cfc Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 (edited) ^^For me, Balder and El Toro run pretty much neck and neck--until the latter switches from airtime to laterals in the second half. Balder is nothing but air from beginning to end. Plus, I can marathon Balder easily; El Toro tends to give me a bit of a headache after a few rides, then I need a break (it's still in my top five, though). Both are great rides. Edited June 23, 2014 by cfc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prozach626 Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 It amazes me how immature & petty some people in this hobby are. But it's fine... We took care of it! Haha. I know you had to have found this just a 'little' funny. Trolls will be trolls. Any press is good press, right?? This Scandi trip looks incredible. I've never been this interested in following the overseas trips until now. It's making me want to venture out of the US and try some foreign parks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anac0nda Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 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) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 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) That's GREAT!!! Let us know what ride you are working! Look forward to see you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Password121 Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 ^^For me, Balder and El Toro run pretty much neck and neck--until the latter switches from airtime to laterals in the second half. Balder is nothing but air from beginning to end. Plus, I can marathon Balder easily; El Toro tends to give me a bit of a headache after a few rides, then I need a break (it's still in my top five, though). Both are great rides. Interesting- I always liked that El Toro finishes with some insane laterals. The Rolling Thunder hill kind of caps off the airtime and transitions to laterals and positive g's, which I thought made the ride feel more "complete." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 ^It's a matter of taste. I just prefer airtime to laterals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garet Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 Where does T Express fit in in terms of El Toro vs Balder etc debate?, It's the only one i've been on so far but really want to get out to Liseberg one day and wonder how it compares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BintamiM Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 This is one of the top 5 European parks I would love to visit. It looks very clean, beautiful and organized. Not to mention the rides. I can't wait to start making a little bit more money. Who knows I might be able to join you guys on one of the trips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GigaG Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 Why do these parks seem to always have better operations, better airtime machines, and more interesting things than American parks? Because they aren't in America. There is a reason why we like to travel internationally so much. While many American parks will build amazing coasters (that are usually only amazing for the first few years of their operation), outside of Disney, Universal, and a few others, American parks do not even compare to most of the European and Asian parks in terms of theming, atmosphere, customer service, and overall quality. Yes, but is there a reason that American parks seem somewhat half-baked sometimes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zacattack Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 ^^ Well it depends on what exactly you mean by "half-baked," but the fact that all of Liseberg's four major coasters can fit into a single picture really says something, IMO. It seems that a lot of the large American parks tend to have a higher coaster/ride count, which leaves less money for other things. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule, although a good deal of the large parks that have fewer coasters are the parks that are cited as being closer to the European fare (Disney, Universal, etc.). I really don't know if that's true and I'm sure it's not the whole story if it is, but I'd hazard a guess that is at least part of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scandinaviour Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 (edited) Although I might have scared Pontous the most! I love the new spelling of my name!!! You actually spell it Pontus, but Pontous sounds much more like a TPR-name Maybe I should change? And while I still speaking about name changes... I know that I promised some of you to make a try to change the name of Lisebergbanan to "The banana-coaster". I agree, that name is much easier to pronounce. But sorry guys, it didn't work Edited July 15, 2014 by Scandinaviour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginzo Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 ^^For me, Balder and El Toro run pretty much neck and neck--until the latter switches from airtime to laterals in the second half. Balder is nothing but air from beginning to end. Plus, I can marathon Balder easily; El Toro tends to give me a bit of a headache after a few rides, then I need a break (it's still in my top five, though). Both are great rides. Another factor is Liseberg doesn't staple you (or at least they didn't in 2009) like Six Flags does. I found the airtime on Balder to be a lot more enjoyable as a result. For me there is no comparison between the two: Balder kicks El Toro's ass. El Toro has a great start (stronger than any sequence on Balder), but then loses a lot of steam. Balder kicks your ass with punchy airtime throughout the entire circuit. El Toro is, of course, really good too though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Password121 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 ^^For me, Balder and El Toro run pretty much neck and neck--until the latter switches from airtime to laterals in the second half. Balder is nothing but air from beginning to end. Plus, I can marathon Balder easily; El Toro tends to give me a bit of a headache after a few rides, then I need a break (it's still in my top five, though). Both are great rides. Another factor is Liseberg doesn't staple you (or at least they didn't in 2009) like Six Flags does. I found the airtime on Balder to be a lot more enjoyable as a result. For me there is no comparison between the two: Balder kicks El Toro's A$$. El Toro has a great start (stronger than any sequence on Balder), but then loses a lot of steam. Balder kicks your A$$ with punchy airtime throughout the entire circuit. El Toro is, of course, really good too though. I haven't ridden Balder, though I would love to someday, but I would disagree about El Toro losing too much steam after the first ejector hills. After the first turnaround, there is a great floater hill, a highly banked turn, then the most extreme ejector hill I've ever experienced. That hill is the last moment in which airtime is intended to be produced. The twisty section does reduce the speed greatly, but it needs to so the laterals and positive g's aren't uncomfortable. It's also just a fact that turns decrease the speed faster than straight sections. Now, I'm not saying you're wrong or anything- I'd love to ride Balder and then see where I stand on this. I just wanted to point out my opinion on the matter. Whatever the case, both are top 10 woodies and produce insane amounts of Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 We are live tweeting the entire trip! Follow us on Twitter @themeparkreview http://www.twitter.com/themeparkreview Today's update! Skara Sommarland! TPR is spending the morning at Skara Sommarland in the "middle of nowhere, Sweden" (says park manager Richard!) Skara Sommarland is home to one of the most screwed up awesome coasters ever built... Tranan! [vine] [/vine]Tranan at Skara Sommarland might look tame, but it's kind of terrifying! And really bizarre! Tranan is just bizarre... But in a good way! We all liked Tranan just as much as we did in 2009. Very fun ride! The way the seats are designed you get the sense of "I could fall out" which adds to the thrill! Tranan will easily be the "weirdest" roller coaster we will ride on the #TPRScandi Tour! (This is not a bad thing!) My favorite Tranan train is the drunk bird! lol Riding the mine train at Skara Sommarland! It's themed to miners and trolls or something. It's actually quite good! Jake decided to do the barrel... About ten seconds later he had an epic fail! [vine] [/vine]And here is Garbles' epic fall! KidTums doing her best "Wrecking Ball" impression! Although Garbles totally showed her up! [vine] [/vine]Garbles does Miley Cyrus! Once again, another amazing #TPRscandi Tour park with great play areas and cool stuff for kids (and adults) to do! It was time to play more random Swedish theme park games! KidTums won some sort of shark! Skara Sommarland got some new slides in the water park since our last visit! For the first time in forever, I found a Coke Zero with Anna on it. Had a great morning at Skara Sommarland! Now we are off to Grona Lund!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 I don't know what was funnier. Garbles failing with the barrel or Garbles getting sand in his vagina in the next vine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camthedominator Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Excuse me for a second, I am off to go and move to Europe and never return (I wish) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon8899 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Love the Wheel Of Fortune games - and mostly the things you can win. Who cares for some huge stuffed thingies if you can win a huge amount of sweets and/or chocolate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Tranan is the weirdest family coaster I've ever ridden, as it is cute, yet somewhat terrifying. You really do feel like you could fall off that thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prozach626 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 ^^ Well it depends on what exactly you mean by "half-baked," but the fact that all of Liseberg's four major coasters can fit into a single picture really says something, IMO. It seems that a lot of the large American parks tend to have a higher coaster/ride count, which leaves less money for other things. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule, although a good deal of the large parks that have fewer coasters are the parks that are cited as being closer to the European fare (Disney, Universal, etc.). I really don't know if that's true and I'm sure it's not the whole story if it is, but I'd hazard a guess that is at least part of it. It's just the American mindset. "Bigger is better." "More is better." Unfortunately, it has always lead to quantity over quality, because that's what the American consumer has been brought up to expect. The best example I can always think of is the American sports car industry vs the rest of the world. American car companies produce massively heavy cars with a lot of power. A lot of true driving enthusiasts find these cars numb and boring, despite their speed. Foreign car companies have figured out that you can take a car and put more design creativity into it, giving it half the weight and half the power, but twice as much fun to drive. I think about the shittyness that I experienced at Magic Mountain compared to how awesome Liseburg looks. Not even half of the coasters, but it looks like twice as much fun. Another large factor is how sue happy America is. It still blows my mind (in a good way) that a place like City Museum is allowed to exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Toro_Ryan Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 ^^For me, Balder and El Toro run pretty much neck and neck--until the latter switches from airtime to laterals in the second half. Balder is nothing but air from beginning to end. Plus, I can marathon Balder easily; El Toro tends to give me a bit of a headache after a few rides, then I need a break (it's still in my top five, though). Both are great rides. Another factor is Liseberg doesn't staple you (or at least they didn't in 2009) like Six Flags does. I found the airtime on Balder to be a lot more enjoyable as a result. For me there is no comparison between the two: Balder kicks El Toro's A$$. El Toro has a great start (stronger than any sequence on Balder), but then loses a lot of steam. Balder kicks your A$$ with punchy airtime throughout the entire circuit. El Toro is, of course, really good too though. Well there's a reason for the stapling. haha It's literally because El Toro is in America. The ride was designed by Europeans for use by slim Europeans. We staple everyone by habit now just so we can get trains out of the station. When everyone fits, we can run nice 1:40 intervals but when people do not, those intervals double or even triple depending on how many people do not fit. I've been meaning to try Balder but El Toro looks like the most well rounded coaster out of the prefabs to me. It's got airtime, high speed turns, crazy laterals in the ending, and a gnarly first drop. I can't really say one is better than the other since I haven't ridden both but it just leaves me wondering why more prefabs haven't been built if they're such amazing rides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCjunkie Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Tranan is so unique and goofy looking plus it looks like a lot of fun so thanks for sharing. If Garbles keeps eating those 'small' ice cream cones his cones will be bigger than Miley's when does his next Wrecking Ball impersonation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Coleman Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Well there's a reason for the stapling. haha It's literally because El Toro is in America. The ride was designed by Europeans for use by slim Europeans. We staple everyone by habit now just so we can get trains out of the station. When everyone fits, we can run nice 1:40 intervals but when people do not, those intervals double or even triple depending on how many people do not fit. I've been meaning to try Balder but El Toro looks like the most well rounded coaster out of the prefabs to me. It's got airtime, high speed turns, crazy laterals in the ending, and a gnarly first drop. I can't really say one is better than the other since I haven't ridden both but it just leaves me wondering why more prefabs haven't been built if they're such amazing rides. The reason that I've always heard why more prefabs haven't been built is because they are pretty expensive for a wooden coaster. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here but I heard el toro cost 12 million to build when the average wood coaster costs between 4 and 6 million. However, the extra money will probably save tons of cash and man hours in labor down the road with the much lower upkeep. It is a real shame that there are only four in the entire world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anac0nda Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 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) 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Password121 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Well there's a reason for the stapling. haha It's literally because El Toro is in America. The ride was designed by Europeans for use by slim Europeans. We staple everyone by habit now just so we can get trains out of the station. When everyone fits, we can run nice 1:40 intervals but when people do not, those intervals double or even triple depending on how many people do not fit. I've been meaning to try Balder but El Toro looks like the most well rounded coaster out of the prefabs to me. It's got airtime, high speed turns, crazy laterals in the ending, and a gnarly first drop. I can't really say one is better than the other since I haven't ridden both but it just leaves me wondering why more prefabs haven't been built if they're such amazing rides. The reason that I've always heard why more prefabs haven't been built is because they are pretty expensive for a wooden coaster. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here but I heard el toro cost 12 million to build when the average wood coaster costs between 4 and 6 million. However, the extra money will probably save tons of cash and man hours in labor down the road with the much lower upkeep. It is a real shame that there are only four in the entire world. To me, 12 million seems like a bargain compared to its popularity and what it has done for the park. El Toro is longer than a good number of $25 million B&M's and has brought some of the best publicity the park has ever had. With low maintenance costs and very good capacity for a wooden coaster, I think it's worth every penny for Six Flags. Certainly a better investment than Kingda Kostly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singemfrc Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 To me, 12 million seems like a bargain compared to its popularity and what it has done for the park. El Toro is longer than a good number of $25 million B&M's and has brought some of the best publicity the park has ever had. With low maintenance costs and very good capacity for a wooden coaster, I think it's worth every penny for Six Flags. Certainly a better investment than Kingda Kostly. Agree with this post wholeheartedly. It may be more compared to other ordinary wooden coasters, but compared to all coasters it's rather middle of the road, and all the ones that have been built have been very popular. To me it sounds like a pretty great deal. I'd love to see more. Wooden coasters in general are blowing up right now - not just the hybrids and conversions but all wooden coasters, there seems to be a huge resurgence. Even GCI's new coasters have been pretty fantastic. lol @ "Kingda Kostly". SFGAdv seems to me to be struggling to maintain that thing. I hear a lot of complaints about it being down entire days and not running enough trains..typical SF. It seems as though Cedar Point does a much better job maintaining and operating Dragster. Though it's slightly different, KBF also seems to do a good job with Xcelerator on a day to day basis though there was that one cable snafu (whether it was caused by insufficient inspection was debated). tl;dr: Balder and El Toro are both on my bucket list, and I would love to see one built closer to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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