fun. AtmosFear was exciting, but this time around I found it wasn't as nerve-wracking as on my previous visit a couple of years ago. The operators pulled a fun prank on our first ride: as the car neared the top, they announced through the speakers (in swedish): ”All right guys, are you ready? Let's countdown together: 15...14...13” and then the car dropped From Liseberg I bought a couple of onride-photos, some fridge magnets, and some Helix merch. Next day it was riding all day again! After a good breakfast (with pancakes!) we headed off to Liseberg again. Helix had apparently opened before the rest of the park, because it had already queues up to an hour, so we decided to ride other rides first. Other than above we rode Kållerado, which is an Intamin rapids ride with great scenery and a crazy wavepool section with waves crashing over the seats! The log flume is also my favourite one with all the interactions it has with surrounding rides. I rode Helix this time in the back, but to my surprise, it wasn't that big of a difference. The initial drop from the station was what I found to be the only difference. But this isn't a bad thing at all IMO. Before eating at an italian restaurant we checked out the views from the bigger ferris wheel, which had air conditioned cars to cool us off. The temperatures were really high on both days and all of us were just pouring sweat and consuming soda multiple liters. After eating we headed for Spökhuset. I've never done any walkthrough scary attractions, so I wasn't too sure about this, but decided to man up and go. Spökhuset We were 5 of us who entered, 2 of us male. The other male wanted to go as the first one in the conga line, but none of the girls wanted to be last so I drew the shortest straw. Luckily we got two local (beautiful) young girls who walked behind me. Just before we entered, the previous group (all men in their thirties) suddenly almost kicked the door open and one of them ran outside with a very scared expression on his face. The employee (dressed as a zombiefied maid) ran after him trying to give his ticket back but the man refused. He just wanted to get out. Then the maid went inside and made a devilish face a second before she closed the door behind her! A few minutes after we went inside followed by the same maid. She instructed us and sent us on our way. I think it was about 10 minutes of walking. The girls in front of and behind me got multiple touches and scares from the actor but they seemed to leave us men alone Good for me. I don't know if I would've liked to get poked in the back 6 times during the walking. Afterwards I noticed I liked it! Maybe I'll do some more of these in the future. Then it started to get darker and oh my does Liseberg look beautiful! Even during daytime it's pretty but the darkness really brings out the eye candy. We rushed to get a darker ride on Helix, but left Uppswinget as our last and let me tell you. Uppswinget in the dark is just something completely nuts! Next day the three of us had an early wake-up while the rest of us stayed and later visited Liseberg again. We took a ferry to Denmark and travelled by train to the city of Randers. Randers turned out to be a very Danish city: while it was beautiful, it was also very very quiet. We stayed at Best Western for two nights, and as the whole city, the hotel was quiet (but nice) as well. After checking in we took a quick stroll to look around the city, eat something and most importantly: we found ourselves Danish ice cream! Seriously, that is just magical stuff, and it's reasonably cheap as well. The flavours ranged from here to infinity, and we all tried different combinations. Later I found out that my favourite is chocolate, lemon and vanilla. Next day it was Djurs Sommerland. Breakfast wasn't as great as the Scandic Hotel but it was enough to fuel our morning and we headed for the bus terminal. Though I had booked everything for this trip, I hadn't come across that you can buy combo-tickets which include bus rides to and from as well as entrances to Djurs Sommerland. And they only cost 10 kroner more than just the entrance! That's nearly free of charge bus tickets and was a pleasant surprise. Djurs Sommerland Djurs is a park I'll definitely visit again! It has everything: solid rides, loads of climbing and bouncing attractions, great buffets, endless greenery and places to eat your own food AND a full fledged water park! Only one day isn't enough to do everything, but we decided to skip the water park and focus on the rest of the area. While the ride selection wasn't that wide, I found all the rides to be good solid ones. And surprisingly so many rides incorporated water! I also liked the different themed areas. But what really struck us was the operators' interaction with little kids. In Finland if a worker poked any childred with a toy sword it'd be a legal matter in seconds. But the danish just laughed and as we noticed it's cool by everyone, we laughed as well! The operators clearly had fun doing their job and we chatted with them in numerous occasions. Our buffet was a western type, and it was one of the best ones I've had so far. It had numerous salads, potatoes, three kind of meat and my favourite grilled salmon with multiple sauces. I also had my largest cup of soda so far: 0,8 liters. Piraten Piraten was my 70th credit. While I admit it is a great ride, it somehow didn't quite live up to its hype about the number one coaster in the world. Top 5 clearly, but Helix is IMO way better. The first drop is very intimidating, every hill produces mad ejector and turns are taken at what seems like light speed, it felt like something is missing. Don't know what it would be, but anyway I'm glad I finally got to ride the legendary Piraten. Would've liked to get another ride, but we had to catch a bus and had to leave the queue in the evening. Örnen was a functioning Topple Tower with splash effects. It seemed the splashes could reach only the riders' feet but we got a full head on collision and were dripping water afterwards! Djurs' Rapids ride had a nice scenery as well, and a very intimidating waterfall-section. But my favourite moment was literally a bucket of water that was thrown into the raft near the end! The jungle boat ride had the best operator of the day, and the ride didn't disappoint either. It was a bit ghetto, I'll give that, but the King Kong animatronic was huge! Skatteöen was perhaps the only letdown of the trip. It was a bit bumpy, but the splash was friendly and didn't soak us completely. I'd almost say it was an acceptable amount of wetness The theming was top notch, though. Juvelen Denmarks longest coaster indeed! First launch is friendly and gives decent speed, but the second launch is like a roundhouse kick! Once again I found myself ragdolling and barely staying with the train in the following curves. The ride feels like a two-dimensional spaghetti bowl and the twists just keep coming. The ending has some floater airtime. In my opinion (and to my surprise) I liked Juvelen even better than Piraten. After a couple of years when the vegetation has grown, Juvelen will surely raise to the 'epic' class with numerous near misses and theming. Thor's Hammer is your classic Gerstie bobsled, but once again I'll give credit to the awesome operators whose energy transferred to us as well! After the ride we chatted a long time with a shopkeeper who was super friendly. I bought an awesome hammer as a souvenir as well. The last day it was travelling again, first by train, then by a ferry and last by a plane back to Finland. Five days of almost continuous walking, great weather, world class rides and good food. It was tiresome at times and money was spent, but it was all worth it! Both parks convinced me to visit them again, and that I will do! Helix's queue It's a maze-ing Some of us were a bit more excited than others to ride Balder Liseberg' skyline Here's our merry group of 8 It's morning in Gothenburg Here's our ferry to Denmark Randers is just like I imagine a typical Danish city Lucky number 70! Here's our trio at Djurs We had fun at the trampolines! It made me feel like a young boy again Seriously this thing just popped out of nowhere! It's so big and so close to the boat we all freaked out a little Awesome shop and shopkeeper It would seem I'm not that viking after all. But that hammer is on my shelf now := Danish ice cream! Love it Here's my souvenirs

After all that happened in the past two weeks, Kirnu had a soft opening yesterday and today was open for the whole day (and without any problems, as was expected). After final inspections and a test ride by the mechanics, Kirnu finally opened to the public and quickly attracted people to the queue. To my surprise, my colleagues told me that no-one asked anything about whether the ride is safe. Perhaps the decision to change new seats made everyone happy (plus that everyone was able to see that inspections were made) and that there was a note containing all the information about the situation at the queue. Anyway, it was good to finally see the ride running! I also took a chance to take a quick test ride in the evening. After the ride I must say they didn't only replace new seats! The new seats are almost identical: only the part where your thighs are is a bit longer and a bit narrower, which means that the rider is now more secured. Or at least that's what I felt, and I liked it. It may prove a bit uncomfortable for larger guest, but I'll have to wait and see for that. But what else was made is that the cars seem to have had a complete spring cleaning in the chassis, as the cars clearly spin more easily now! It's like Kirnu is re-living its early days again! Before this the seats seemed to spin a bit sluggishly and the ride felt just a tiny bit neutered, but now it's got balls of steel again! As you can see, the new seats look very familiar

Just saw some work being done at Kirnu today. New seats were indeed changed, but the workers didn't look like the mechanics at Linnanmäki so I guess they were there by Intamin. Anyway, looked like only the foam parts were changed to identical ones. Makes sense that maybe they just wanted to change the 7 year old paddings to new ones. Looks like Kirnu will open on Monday or Tuesday, which is very good news as it is my favourite ride to operate!

New article Today Helsingin Sanomat (biggest newspaper in Finland) stated, that Terra Mitica had made changes to the restraint system without permission from Intamin. Although Kirnu still has the original seats and restraints, it will receive new seats which will be mounted this weekend and Kirnu will resume operating next week. ...Seriously WTH? What kind of a park allows or actually does modifications to ANY ride without permission from manufacturer? But I have to say I am glad the reason was found and that it wasn't any of the operators fault.

From what I've read and witnessed myself while working at Kirnu, my top guess is that the seatbelt wasn't properly fastened if at all. That plus if the rider was larger than average and the gap between the lapbar and seat was big enough, he could've slipped between them. I've seen some people opening their seatbelt already on the lift hill and it's our duty as operators to stop the ride and reclip the belt. But of course I'm not blaming anyone for doing something wrong. I wish the best for everyone involved and I'm just trying to make all future riders feel more safe.

Just received a confirmation that Kirnu is closed, as are all ZacSpins, until the investigation is complete. I remember last time something like this happened at Linnanmäki, it was with HUSS Rainbow, which then was removed for the next season 2010.

Oh no, this is bad. I'm sorry for the family and friends, as well as everyone who witnessed this. I also wonder if this affects Kirnu. Fortunately, it had all of its seatbelts renewed for this season and we do always double check them: once before dispatching and again as it engages the lift. Also when I'm checking the restraints for smaller guests, I always make sure that the lap bar is tight, as there sometimes can be a large-ish gap between shoulders and the straps. I really wish they find out what went wrong and that the information would also come to my reaches. In the meantime I'll just remain confident trusting that our mechanics are doing a good job (which they are).

Yesterday I booked hotels and flights to visit both Liseberg and Djurs! I can barely wait these three weeks

You guys really made a good impression to my co-workers at Linnanmäki! We had a blast during your ERT (I was at Kingi), especially the ones at Kirnu. They really got a good workout . Hopefully it was good for you too. I've never heard that Linnanmäki would have given this kind of ERT to anyone else yet. It's more popular to get the whole park open for a couple of hours rather than just the 'best' rides. And the weather couldn't have been better really, it seems mother nature herself wanted to give you guys a great finishing day, since today it poured the whole day and it was really cold (the park was dead, with rumors of only 300 guests). Anyway thanks for coming to visit us! Now I'm just looking forward to official photo updates!

That's GREAT!!! Let us know what ride you are working! Look forward to see you! Sorry I can't tell in advance what ride I'll be working, since I won't even know myself until Saturday morning. But out of the rides I can operate, I'm guessing and hoping I'll be at Kirnu (Zacspin). My other rides are Pikajuna (MACK powered), Hurjakuru (Intamin Rapids), Linnunrata (Zierer indoor coaster), Rinkeli (ferris wheel), Kyöpelinvuoren Hotelli (ghost train/dark ride) and Kingi (Moser drop tower). I've tried to prepare my colleagues to meeting you guys, but I don't know how they'll react to seeing so many enthusiasts at one time. So please be gentle Just kidding, they are looking forward to meeting you as well! We hope you'll have a great time at Linnanmäki!

This trip is literally filled with awesomeness! It's nice that you upload these images on the road. Oh and cheers to Per at Tusenfryd, my colleague. I work at Linnanmäki and we just received e-mails asking for volunteers to come to work earlier for your ERT. Needless to say I replied yes immediately! I'm really looking forward to meeting you guys (My name is Antti and I'll be the one wearing the black TPR-lanyard with my ID)

One day at work at Linnanmäki, we decided to do a quick getaway trip to Power Park with a group of four. All of us work as ride-operators (this is my fourth year and I have a total of 7 major rides I can operate). On Thursday we gathered at Linnanmäki and took a few rides on Kingi etc. before beginning our journey. We drove by car 415 km from Helsinki to Power Park (about 6 hours of driving) and slept the night at the nearby city of Seinäjoki. On Friday we visited Power Park, which was open from 11am to 7pm and after closing we drove back home, arriving back in Helsinki about 2am. Like many of our co-workers, we too have a very good sense of humor, especially regarding amusement parks, so you can guess we laughed a LOT during these 36 hours Weather didn't look very promising with signs of thunder and rain but it turned out better: only two little showers and after 3pm clear skies. But because of the forecast everything was a walk-on, which suited us well. The staff was very friendly as were the other customers. You could totally tell we weren't in the capital city-area of Finland. Not saying that people here are rude, but they certainly were more hospitable there. That made the day even better. Anyway, best rides at Power Park are definitely Thunderbird (GCI), Fabbri Booster and Technical Park Pegasus and they all delivered yet again. Thunderbird in the back has awesome airtime and pacing and it seems to gain speed during the course rather than losing it. Booster is just pure insane and one of the few rides to make me nervous. It's not the cycle that gets me rather than the waiting at the top while the other car is being loaded. Pegasus on the other hand is my personal favourite flat ride of all time. Only Flying Fury comes close to it. Pegasus is basically a Top Scan but without the uncomfortable laterals. This one has a vicious cycle as it begins rather slowly but then pauses giving a feeling that the cycle is over. Instead it starts to spin even faster and for a longer time than before! I love it The new ride for this season is a Fun House themed to construction site. It has an interesting concept: it's basically just switchbacks with two routes going next to each other: one with obstacles and the other without. You can easily switch between the two making it very easy if you want to pass something. I did find some flaws though. Every obstacle is timed with a sensor in the beginning of a section, and if you want to revisit some obstacles (which we did a LOT because of the light crowds. I think we spent a total of 20 minutes on one single round!) you'd have to constantly wave your hand in the sensors. Also, the whole house consists of three big halls, and because some of the obstacles are loud, the whole place seemed to echo and amplify all the sounds. I don't want to imagine what it's like in the peak days. The theming was a bit scarce, but I did like it, and some of the obstacles were a ton of fun. I'd say it's a good fun house, all in all. Enough ramble, on with the pics: Here's our merry group. I'm the one with the Daft Punk shirt. Here's the park map And here are the height restrictions We have arrived! Not even the dark clouds could bring us down, we were hyped! This building is the first one at Power Park and houses a pizza buffet upstairs. However we chose to eat at a nearby steakhouse. My minute steak came with two delicious sauces! A credit! The operator was very friendly and let us ride multiple times Girls just wanna have fun There's a shooting dark ride inside. It has a good story but I could only focus on the shooting. Power Park sure knows how to do facades. Pretty park Also, the Vekoma death machine gave a very smooth ride with practically no headbanging at all. My favourite is the backwards cobra in the front seat. So disorientating! Recent water rides -area. There are rumors of a Wild mouse coming in the future. They even dried the seats for us I could totally fit a wild mouse here. The splash ride is called Kwai river, as is the nearby thai-restaurant. Yeah, it gave us a good soaking. Also, the king Thunderbird looms in the background! Such a nice station. Twistyyyy! Clouds started to clear These family rides have been here since the very beginning. Joyride may look small and innocent but actually gives decent speed My favourite, Pegasus. I give it two thumbs and two feet up! The Fun House, which was an arcade until this year. Moving floors, air streams, spinning discs, they had it all! Dat face Imagine this without the bucket for more laughs I don't think this would pass a safety inspection The weather was much better in the afternoon Undershot for us nerds There's just something about Cobra that makes it very pretty to photograph Cobra has a nice station as well. While the brakes are a bit loud, the newer trains are very smooth. Dragon Tower is built by Moser Rides. Compared to Kingi at Linnanmäki this one starts braking earlier and harder IMO. But man you could see far from the top! Dragon Tower also operates as a scenic ride. You could choose "slow down" of "fast down" Dragon Towers station. Only one employee though (Linnanmäki has two) There was also a Fabbri spinning machine of death. Unbalanced, it gives a fun ride, but heed my warning and hold on with both hands and feet. Typhoon gave a couple of good swings but could perhaps have a longer cycle. One last money shot. Thanks for reading

Actually, the seats do vibrate, or rather wobble. It's a very different kind of vibrating I was expecting: not short and sudden buzzing, but it feels like the whole gondola is shaking. I'm not sure if I'd prefer the buzzing, but this wobbling sure caught me by surprise! Although it is kinda gentle and easy to miss. But if you pay even a little attention you will notice it. Funny thing that Scandi trip inlcudes both of Moser's Towers Did you know that Kingi uses wireless technology to transfer data from the gondola to the main computer, while Dragon Tower at PowerPark uses traditional bus bars (or that's what I've heard). This wireless method caused a little teething on Kingi in the opening weekend, but nothing major. Already on Sunday (2nd day open) it ran 6 hours straight without any problems and last Saturday it ran almost the whole day flawless. The mechanics from Linnanmäki and Moser have been seen working on Kingi almost constantly, got to give them a big thanks for all the effort they've already put.

Linnanmäki has now opened for this season with a whole bunch of new things/improvements: - freefall tower Kingi from Moser Rides - new music from IMAscore - two new restaurants - a refurbished restaurant and toilets - Santa Claus World - Shark Attack 4D - dynamic pricing - opening hours up to 23 First of all, the new ride Kingi. I got to ride it during our training (I work as a ride-op in a total of 7 rides with Kingi now as the newest one) and also rode it last Sunday. While I was concerned that it being 'only' 75 meters it could lack in the length of the drop, but I'm happy to say that I was proven wrong! Because the park is located atop of a hill, it compliments the height of the tower, and you can actually see pretty frickin' far from the top! Rumors say that with clear skies you can even see to Tallinn (Estonia), which is located overseas to the South of Finland The surrounding landscape varies nicely and you get a good glimpse all around as the gondola spins as it ascends, making two rounds before reaching the top. The drop is about 2 seconds, which IMO is indeed nice. Not too short, and for Linnanmäki I think this is a good height, as this is the first of it's kind for most of the Finnish people. A taller tower would be too scary for most to ride and also the city of Helsinki probably didn't allow any taller than this to be built. But Kingi isn't only super fun to ride, it also has one of the nicest queues/stations in the park! But not only pretty, it is functional as well, as it provides shade and cover from rain as well. Can you believe, that it was all designed by the parks very own headgardener? Awesome job, I must say But wait, there's more: Kingi also has its very own soundtrack, provided by IMAscore! The station plays a nice medieval theme providing a nice background whilst queueing, and the car has speakers as well providing some themes while going up the tower. Sadly, the ride music was off when I rode, but with IMAscore you can't go wrong, right? Linnanmäki also has a totally new set of background music playing all around the park, made by IMAscore as well. I have to say, this new music is so much better than the former mix of instrumental versions of other songs. These are all original and nice to listen, and they don't get stuck in your head in a bad way at all (in 2010 there was a instrumental version of My Heart Will Go On, which played every 45 minutes... not cool). The restaurant-complex Kattila will have two of its six restaurants replaced. The new ones are a nordic TexMex-restaurant, and a small patisserie selling both sweets and savories. Also the fast food restaurant LintsiBurger got a new facade. Last year one of the toilets got themed to race cars and princesses, and this year another toilet got themed to trains. Haven't tested them yet, but I've heard they are really nice. Two new attractions have been added to the main gate area: Santa Claus World is originally located in northern Finland (where Santa Claus ACTUALLY comes from, not the North Pole ) and this attraction gives children (and tourists) a possibility to visit Santa during summer as well. I got to admit: they've done a really good job! The scripted journey to Santa's shop as a walkthrough attraction works nicely and immerses you immediately. But I won't spoil any more. The other attraction is Shark Attack, which is a 4D simulator. This however didn't really appeal to me. It has potential, but somehow didn't really connect with me. Maybe for the younger ones it works better. All you do is stand in a room with 3D glasses and a film rolls (spoiler: it contains shark(s) ) with effects. Sadly, they are both upcharge: 5 euros for a go, each. If you ask me, I'd definitely recommend Santa Claus World! You can even buy a photo with Santa! (We did, and got an awesome group photo ) Finally, this year Linnanmäki has dynamic pricing and longer opening hours during fall. Last time Linnanmäki was open after 10pm was five or six years ago, and this year they decided to give it another go. With darkness falling around 7 or 8 the rides' lights really pop out during the Carnival of Lights in October. I'm already looking forward to it! Kingi's entrance The two towers: freefall drop and Panorama. Shark Attack. Meh. Santa Claus World. Awesome! On of the lions guarding the entrance. These lions can also be found in the finnish national coat-of-arms Queue starts to the left, goes clockwise around halfway before turning to counter-clockwise. Basically the queue goes around the whole tower. More of the queue and operators booth. The car. I really like the logo Didn't forget you Larry Going up... The catch car with some dramatic lighting. Sadly I couldn't get a photo of the tower fully lit. Just the right height for Linnanmäki.

That shot is just pure gold! Awesome, thanks a lot!

Piraten it is, your turn!

Sorry I kept you waiting:

I'm pretty sure it's Raptor at Gardaland.

Yep, I just found my favourite beautiful coaster. My life is now complete.

That is one long ride Not to mention how beautiful, graceful and greatly paced it looks! As mentioned previously, you can see that the launches really look more like boosts, especially the second one. But to me it looks like the second boost, while maybe lacking exploding power, it could provide an interesting leading to the tophat. Because the track is inclined while the landscape beneath descends it could give a feeling of high altitude already before the tophat, so the actual element could feel even higher. Also it made me feel a bit of inevitability as the train cruises through the long straight track towards the daunting tophat, so I think it could even be good thing to have such a long piece of straight track to kinda get your thoughts back together, only to lose them again as the train enters the second part of the layout! I applaud Liseberg for Helix. I bow to them. P.S. It's my birthday today, and what a day it has been so far! Helix POV released, Banshee POV released, and I saw IRL what might have been the first ride of Kingi (the freefall tower in Linnanmäki) with actual people onboard! No doubt the best b-day so far!