Photo TR: Thad's 2014 TPR Scandi Trip

[TPDave]

^ Thankfully I'm absolutely here to fill the void...

 

Aside from the fact that this is a lovely TR that actually has amusing bits of text in and stuff I think it needs more Nerdy Thad. Double whammy update!!

Note this was taken between his two rides on this thing. One in the front for exhilarating views and one in the back for all the Gs

Years of practise have honed his steady one handed camera technique...

[Nrthwnd]

And then he has his "fun times"...

So sweet, at Farup Sommerland.

[GigaG]

Is that ice cream the European equivalent of the McDonald's Happy Meal mascot?

[rosscoe]

Great report Thad, Tornado was insane, that lift hill kinda came out of nowhere.

[robbalvey]

I seriously have like 100 photos just like this one! Thad kept getting in the way of all my shots to get all his nerdy coaster pics!!!

 

[Barge84]

^ you can show them to me in a couple of hours!

[Barge84]

Day 4 – Tivoli Gardens

When I signed up for the Scandinavia Trip, I think I’d only really heard of two of the parks. The first was Grona Lund in Stockholm, and the other park was Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. Tivoli is one of those parks that I’ve read about throughout my lifetime, mostly stemming from my strange fascination with Walt Disney World. It’s fairly well known that Walt himself visited Tivoli, and liked it so much that it was part of his inspiration to build Disneyland. While visiting Busch Gardens Williamsburg this past spring, Shawn and I were discussing the Scandi tour with people working in the Scandinavian Food and Wine kiosk, and each of them mentioned that we needed to visit Tivoli while we were there. It really is an important part of Copenhagen. The employees and guest both seem to take great pride in this park, and it really is one of the best that I’ve ever visited.

 

The group met in front of the hotel at 8:45 am, as it was only about a ½ mile walk to the park entrance. While it’s easy to see some of the larger rides from a few blocks away, you might not even realize that you’re standing outside of an amusement park when you’re by the front gate. My first night in Copenhagen I walked right past it without noticing. Someone in my group had to point it out to me! I absolutely loved Tivoli’s front entrance.

 

Stunning...

The park president (or was she the owner?) met us at the gate, and welcomed us to the park. She was celebrating her 50th birthday, and wasn’t supposed to be at the park that day. Apparently, she wanted to make sure she stopped by to say hello since Theme Park Review was there. What a nice touch! After talking to us for a bit, she introduced us to Jakob and left us in his hands. Jakob is the ride supervisor for the park’s Scenic Railway, Rutschebanen (translated = Roller Coaster). He was excited to meet us because he’s a huge coaster enthusiast, and an avid reader of Theme Park Review. Jakob was going to walk us to the back of the park and let us get some ERT on Daemonen. After that, we were going to get a backstage tour of the recently renovated Rutschebanen. Sounds like a great start to the day!

 

Lots of open grass areas.

Lots of well themed areas.

Daemonen (Demon) is a B&M Floorless coaster, and it just happened to be the only B&M on our trip. Seems kind of crazy when you think about how many there are in American parks, but it was nice to get away from some of the standard rides that we have over here. Back to Daemonen… Since Tivoli is landlocked inside of the city, the park had to find a way to drop a B&M in there without taking up too much room. This is easily one of B&M’s craziest designs, including a strange helix drop coming off of the lift hill. Daemonen is short and very compact, but a fun ride nonetheless. It’s not going to be the craziest ride you’ve ever been on, but it’s a lot of fun. We all had a couple of rides on it before it was time to move on to the backstage tour over at Rutschebanen.

 

Coming down the helix drop.

The actual drop.

It's a loop.

Inverting again.

The mountain and loading station.

Now, I’m normally not a huge fan of the backstage tours that we get to do on TPR trips, regardless of what TPDave and Robb seem to think about my coaster nerddom. Because of this, I end up skipping out on a lot of them. This was one of the best tours that I’ve done, though. Jakob led the entire group through the inside of the mountain. We walked through random hallways and climbed up a few staircases, stopping on occasion to go into more detail about some of the things we were looking at. After a few minutes of climbing, we found ourselves in the workshop where they do maintenance on the trains. People took turns sitting in the brakeman seat and getting their picture. For some reason, no one in my group did this. After people nerded out, it was time to finish the climb to the top of the mountain. Jakob gathered us outside on the roof of the show building so he could tell us all about the changes they’d made for the 100th anniversary of the ride. The park decided to restore the top of the mountain to its former glory, and it looked fantastic. It’s really great to see how much care they put in to this amazing ride.

 

Why do I love backstage tours? DISHES!!!

And you get to see things like this as well.

On top of the show building.

Nerds gathering.

Something must be interesting to my left.

The freshly renovated mountain top.

Copenhagen from the roof.

Here comes the first train!

After the presentation and some Q&A, Jakob had a bit of a surprise for our group. One of the trains came up the lift hill and made its way over to the tunnel that we were standing near. They were going to load the trains with our group on top of the mountain! Very cool! I don’t think I’ve ever had a ½ credit before! It took a few minutes to get the entire group on the ride, but it was worth the wait. For being 100 years old, this thing ran really, really well. Super smooth, and with the right brakeman (or woman), you could get some pretty nice airtime. One lesson we learned quickly in Europe… The ride envelope is quite a bit smaller than it is over here in the US. You know all of those headchoppers we have, where you can leave your hands up and not get injured? Well, I wouldn’t feel quite as safe in Europe. One of the drops dives into a tunnel, and I could see that there was no way I could leave my hands up. Luckily, I pulled mine down before I made contact. Aussie Steve wasn’t quite as lucky. He told me that he hit the top of the entrance pretty hard. Jakob even asked him if he was OK after the ride because he saw him hit it. Luckily, there weren’t any injuries, but it definitely made me stay alert during the rest of the trip!

 

Brakeman

A questionable fashion choice.

When we finished riding, the park gave us about 30 minutes of ERT on Rutschebanen. After being a little disappointed with Bakken’s version, I’m very happy to say that I loved this ride. It’s really well themed, and the brakemen really know how to run the ride to perfection. I got about 3 rides in before it was time for the park to open. Robb had mentioned that the Plane-On-A-Stick ride was a capacity nightmare, and that it was a good idea to ride it right away that morning. Everyone made their way to the ticket booths so we could cash in our voucher and receive our ride wristbands. Once we’d been given the bands, my group made its way over to Vertigo, aka Plane-On-A-Stick.

 

As usual, our group was the last one to wander over to the ride. Almost the entire queue had been filled by TPR members. Since each of the ride vehicles only held 4 people, we knew it was going to be a long wait. Both Aussie Steve and I mentioned that we should just come back later, because the line was going to take forever (REMEMBER THIS!!!). Our group was pretty fluid at Tivoli, so I’m having trouble remembering who was there for most of the day. Off the top of my head I know that Aussie Steve, Priscella, Joe, Chris, Alan, Cary and other Steve, aka Nozzy(Nozzy) were with us. Throughout the day, Bill (Nrthwnd) would join us for a ride or two, then disappear. Shawn and Ross were around sometimes, but mostly went off with a different group of people. It was a nice break from them  The line took FOREVER… At the very least, the ride was nice and long. I think this was probably the longest wait I had on our entire trip, nearing the hour mark. Had we just come back later in the day, I don’t think we would’ve waited more than 15-20 minutes. Another important lesson… You should listen to me. All. The. Time.

 

It was finally our turn to board, and we were a little worried about the restraints since some of the group had issues getting into their seats. No problem for me, surprisingly. Truth be told, I was a little worried about this ride because it looked so insane. Deep down, I kind of wanted to get booted off for not fitting, but we got the OK and the plane started to spin without any warning. While the plane started spinning right to left, the huge arm that it’s attached to started doing revolutions as well. At first, it moved pretty slowly. After that, it went faster and faster until you were stapled to your seat from the intense G-forces. This thing was amazing! The ride ends with the airplane facing straight forward while you do loop after loop in succession. We were told that the ride pulls over 5 Gs, and I have no problem believing that. This is such a great ride, and I hope they can figure out how to make more of them with a little better capacity. Everyone should get to try one of these out!

 

Pulling 5 Gs.

Spinning and looping.

 

Having ridden the insane Vertigo, my group turned its sights to an even bigger thrill. The kiddie coaster in the park! I chose to stay behind and shoot some video of Vertigo, and they met up with me when they were finished. Since the kiddie coaster is hard to photograph, I don’t have any pictures to mock others with. Sorry, I know you all look forward to my public shaming of credit whores. There will be plenty more opportunities throughout this trip! We all met up, and decided we wanted to try The Monsoon. It’s basically an inverted Falling Star. Tivoli went the extra mile by adding water jets that would shoot up from the ground, making it look like your feet would get wet. Not the most amazing ride I’ve ever been on, but I liked it more than the normal version of the flat ride. I’ve never seen one of these, so I’m not sure how common they are. Does anyone know?

 

I stole this from Tivoli's website.

A giraffe?

It was time to start exploring the rest of the park. We headed towards the side of the park with more rides, and the first one that we happened upon was The Flying Trunk. The Flying Trunk is a Hans Christian Andersen themed dark ride. From the outside, it was hard to tell what was going on inside the building. On the building’s façade, there was a never ending parade of characters from his stories that would rotate past you. When you step inside the entrance to the building, you’re actually taken down a circular staircase towards the loading platform. Robb mentioned that morning that the ride will do Danish and English, you just need to make sure to switch it at the start of the ride. Joe and I hopped into our trunk, and started looking for the language button. Of course, since we’re both idiots, we couldn’t find it. The narrator started speaking in Danish, and I started to panic. This was going to be a LONG ride if I couldn’t understand what they were saying. After about 10 seconds, I looked up and saw the switch on the ride vehicle’s ceiling and flipped it over to English. Ahhhh. That’s better.

 

For a smaller park, this ride was really well done. I wouldn’t say that it’s quite on par with a Disney attraction, but it wasn’t that far off. I’d say that it closely resembled Peter Pan’s flight, if you’ve visited any of the Disney parks. The ride took you through several scenes, each relating to one of Andersen’s famous stories. I know I’m missing quite a few, but I can remember The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Pea and The Snow Queen all being featured. It’s a pretty lengthy ride, so even if you have to wait a few minutes it’s well worth it. The narrator was kind of goofy, including a part of the ride where he started to talk about one of the stories, then said something like, “Well, we don’t time for that. Let’s go to the next story!” It was very quirky, indeed.

 

Front entrance.

Characters on parade.

Oooohhhh. Flying Trunk makes a lot more sense now.

Not sure what this is from.

I think every straight man/boy has waited a long time to see this.

No idea what this is.

I don't remember any of these pictures.

Mulan

If you look closely, you can see Robb masturbating in the background.

Elsa?

Some sort of rooftop.

Does anyone know what these are?

I really should've listened better. Joe just kept talking, though.

Princess and the Pea?

Or was this it?

That Hans Christian Andersen's actual body.

It was almost time for lunch, so we started scoping out possible food options. While we were looking for something to eat, we came cross the park’s funhouse. Of course, we all thought it was a good idea to go in there before we ate. There were some cool things inside of Tivoli’s attraction, but it was set up quite a bit differently than any other that we’d see on this trip. Instead of being lead through the house by following a path, this was just a huge open room with all of the different obstacles located inside of it. I think there were 3 different levels, with everything from slides, to the moving stairways, as well as the ever popular hamster wheel. I’m not sure why, but every time I’ve seen one of these I’ve been able to talk someone into trying to get spun upside down. I don’t even think it’s possible, but people try it every time. It’s always good for a laugh, and sometimes a few injuries!

 

Climbing the moving steps. Careful on these. (More on this later)

A slide.

Now that we’d had our fun, it was time to take a break and get some lunch. We had a food voucher that was good at several of the counter service restaurants in the park. About half of our group decided to try out the pita place (I think they were pitas), and the rest of us ended up going to the burger place. Once again, I used my superior intelligence while making this decision… I ordered a bacon cheeseburger meal, and as I started eating it I realized that I was going to have a bacon cheeseburger for dinner that night. The group was heading to Hard Rock Café, and we had to make our selection a couple of months before the trip. I, of course, had forgotten about this. Good thing I like burgers! The burger was pretty decent, but the fries in Denmark were a little disappointing. They cook them in a different way than we do in the states, and there was just something off about most of the fries that I had while I was there. How dare they don’t conform to American standards! While eating, we ended up adding another person to our group. Ben (Coaster Dooey) had met some of our group at Noma on the first night of the trip, so we welcomed him aboard.

 

One of the paths in the park.

Looking for lunch.

After lunch, a few of us decided to head back to the hotel and take a little break, coming back right before dinner. Having a hotel within walking distance of the park is such a rare treat, that I always try to get a nap in when I have the chance. On the way out of the park, there was some sort of parade with a marching band. I’m not sure what the significance was, but it seemed like they were pretty popular with the locals.

 

What's that?

Some sort of parade!

Feeling refreshed, we headed back towards the park around dinner time. The group was meeting outside of the Hard Rock entrance, located just outside of Tivoli Gardens. While we were waiting to get seated, our group was approached by a man who saw the Theme Park Review bags that we were all carrying. He told us how he read the site every day, and loved watching all of our videos. I made sure to mention that we didn’t work for the company, and told him that we were part of the Scandinavia tour. I’m not sure if he understood what we were trying to say, but he ended up asking if he could get his picture with us, so we obliged. He went on his way shortly after. I wish I would’ve at least got a picture of him with my phone. Dinner at Hard Rock was pretty standard if you’ve ever eaten at one. I really liked the nachos that they brought out as an appetizer, and my burger was actually pretty tasty as well.

 

It was time to head back into the park to do a little more exploring. We walked in the front entrance and decided to check out some of the landscaping. Tivoli really is one of the most beautiful parks I’ve ever seen. It’s really well taken care of, and even the park guests seem to respect it. I really wish more American park guests would behave like this. We probably spent a good 25-30 minutes just checking out the front of the park. When the group had seen enough, we made our way to the back of the park to ride some of the flat rides that we’d missed earlier in the day.

 

Beautiful building.

Exotic birds walking around.

A mixture of beautiful architecture and landscaping.

It looks like a city park.

More birds...

More birds...

You can't keep all of the trash out of the park. Right, Steve?

Pretty...

Large concert area.

More open areas.

Fountains.

More fountains.

Tried a panoramic. I'm pretty talented.

At dinner, someone was telling our group about the insane bumper cars that Tivoli had. Now, I’d never really been a huge bumper car fan until I first visited Knoebels in 2012. After seeing what real bumper cars were like, I’d been itching to try out some of the European park’s cars. Tivoli didn’t disappoint. The cars themselves were huge. They were basically like tanks. I think there was supposed to be some sort of laser tag game going on during the ride, but it didn’t really work, and we were too busy trying to kill each other to notice. Somehow, all of the bigger people ended up in the same group, so the collisions were pretty fantastic. I came up with several bruises on my legs, and the seat belt had acted a lot like a noose. There were a few times that the belt really dug into my neck/shoulder area. It looked like I had a floor burn on my neck after we’d finished with our turn. It was fun, but it wasn’t something that I could’ve done more than once or twice that day.

 

Since we were right next to the powered coaster, Odinexpressen, we thought it would be a good time to get the final “credit”. Since it’s powered, none of us actually consider it a credit, but I was excited to ride it since I’d never been on a powered coaster. The ride op running Odinexpressen was pretty fun to watch. He was an older gentleman, probably in his early 60s. He would wait for some teenagers to start talking to each other, not paying attention. Once they weren’t watching him anymore, he’d sneak up on them and yell in their ear. It got a reaction every time, and he’d clearly perfected this skill. Being a jerk, I thought it was hilarious. Once the ride started, the train climbed up the hill, and made its way over to a helix. The ride was a lot of fun, and you cycled through it 3 times, ending with a tunnel! We ended up riding it again later in the evening because we enjoyed it so much!

 

I forgot to get a picture of Odinexpressen, so I took this off of Tivoli's website. I'm sorry.

Right next to Odinexpressen was Nautilus. Nautilus was basically a Dumbo ride, but themed to the sea. Actually, it reminds me of One Fish, Two Fish at Islands of Adventure, if you’ve ever been there. I’m not even sure why we rode it, to be honest, but it ended up being one of the more enjoyable moments of the trip for me. See, I get a lot of crap from people because I don’t smile very often. It’s odd, because I feel like a laugh a lot, but most pictures of me make it look like I’m pretty miserable. My default face is pretty similar to Grumpy Cat. My friends back home refer to it as BSF, or Bargie Sad Face, for those of you not in the know. Priscilla seemed to really enjoy it, for some reason. She even started calling me things like Grumpy Cat, and also telling me that I’m just a “miserable f**k”. Fair enough. Our group wasn’t able to get on the same ride circuit, so I was left standing and watching while the first group went. For some reason, I just stared at Joe and Priscilla the entire time, making the most deadpan face that I possibly could. Each time they’d come around, they’d see me and completely lose it. I’m sure it’s not that funny to read, but you have to trust me, it was pretty hilarious. I did the same thing while I rode the ride. It actually became pretty difficult to keep a straight face each time, so I started smiling whenever they couldn’t see me just so I could get it out of my system. I guess it’s the little things that make these things so much fun!

 

 

Nautilus. From Tivoli's website. Not a very good Photo TR, is it?

Some other things that we took a ride on included:

-The Spinning Top, a Break Dance (I think, I’m not good with flat ride names). The ride op from Odinexpressen was working this ride while we were there, and I got to watch him scare some more teenagers! I love that guy!

-The Mine, an interactive shooting water ride where the guns looked like some sort of vibrator. No joke. This was pretty well done, but it seemed like the guns were pretty hit or miss. I’m pretty sure mine was broken.

-The Galley Ships, a Matterhorn type ride with a ship in the middle that actually fired smoke out of cannons during the ride.

-Aquila, an Air Race ride, that 4 of us were too fat to ride. At least I wasn’t the only one! 

-Some of the group rode the park’s Star Flyer, but since I hate them more than any other ride, I took a bathroom break instead.

 

The park's Air Racer. One of these days I'll ride one of these.

The pirate ship that shot smoke out during the ride. Notice the pirate that's puking over the side.

We were starting to run out of daylight, so we made all thought it would be fun to check out Daemonen at night. The lights were just starting to come on in the park, and it really changes the environment. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a more beautiful park at night. There are lights EVERYWHERE, and it’s not tacky, either. Daemonen was a walk on, so it made it even more enjoyable. No difference from the earlier rides that we had that morning, but like I said, it’s fun.

 

Some people wanted to check out the park’s drop tower, me included. I’d heard that the views of Copenhagen were stunning from the top of the ride, and that was proven to be true. Sadly, you don’t get very long to check it out, but it’s probably the best view I’ve had from the top of a drop tower. Quick side story… Now, I’m the kind of guy that just has weird things happen to me. It happens all the time, and it’s always the most random thing you can imagine. I rode this with Cary and Bill, and the 4th seat was taken by a young girl, probably around the age of 10. The ride op was having trouble getting my restraint to click, so he had me switch seats with Bill because the seat belt was longer. When he released the restraints, the girl took off, running from the ride. I’m pretty sure she actually jumped over the exit gate. I have no idea what spooked her, but that’s not where the weirdness stopped. Right as we were about to get lifted to the top of the tower, the girl came back with her older sister and mom. They stood right in front of us, staring at me the entire time. Bill and Cary were both freaked out as well. After the ride finished, we were getting lowered to the ground and I noticed that they were still standing there, still staring right at me. They finally started to walk away, but they never stopped watching me the whole time. Finally, I gave them a wave. The oldest daughter smiled and waved back, and they left. I have absolutely no idea what happened, but it was one of the strangest things I’ve ever been a part of.

The drop tower is located right next to the Plane-On-A-Stick, and the line was short, so our group wanted to try out the backwards program. It was only about a 10-15 minute wait, (See, Steve and I were right!) so it wasn’t long until we were on the ride. I’d have to say that the forward program was much better. Backward wasn’t all that intense for some reason, but it was still a fun ride. The only part I didn’t really enjoy was being hung upside down for a few seconds at the end of the cycle. I never like how that feels.

 

With the sun continuing to set, we headed over to get another ride on Rutschebanen. There was about a 10 minute wait, and we saw that Jakob was still working as a brakeman. We asked at the loading platform if we could wait for his train, and the employee happily obliged. It only took one extra train, and Jakob was excited to see all of us waiting for him when the train came into the station. He gave us another fantastic ride, and then parked the train on the brake run, just before the exit platform. Jakob hopped out of the train and walked away, saying, “I’m off for the day, see you guys later!” He came back about 15 seconds later since we were holding up the other trains. Jakob told us to sit tight, because he was going to give us another ride! Yes! When the station was empty, he released the brake and we rolled right through the station without stopping. I tried to avoid making eye contact with the guests that were getting bypassed, because they didn’t look very happy. Seriously, though, who’s going to say no to another ride? Not me. As we pulled into the station again, we got out and thanked Jakob for such an awesome day. He really loves what he does, and it showed!

 

Let's ride Rutschebanen again!

Fun ride!

Train leaving the station. Not Jakob.

That's Jakob! Thanks for an awesome day!

One last look at the mountain.

It seemed like we’d had enough riding for the day. We found a nice patio area, and everyone sat down and just hung out. A few people had some beers and others had non-alcoholic drinks as well. It was a nice way to end the day at such a great park. While we were sitting there, another group of TPR folks walked by. Shawn, Ross, Matt (mattguyver) and Lauren (lauren3k) along with few others joined us for a bit. After sharing stories, it was time to make our way to the park exit. This is when I really fell in love with Tivoli Gardens. It’s a completely different park after the sun goes down. All of the buildings and most of the rides are decorated with lights. It’s really unlike any other park that I’ve visited. We all had an amazing day at Tivoli, and it was easily one of the top 3 parks on the trip. While the ride collection isn’t amazing, the park is just incredible. Hopefully I’m able to come back for a visit someday!

 

Gorgeous.

Then there's Joe. I can't even try to explain this.

Dusk.

The park starts to come to life at night.

Coaster nerd shot!

Another fancy panoramic.

The mountain at night.

Very nice.

Leaving the park.

Another creepy clown. What the hell is it with this country?

Even better at night.

Priscilla has had enough of me and my bad attitude.

Thanks for reading!

Edited May 30, 2015 by Barge84

[spongey]

Great memories mate!

 

My hip flask was class personified.....plus I used proper etiquette and stuck the pinky finger out.

[Nrthwnd]

Very nice day and evening at Tivoli.

Here you all are!

[jbottgen]

Aahh, Plane on a Stick. What fond memories.

[rosscoe]

Thad, the marching band was for the changing of the guards at the royal palace, I learnt something while I was away, go figure! Loving the trip report so far, not enough pictures of me, just saying ( yes I am a whore, just not a credit one! ) It really was an amazing park.

[vuurvogel]

This report is so awesome. Thad, you realy need to write more tr's. This an amazing read. Makes me want to go back this instand.

[TPDave]

Nice! Looks like the park is on top form, great TR!

 

Don't let Thad's protestations cover up his inner coaster-nerd though...

"Yeah, this is going to be a pretty kick-ass picture"

[Barge84]

Thanks for the comments, except for Dave. I love that picture, Bill!

 

Bon Bon Land is next. OHHHH YEAH! HERE WE GO!!!

[SuperShawn]

Bon Bon Land is next. OHHHH YEAH! HERE WE GO!!!

 

The moment we've all been waiting for!

[jynx242]

Thanks for posting Thad. This report is full of all kinds of awesome.

[Barge84]

Thanks, David! Unfortunately, there weren't any knee-bagging episodes on this trip.

[jynx242]

You perfected your "ride-op Pimp" skills on the East Coast trip

[cfc]

Daemonen is the cutest little old B&M coaster ever. You just want to pat it on the head and give it a cookie.

 

Tivoli is great park, and I need to get back there some day.

[TPDave]

Dave. I love that picture

 

Why thank you.

[Coaster Dooey]

Thad's commentary for our ride on Lynet was one of my favorite trip memories. It was made all the more better when he crashed into the tree as well.

 

I would love to see this video! I was standing at the station at the time so I was fortunate enough to learn about the braking system from the moon - but I'm sure there are so many other interesting facts from the other elements of the ride that I was not fortunate enough to be educated on by Thad!

[Coaster Dooey]

Loving this trip report Thad! Haven't been on the site for a while, so I only just discovered it through a link on Robb's Monday email. It is bringing back so many good memories! And I can't wait for YOUR take on Thad at Bon Bon Land!! Monster Energy drink anyone?!?! Haha!

[Nrthwnd]

Thad, where ARE you and......wherever ARE we, next???....

 

 

 

 

 

Not that I'm being PUSHY or anything, hmmm?

[Barge84]

I started working on it last night, so I'll hopefully get it posted tonight.

[fatdaddy]

Not enough pictures of me, but good stuff, continue please.