alejon

The proposal for the zoning plan is now on public consolation. The consultation will go on for 2½ months, until the end of January 2018, thereafter it will be on audit from Q3 2018. The zoning plan is expected to be adopted in Q2 2019, and Gröna Lund except to start construction in 2021. So everything is still very far out, but in the meantime we have a B&M and reconstruction of a big part of the current park to look forward to! For obvious reasons the plans presented doesn't include any rides, they haven't been decided on yet but Gröna Lund has said that they plan on building world class attractions on the spot. The area is actually pretty small, but seeing this is Gröna Lund they'll probably fill it with awesomeness. The new area will also have a basement, where they are planning to have workshops, environmental station, logistics and dressing rooms. It also seems that I misunderstood some of the information posted earlier, the planned square is actually by the ferry jetty. The boardwalk will be inside the park, but there will also be a public pier outside the park. Below is an overview map over the new area and its surroundings. You can clearly see the public pier and the boardwalk on the Gröna Lund area. And this is the view that will meet you when arriving by boat. A bridge will connect the current area with the new, there will also be a new entrance that directly takes you to the new area. The view on "Falkenbergsgatan" will drastically change, from this: To this: Having quickly read the plans it all seems good. The plan allows for rides of all sorts, but the number of high points are limited to only a few so don't expect numerous really tall rides. But I still think a coaster of some sort is to be expected, a mostly low to the ground Intamin launch please?

Parks & Resort have published a press release where they talk about the expansion plans. They have been working together with the city of Stockholm for two years to come up with the proposal for zoning. Compared to the last effort the actual park expansion seems to be smaller this time (8.000 sqm compared to 11.000 sqm, Gröna Lund of today is 38.000 sqm.). They also make a point in that attendance at Gröna Lund has been up 50% in the last 10 years, an impressive feat! Towards the streets "Allmänna Gränd" and "Falkenbergsgatan" there will be 2-3 storey buildings inspired by old buildings in the surrounding area. The buildings will have cafés and restaurants on the bottom floors towards the streets and will thus be open to the public. On the backside by the tram stable (farthest away from today's Gröna Lund) there will be a public square. And along the water there will be a public promenade, meaning there will be access to the water without having to pay entrance to Gröna Lund. The new area will be connected to the current park by a bridge. The new area will have rides, restaurants, games etc, no plans regarding the exact utilization are finalized. The new area has been used as an amusement park before, between 1924 and 1957 competing "Nöjesfältet" existed here. Both parks were family owned and the competition was really fierce, including putting a dead horse in front of the opposing park. In the end the daughter of the Gröna Lund owners and the son of Nöjesfältets owners fell in love and got married. This story is in the process of being turned into a movie, which will premier on Christmas day 2018. The cast is several famous Swedish actors so it has the potential of being a fun watch! Link to the full press release (Swedish): www.mynewsdesk.com/se/parks-and-resorts/pressreleases/groena-lunds-utbyggnadsplaner-skickas-ut-paa-samraad-2266726 Concept art showing the future of "Allmänna Gränd", current Gröna Lund to the left, the expansion to the right and the water straight ahead. Nöjesfältet in 1931, with a totally unknown coaster. Gröna Lund can be seen to the right.

Lovely report from some parks I visit regularly, some of my favourites, and some I really want to visit in the future! Can't wait for the day I'm able to get back to Europa Park. Just one thing. You mean the Swiss mountain, right?

Sorry for double post, but I found this photo on the Swedish public broadcasters (SVT) news page, yesterday the northern lights could be seen in Stockholm, and over Gröna Lund! In other news: The Halloween event was a success with 85 000 visitors on the 9-day event. Gröna Lund states they already have started planning for next years event, which will be bigger. On Tuesday (November 14th) the proposal for the zoning plan for the expansion will be presented for public consultation, so expect a bit more information then. Gröna Lund have stated that the expansion is an investment of at least (probably a bit more) one billion SEK (120 million USD). According to an interview in a paper the investment for the B&M and the redevelopment of that part of the park is about 400 million SEK (47.5 million USD)

Liseberg had great success with it's Halloween event this year, 290 000 guests visited the park during the 16 days of the event according to a press release. The revenue of the event rose drastically as well, 75% compared to last year, though it should be mentioned that the event lasted three more days this year. Liseberg sees Halloween as a step closer towards being a year round activity, something it will be when the new indoor waterpark and hotel opens in 2021. Before that is the Christmas season that starts next Friday!

Visited Gröna Lund yesterday for my first ever visit to a Halloween event at a theme park. I managed to snap som pictures with my phone, and due to the darkness and the fact that the place was absolutely packed the pics turned out less than stellar. Hopefully they will give an idea to how great the atmosphere was. So this was the first ever Halloween event for Gröna Lund. With the exception of Fritt fall and Flygande Mattan, which was closed for planned service, and Radiobilarna which had been turned into a scare attraction, all the rides were operating. The coasters would close if the temperature was to go below 4 degrees Celsius (39F), and the operating towers at high wind. Yesterday was quite mild at 8 degrees Celsius (46F) and very low winds, perfect! They had four scare attractions (might contain some spoilers): Motel Hell/o in place of Radiobilarna, themed around a haunted motel was pretty good. I especially enjoyed the interaction you got with the receptionist and portier. The decor was very good, especially for something that's only supposed to be used for 9 days and built on the bumper cars. House of even worse nightmares is the classical House of nightmares, but enhanced with more live actors. You basically got your own "guide", who was stuck inside the house forever. She would suddenly disappear just to pop up somewhere else along the way. This was the best scare, the story was great. Zombie zone, outside scare on one of the restaurant platforms in the sea. The premises was a zombie attack an the military had been sent in, only to turn into zombies themselves. Not much decor, but the make up and acting was very good. Unfortunately the group ahead of us pretty much ruined our experience by holding everyone up and running backwards screaming, for some reason they were carrying two 8-9 year olds as well.... Olustiga huset, a remake of Lustiga huset. Unfortunately we missed this one as it was getting late and the queue had grown to 75+ minuets. But after looking around on the internet it seems to be a dimmed and smokey Lustiga huset with live actor clowns. In addition to this Blå Tåget also had live actors inside and there was a child-friendly house with friendly ghosts in the kiddie area. Worth noticing among the other rides was that Jetline ran great, seemed a bit faster than during the summer. The damp weather probably helped speeding it up. Pop-Expressen (Huss Breakdance) ran a longer and more intense program, felt really forceful! I really feel Gröna Lund did a good job with this event, and as far as I've heard the park has been more or less packed all the days it been open so it's been a hit with the public as well. Would be very surprised if it didn't return in the future. Onto the pics! Welcome to Gröna Lund and Halloween! (Ok, I cheated and took this pic when we left..) The small area had loads of pumpkins and fun activities for the whole family. Flying elephants transformed into mummy elephants Moving over to the big area, the path was dark and surrounded by cornfields. This area was themed to "Dia de los muertos", with cooperation of the embassy of Mexico. As you can see the place was pretty packed! Olustiga huset, the huge crowd in front is the queue.. Scary things happening Gröna Lund was lit! Love the atmosphere after dark A bit blurry, but it's a tank! A real tank, used by the Swedish army from the late 30s/early 40s. The queue into the zombie zone Where you could find loads of rubbish! Gröna Lund still has one of the most amazing settings.

Gröna Lunds Haloween commercial, which apparently was banned from being used as a commercial before other clips on Youtube..

The fact that they spoke Swedish in that video caught me completely off guard! Tre Kronor, which they speak about means Three Crowns and is the national emblem of Sweden, as can be seen on the small coat of arms of Sweden. Here it refers to a ship, I don't know if the ship referred to is real but several ships named "Tre Kronor" have existed. It doesn't matter anyway. Interesting back story, and I can't wait to visit in a few years!

The new hotel wont be the only addition in 2018. The current fright attraction "Spökborgen" will be rebuilt and become Swedens first interactive dark ride. "In the new attraction, which is yet to be named, the guests will be able to compete against each other and collect points by scaring away ghosts and other scary things" The investment is 25 million SEK, just shy of 3 million usd.

Gröna Lund have received the building permit for the new coaster, it can still be appealed for a few weeks though. They also haven't got permission to start building yet, for that they need more technical documentation, but that won't be a problem. It is possible to follow the process here (Swedish) "Senaste beslut" translate into "Latest decision", and as you can see it says "Lovbeslut bifall" which translates into "Permit decision granted"

^And it will open tomorrow, Tuesday 20th of June.

Halloween at Gröna Lund! [fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew] October 27 to November 5 Gröna Lund will host its first ever Halloween event. The park will be decorated in different Halloween themes, the small area will be for children. On the big area there will be 4 horror houses, House of Nightmares will be spiced up, the Blue train will have living ghosts, the bumper cars will be turned into a horror maze, and Lustiga huset will be remade into Olustiga Huset (Funny house to "Not funny house"). There will also be a fire show every day at the big stage. 18.00 every day there will be a horror-parade and you can then meet the creatures at the horror zone. All rides will be open (depending on weather) except the flying carpet which will be closed due to planned maintenance.

Rode Ikaros today (sorry, forgot to take pictures, will remember next time!). The swinging at the end of the ride isn't violent at all, it's just a smooth motion. The chain isn't a classical chain lift either, it functions more like a normal catch car on a drop tower. The carriage hooks on to the end of the chain and release from it at the top, the chain then backs down for the next go. All in all a great ride, and the surroundings look marvelous. Gröna Lund has (once again) gone for the 1920s classical amusement park style, a style which I think works great for Gröan Lund. However, the lenticular picture with boobs is gone

Today was the media day for Ikaros, and of course the local press was there to try it out. The total investment for Ikaros is 75 million SEK, or about 8.5 million USD. Gröna Lund has also invested 15 million SEK (1.7 million USD) in new restaurants and shops. The first Cocoa-Cola store in the Nordics will open next to Fritt Fall A new themed candy store will open at the exit of Vilda Musen The old waffle shop behind Lustiga Huset (towards the water) has been replaced by a new one. And on top of it a new restaurant, called Terassen, will open. Terassen specializes in different cocktails. Info and pictures from Gröna Lund's press release of today: Pressrelease

Great pics! Loke look absolutely massive, and the surroundings look great aswell. Really looking forward to riding later in the summer. This together with Ikaros at Gröna Lund it looks like another great year for being an enthusiast in Sweden, we've been really spoiled with great additions lately.

According to GP, ( http://www.gp.se/nyheter/göteborg/klassiska-lisebergsattraktionen-skrotas-1.4246612 ) it will actually be a new wave swinger, although the look and feel will be the same. As for Sagoslottet, the general public seem to be somewhat sad/disappointed to see it go. Many have grown up riding it, the ride is originally from 1968 and was changed into its current form in 1985. But as Liseberg stated a new dark ride aimed at children is in planning, according to Göteborg Direkt http://www.goteborgdirekt.se/nyheter/snipp-snapp-snut-sa-var-sagan-slut/repqdu!GAZfJxqxIGWWk7p5RM@7Q/ it will be placed close to the rabbit land, I'm not sure where it would fit there though to be honest. Personally I feel that Liseberg has really changed a lot the last 10-15 years, mostly for the better although some of the nostalgia is gone.

^Here's the video! Liseberg also posted a new video on Loke, with some POVs. Looks really cool the way you swing up against Balder! [fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew]

Liseberg just announced that the opening of Loke has been delayed with one week until April 29, they still have some finishing touches and need more time to train the staff. Some testing can be seen in the video below, although when operating Loke will swing approx. 30 degrees higher. [fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew]

The hotel looks really great! Looks like you might be able to anchor your own boat in front of it as well?

It does exist now: https://www.google.se/maps/@57.6926705,11.9950002,490m/data=!3m1!1e3 The diagonal bridge is an old road bridge btw.

So, the "Sagoslottet" dark ride will be removed by 2018 then.

^ Gröna Lund gets Kanonen, and Liseberg gets Jetline. The looping star shown is the long gone LisebergsLoopen, which existed at Liseberg between 1980 and 1995.

Kanonen goes to Gröna Lund! Well, not really. For April's fool Gröna Lund and Liseberg are both reporting on their Facebook pages that Kanonen will go to Gröna Lund, and in turn Jetline will come to Liseberg. The idea behind the swap is to let visitors from each park try rides from the other without having to make the longer trip. Liseberg actually put up an interview with the CEO All in all, a good prank well coordinated by both parks!

Wow, this is pretty nuts! I remember reading that this spot was one of the places they looked at when trying to make Vilda Musen fit in the park. But they didn't feel it gave enough possibilities with the layout, so they decided to build it inside of Jetline instead (completely logical decision..). Now they are making a, for Gröna lund at least, large B&M invert fit in the same area! They are really playing this safe though, making sure all the legal documents are in place before the big announcement. The construction of the ride will be very complex as well, with a building time of 1½ years. We are probably looking at a, for the size, very expensive coaster here. If all goes according to plan they will open the new area just about a year after the coaster. The bumper cars and biergarten will probably move to the new area then.

The municipality of Gothenburg has given the go-ahead for the hotel and water park. Construction is expected to begin in 2019, and will be completed in 2021, the same year Gothenburg will celebrate it's 400th birthday. The cost is about 2 billion SEK ($230 million, €210 million). The hotel and water park will (probably) be themed around the Swedish East India company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_East_India_Company The investment is expected to increase the annual number of visitors to Liseberg with 600 000. Edit: Apparently it was the municipal board that had given a go ahead, the project still needs approval in the municipality council. Though that shouldn't be an issue since a vast majority approve the project.