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The Roaring Rapids mountain actually looks pretty intimidating from the walkway they're approaching it from. Like how Everest looks at a distance. Speaking of which are Roaring Rapids and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train not part of the preview days cause I haven't seen any POV of either yet.

I've only been on one dive machine so far (Krake), but it was great. I'd love to try one of the larger ones.

Hicks Himmelsturmer (the Zamperla Kite Flyer) will have to operate with a 150cm height requirement due to a manufacturing error. Heide-Park says they're working on a solution but the ride is still set to open on Saturday.

The Okinawa park is now officially canceled. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/05/12/national/usj-cancels-planned-theme-park-okinawa/#.VzXxXvmLSUl

First image of the kiddie coaster train Overall progress on the Ireland area as of May 1st

IIRC the Marvel deal only applies to Florida and Japan where Universal currently has Marvel-themed attractions in operation. They had a few Marvel characters walking around in Hollywood but they disappeared not long after Disney bought the company so I think Disney can do whatever they want in California.

Dang this game looks better and better each day. If only I had a computer that could meet its specs.

So last Monday I made a rash decision that I would go back to Liseberg this week. I had been to Heide-Park earlier this year (April 16th) and am going to Europa Park for a full weekend trip starting June 2nd (the day after my college courses end for the summer). Liseberg is, quite frankly, one of my favorite parks out there, and if you've been there it's not hard to see why. Friendly atmosphere, smooth operations, and in my opinion the two best coasters I've ever ridden, Helix and Balder. The two coasters not only compete with each other for the top, but this year will make an interesting comparison to their sister coasters at Heide (Colossos) and Europa (Blue Fire). Since I've already been on the former I can tell you that Balder beats Colossos out of the water, but I'll get to that in a bit. I was there at the gates just a few minutes after opening (11.00 A.M) and left the park once it finally closed (11.00 P.M) so I got a full 12 hours at the park, which meant plenty of riding. The thing with Liseberg though is that you can't stay all that late if you still want a train ride home that evening, at least to where I live (in the southernmost point of Sweden). I found a bus that would depart from Gothenburg at 1:45 A.M, which did mean waiting for quite some time at the central station. Let's get down to the meat of it, shall we? If you enter Liseberg from Korsvägen ("Cross road") you'll walk past this nicely landscaped area where the ferris wheel and Atmosfear tower overhead. Across the street are the Gothia Towers, the tallest buildings in Gothenburg. If you bought the ticket and wristband online in advance (like me) you'll just enter through one of the ticket booths to the side of the main entrance. There she goes <3 <3 <3 The entry sign (apologies for the messed up quality but it was the best image I had) The queue line for Helix is actually very effective in building up suspense, despite being mostly a concrete slab with a few fences and rocks all over the place. I think the soundtrack helps a great deal. The drop out of the station leading to the corkscrew catches me off guard every time. There's a surprising amount of air in the back Some rides like Uppswinget did not open until noon, so I had to fiddle around for a bit outside the entrance. The ride is still a bit freaky but also very fun. Liseberg is a very crowded park resulting in images like this (three trains at once!) I'm coming for you, Balder! Probably the coolest thing I saw all day was the switch track on Lisebergsbanan. The whole wall retracts back a few feet revealing the maintenance area cleverly hidden in the back. Here they are adding a fourth (!) train to the track. Kanonen has never been a favorite of mine. It's not an especially bad ride, but it's cramped layout and uncomfortable restraints (way too much padding!) means I usually only ride it once or twice. Desert Race is way better. The launch is pretty intense though. The only real way to prepare for it is to lean your head back and count the number of "heartbeats" that play before the launch. The last one even cuts off which means it's time to go. Boom! Balder time! I was honestly a little worried about Balder after riding Colossos last month. Colossos had the same cool airtime as Balder, but was brought down by a really rough experience inbetween. If you want to know how it bad it was, just watch any recent video of Colossos and listen for the awful sound it makes on most hills. Yikes. Balder did not have that problem and was just as amazing as ever, though. <3 It's a relentless but also very smooth ride that never lets up until the end. Deciding wether this or Helix was better was pretty much splitting hairs. The new garden area was pretty nice, even if it hadn't fully bloomed yet. Aerospin is the big new attraction for 2016 and it was... weird. Getting the planes to even move side to side was trickier than it looked. No rider on my ride was even able to flip even once! I should've taken a picture of the scoreboard, which was all zeroes. You could hear people coming off the ride being confused as to what they were supposed to do. Also, the whimsical soundtrack felt like it was taken straight from a 90s kids film which only perpetuated the weirdness. Sploosh! I've never been a fan of river rapids rides (unless they have a drop like Kali River Rapids that get you super wet, then it becomes awesome) but I decided to give Kållerado a chance. It was okay. Through the wood! FlumeRide closed for an hour or so around 6 P.M apparently due to technical issues. Nobody seemed sure of what the problem was, but they got the ride back up and running shortly after. The best part of the day started at 8 P.M where pretty much everything was a walk-on. This was the line for Helix (the very last staircase before the loading area). Nightfall came and Liseberg became even nicer than before with all the lights. Balder and Helix were even more amazing at night! Balder was completely engulfed in darkness which made it seem even faster and more intense than before. Each ride had a different set of lights which made them stand out more. The Gothia Towers completely dwarfed the main entrance. Closing out with a panorama picture taken from Korsvägen. All in all a great day at Liseberg. Choosing to go on Thursday (Ascension Day) instead of Friday turned out to be a wise move, as the crowds were a bit lighter than usual and the coasters never had lines longer than 30 minutes tops. I checked the official app the day after and on Friday Helix had lines as long as 80 minutes! I truly dodged a bullet there. Final ride count: Helix - 9x Balder - 8x Lisebergsbanan - 3x FlumeRide - 3x Kanonen - 2x Uppswinget - 2x Rabalder - 1x (new credit) Aerospin - 1x Kållerado - 1x Hanghai - 1x

Helix at Liseberg last night. Best ride I've ever had on my favorite coaster!

Rabalder at Liseberg

Seems kinda pointless to hang around there in such large numbers when the place won't be up and running for another month. And didn't HKDL have similar problems with misbehaving guests when they first started letting people in? I remember reading that somewhere.

On April 30th Kärnan was awarded the FKF (Freundeskreis Kirmes und Freizeitparks e.V.) award, one of the most prestigious theme park awards in Europe. Earlier recipients of this award include Helix at Liseberg, Juvelen at Djurs Sommerland and Arthur at Europa Park to name a few. The award was given to park manager Christoph Andreas Leicht (of the Leicht family that owns the park) and managing director of Gerstlauer Siegfried Gerstlauer. ________________________________________________- In other news, Kärnan's wall themening is making very good progress.

I mean more in the sense that each ride has a different combination of events. In one ride the vehicle could follow Stark battling Hydra machines up a tall tower while another ride takes a different turn at the same starting point and transitions into a chase scene underground. Then both segments come to an end at the same location and a new selection of events could occur. With more subtle transitions than Star Tours II it can be made to flow a lot more naturally.

Early concept art shows they had plans for Zumanjaro-style drop cars attached to the tower before they were replaced by two S&S shot towers.

Speaking of, has anyone heard if the Iron Man Experience will have randomized segments like Star Tours II? If they're using the same technology that should be a no-brainer.

Guardians was a huge hit when it came out, and was very well received to boot. I don't know why people assume otherwise. The 2017 sequel has a decent shot at grossing over a billion dollars worldwide even.

Liseberg on Thursday

This week or the next? This week we have a national holiday on Thursday and many takes a vacation day on Friday to get a 4 day weekend and the schools are closed on Friday, so if the weather is good Liseberg might be crowded. /// Marcus I booked for Thursday since I'm going to be at my parents place on Friday. Weather should be good so I expect crowds, but I plan to stay until the park closes so it won't be too much of a problem. Balder and Helix here I come!

Anyone think crowds should be too much of an issue next week? Ascension day is on Thursday and I'm looking at the Friday after right now. I don't mind waiting for Aerospin but if the lines are going to be long for Balder and Helix (an hour or more) I might rethink my plans.

Tivoli is weird in that its rules shift between draconian (the loose items policy on the star flyer) and anarchy (the brakemen give no f**ks) from ride to ride.

Going strictly by rides I've actually been on: (I'm a sucker for the super old-school look plus having a brakeman is awesome)

Helix at Liseberg. Twisty, silky smooth and has some excellent pops of airtime. It's everything I want in a coaster. Close second would be Balder at the same park. An airtime machine like no other I've experienced.

The park map I have states it'll have a 95cm height requirement.

Kärnan's wall section is making good progress The new details in the storage room The very dimly lit loading area

Not to mention his actions is what causes the hotel to get cursed to begin with and he gets his comeuppance when Shiriki hijacks the elevator. There's a difference between portraying terrible people in media and implicitly celebrating their terribleness, which the storyline of the ride doesn't.