Photo TR: Thad's 2014 TPR Scandi Trip

[jbottgen]

Nice Legoland part 2 trip report. Wow not only are you a coaster nerd, now it seems that you are a Star Wars nerd as well.

[spongey]

Good times mate, this park was really fun with heaps to see and do.

 

Shut up Jere!

[chadster]

Needs more lego.

 

Seriously tho, that was great.

[robbalvey]

Wow not only are you a coaster nerd, now it seems that you are a Star Wars nerd as well.

"Those drive tires sure gets my light saber hard!"

 

Edited January 12, 2015 by robbalvey

[Fran1962]

Fantastic Thad

So great reading your reports.

Here in the dead of winter, sure feels nice remembering a wonderful summer.

[vuurvogel]

^^

 

Another great episode of Thads Scandinavian Adventure! Was great fun reading it. You sir are an awesome writer and a great pink knight.

Edited January 12, 2015 by vuurvogel

[SuperShawn]

"Those drive tires sure gets my light saber hard!"

 

This sums up Thad so well.

[cfc]

I see that the pink shirt helped you to score with some Lego ladies . . . well done.

[Nrthwnd]

I see that the pink shirt helped you to score with some Lego ladies . . .

 

... and Steve.

[cfc]

For the life of me, I don't remember any scenes like this.

 

Probably because it's from Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones, and your mind has mercifully blocked it out.

[jbottgen]

^The only good part of that movie was Padmé in her white jumpsuit.

[rosscoe]

^The only good part of that movie was Padmé in her white jumpsuit.

 

 

There was no good parts to that movie, period!

[jbottgen]

^The only good part of that movie was Padmé in her white jumpsuit.

 

 

There was no good parts to that movie, period!

 

Yeah there was, barely any Jar Jar Binks. Besides that and Padmé in a ripped up jumpsuit, I agree, there was no good parts.

 

Wow, I am nerding out like Thad now.

[Werner]

^The only good part of that movie was Padmé in her white jumpsuit.

 

Me like!

 

Still sad that i had to miss this TPR trip... Great tripreport! Tha'd' makes everything a little bit better...

[TPDave]

It looks like you had a drier visit that I did. Good report, I can't tell you how sad I was not to be there for the Fire Academy...

[Barge84]

It looks like you had a drier visit that I did. Good report, I can't tell you how sad I was not to be there for the Fire Academy...

 

Robb has video of it, I believe. Too bad I forgot to mention that while you were hanging out with him last week...

[Coaster Dooey]

Welcome back Thad & thanks for another great review!

 

Here is your reward mate - a bunch of penguin pictures from my trip to Antarctica. (Sorry to all those readers who don't like penguins - but this is for Thad)

 

Thad liking penguins.....who knew?!?!

Eric the Penguin (Gentoo penguin)

Charlie the Penguin (Chinstrap Penguin)

Shelly the Penguin (Adelie Penguin)

Eric on his Iceberg

Eric on the Penguin Highway

I just about got haemorrhoids sitting in the snow so long waiting to capture this photo!

Eric coming home from a hard day fishing

Eric coming home from the pub

[cfc]

^They're coming for you, Thad!

[jbottgen]

Too bad you did not post the pics last week. A week ago was world penguin awareness day. (yes, it is a real thing, I did not make it up.) Thad probably had a huge party to celebrate the day.

[Barge84]

Great pictures, Ben! Thanks. I swear you've been everywhere.

[Barge84]

Day 8 – Djurs Sommerland and Tivoli Friheden, Part 1

This is another 2 part update. Unfortunately, the 100 picture maximum came into play again. Since I write these while looking through the pictures, it’s easier if I just give you the first part now. Enjoy!

 

My phone alarm went off around 5:30 AM for a 6:30 departure. With the elevator situation, I didn’t want to get left behind because I was waiting for the elevator for 30 minutes. My cold had reached the point where it was getting pretty bad, but still not the usual level of TPR Plague that I’ve had in the past. This was just the annoying cough stage. Regardless of your health situation, you trudge on when you’re on one of these trips. Especially on a day like this!

 

My knowledge of Scandinavia consisted of just a few things: Balder, Grona Lund, Tivoli and finally Piraten, at Djurs Sommerland. While I don’t consider myself an Intamin fan boy, my top 10 lists are dominated by the company. I’d been hearing about Mega-Lites for years, and it was finally time to try one out. This was the ride that I was looking most forward to on the entire trip, but it was also the most fearful for me. Would I fit? Intamin likes to tease me sometimes. You just never know what each park will have for guidelines. CP can be a nightmare with their shortened seat belts. SFNE has a maximum height limit that prevents me from riding Bizarro. The list goes on and on. Would this be another sad result for my fat butt? I hoped not.

 

The park was only about an hour away, yet it’s somehow 100 miles from anything else. I feel like we drove on a back country road for a really long time. Then, out of nowhere you could see the park. It reminded me of Holiday World a bit. Robb told us on the way to the park that a Danish television crew would be at the park during ERT filming us. They were standing there filming us as we got off the bus.

 

Great. More Robb Alvey fans. Robb was nice enough to autograph his underwear for this guy.

This was also when I got my first look at Piraten!

 

I've been waiting a long time for this...

There are certain people (Steve and Shawn) that crave attention like this. Steve is especially bad. He’ll be completely silent, but once a camera shows up it’s time for the crazy Aussie act! Of course, within minutes he was getting interviewed by the film crew. They thought we were all Americans, so I’m sure it blew their minds that there were people from all over the world on the tour. Steve gave them plenty of clips to work with, and it was time to ride Juvelin. Also, Shawn and Lauren were the best of friends for their part of the video. It made me sad to see behind the curtain. I believed for years that all of those people on Insane Coaster Wars were actually scared of the rides! Piraten would have to wait for now.

 

But, but, but... I want to ride it now!!!

First up was an hour of ERT on the park’s newest ride, Juvelin. This was an Intamin family coaster, themed to something about Aztecs, I think. The trains look like four wheelers (ATV), and they actually look pretty cool. Since Steve had been busy being a camera hog, we were one of the last groups to arrive. Even most of our normal group had ditched us. The station is themed like an Aztec Temple. Honestly, I’m being a jerk right now, but the ride was really well themed. Our train pulled in, and I paired up with Priscilla. The lap bar came down right on my thighs. This wasn’t comfortable at all. Right before we launched, I looked at Priscilla and said, “This is going to hurt.” I was right, unfortunately. Now, I’m assuming the ride was pretty fun, but you’ll have to ask someone that didn’t think his femurs were going to break in half during the ride. Outlaw Run left an indentation on my shin in 2013 with TPR. Juvelin tried to end me.

 

I’m used to being somewhat in pain when I ride, it just comes with the territory. This was brutal. By the end, I couldn’t wait to get off the thing. I remember a helix and a couple of airtime hills. That’s it. We pulled into the station, and I was waiting for that relief you get when the lap bar releases. Except this time, it didn’t happen. Everyone got up and walked away, but my lap bar was stuck. The pain escalated and I started to think that this was how I was going to die. Priscilla was trying to help (so you know it was bad), but the angle that my knee was bent in was higher than my thigh, so the lap bar wouldn’t move. After three ride ops failed, I was starting to freak out. It had been about a minute at this point, but it felt like ten. Finally, they were able to get it over my knee. Relief! Well, kind of. I made my way off of the train, and limped to the exit of the station. Goodbye, Juvelin. See ya never! I spent the next 45 minutes sitting on a bench. I loved it.

 

I guess this will have to do for now. We'd heard good things from some of the locals earlier in the trip. Many of them preferred this to Piraten. Those people have severe issues.

Once again, great theming.

OUCH!!!

Everybody ready to move on? I know I am! Let’s go over to Piraten. Everyone must have been excited, because all 95 of us (or however many people there were) started chanting “MEGA-LITE. MEGA-LITE. MEGA-LITE.”

Me: “I hear those things are awfully loud”

Lyle Lanley: “It glides as softly as a cloud!”

Me: “Is there a….”

Wait, wait, wait. That’s not what happened. I think we just walked over to Piraten. Yeah. That makes more sense. When we got there, trains were cycling.

 

Oh, you tease.

It was cold that morning, so at least they were trying to warm it up. Robb had warned us on the way to the park that they tend to run pretty slow in the cold weather. We made a mental note to leave time in the afternoon for a few rides. It was time for a group picture in front of Piraten’s entrance. Somehow, Joe and I ended up way in the back, and you couldn’t see either of us. He looked at me and said, “It would be funny if we were waiting in the station when everyone got up there.” I agreed, but also thought people would get mad, rightfully so. Joe agreed, so we stood there. Why did I tell you that story? Because other people actually did it! Here’s a quick tip… Don’t skip out on the group picture to get to the front of the line for ERT. You’ll still get plenty of rides, and people won’t hate you. Seems like a win-win, right?

 

Aussie Steve and I decided to ride together since we were both concerned about the seat belts. I took my shoes off, just to give myself some more room. As I was getting in, Steve said, “We’re not riding, mate. I’m not even close.” I looked, and his seat belt was a good 6 inches away from clicking. Well, that sucks. One of the ride ops walked over and pulled on the seat belt again. He smiled and said, “Extensions”. YES! I sat down and clicked the seatbelt into place. Now for the lap bar. I pulled it down as far as I could. The ride ops tried to start it, but it wouldn’t give the ok. They kept pushing on poor Robb in the front seat, and I finally yelled, “I think it’s me.” The ride op ran down to me, gave it a push, and we got the OK! I’m happy to report that all of the fatties were able to ride. Some had to get on in more creative ways than others. If you’ve seen the Danish news video, you know what I’m talking about…

 

While the ride op may not look impressed with us, he was fantastic. Their whole crew did a great job, and even joined in on the fun!

ALERT! ALERT! MBF sighting.

We were near the middle of the train, if I remember correctly. Off we went. You really climb that hill quickly. Before you know it, you’re twisting and dropping at the same time. It’s a great drop. One of my favorites, even with it being so small. Then the airtime starts. The first hill has the airtime that I always hope for from I-305 (my #1 steel). This thing just keeps coming at you, but you could tell that it was a bit sluggish. It was still a really good ride, and we had 90 more minutes of ERT for it to heat up.

 

It's like it's trying to launch you into heaven. If you believe in that sort of thing.

We went out the exit and back around. I didn’t even bother putting my shoes on. Let’s be honest, I’m not going to keep putting them on and taking them off for 90 minutes. The next time we chose the last row. With 2 trains running, it was only about a 2-3 train wait for the back row, and 3-4 for the front. ERT is awesome! From what people were telling me, one of the trains was more restrictive than the other. I was pretty lucky on this ride, because I only needed a little push each time. What was the verdict on the back row? I was kind of underwhelmed with it. Over the years I’ve become a front of the train guy. I never used to do that. Personally, I thought Piraten’s sweet spot was row three, but anything in front of that was great as well. You can tell that I like a ride when I start talking nerdy about it.

 

Another satisfied train of nerds.

I think I took one small break during ERT, but beyond that it was pretty much a marathon session for me. I didn’t fly to Denmark to not get as many rides on this thing as I could! The ride ops were great. Helping people get in the ride, getting people excited, and even suggesting that we play pass the sword! We had a few rounds of pass the sword going, until someone from Australia name D. Attwater dropped it during the ride. Sorry, that’s too obvious. We’ll call him Doug A. Poor Doug. He was shamed for the rest of the day by the rest of the group. Don’t drop the sword, folks. ERT was coming to an end, and a lot of the group had dropped out. I thought the ride had really warmed up near the end of the session, and I got a couple amazing rides in the third row. The public started making their way back to the ride, so our group decided to get a jump on some of the other attractions in the park.

 

For such a small ride, it really packs a punch.

Just next door was the park’s water coaster, Skattøen. Scandinavia REALLY loves water coasters. I’m not sure if they’ve ever actually gone outside in the summer time, because their climate isn’t ideal for these. I put on my rain coat first. Before pulling the lap bar down, I covered my legs with the TPR poncho. This came in handy several times throughout the trip on water coasters. Most of the ride was really well themed. I loved the skull outside of the station, and even the station fit in with the rest of the area. As for the ride, you went up, down, around, then down again. Just like most other rides like this. Of course, you end up in one those deluge areas, where the water flies in from the side. I didn’t get too wet on this ride, so it’s OK in my book.

 

A very cool queue and station...

...too bad it was a water ride.

Fun part.

Kind of fun part.

Dumb part.

REALLY dumb part.

Our group somehow got split up, even though we were all in the same place. We ended up hanging out in Piraten’s plaza waiting for everyone else to show up. I still don’t know where Shawn and Jake wandered off to, but we found them later that morning. While we waited, I took the opportunity to make TPDave happy and get more pictures of the ride.

 

This is how I prefer my coasters. Dry, like a woman's vagina on a TPR trip.

I must have been really excited about this turn.

It really is fun to watch.

That's how you create airtime. (the ship isn't necessary, but I think it helps)

A panoramic of the plaza.

We eventually gave up on our friends and moved on. I don’t think anyone in our group had a map, so we just started walking. Djurs Sommerland has roughly 10,000 trampolines, swings, green cones of death, and several other things that could kill you. It’s just field after field of this stuff. So what did we do? We started trying it all out. Luckily, there are only a few pictures of these activities, but it’s pretty pathetic watching some of us trying to act young.

 

What could go wrong?

Notice how far away everyone sat from Ross. The thrusting was a little scary.

It was decided that we’d embarrassed ourselves enough for now, and we started walking again. Off in the distance, I saw something.

 

What the hell is that?

When you see a tower with a gigantic eagle head on it, you walk towards it. That’s just a rule I’ve always lived by.

 

Oh, it's a Topple Tower with a giant eagle head. Makes sense.

I’d never actually seen one of these in person. I think the one at Dollywood had been removed in the offseason before I’d visited. The only thing I’d ever heard about these rides was how unreliable they were. Watching the ride cycle, it looked pretty silly. I’m not really sure what the point of the ride is, but I still had to ride it. After the riders exited, we were let on by a very nice older gentleman. He tried and tried, but he couldn’t get the light to go off. I didn’t get to ride, but I wasn’t that upset. I’ll take Piraten over the giant eagle head of death. I watched while my friends rode, and they couldn’t have looked less excited.

 

Everyone ready?

Zzzzzz

Hello, Priscilla.

More of this lame ride.

Not upset about missing out on this one.

See, they looked pretty bored, didn’t they? Steve even gave it two giant thumbs down while the ride was ending. I believe the consensus was that it was “F*****g stupid”. While I waited for the rest of the group to get off the ride, I walked over by the log flume to grab some pictures. I’m not sure what interested me about this ride, but it’s one of the few log flumes I’ve ridden in the last decade.

 

Oh, look. Another water ride.

I was impressed to see one of their employees standing on the roof of the station, doing some sort of maintenance. I think they were staining the wood, because I can kind of remember the smell. Kudos to Djurs taking such pride in their park. The ride was your typical log flume. I think there were three drops, and the second drop was the one that actually got you wet. I hate it when they trick you like that…

 

Staining the roof. See, America? This is how their parks stay so nice and pretty!

In case you've never seen a log flume.

I have to ask my international friends… Do people think Colorado is awesome or something? It seems like every outdoors type thrill ride has Colorado in the name. Maybe I’m imagining it…

 

Colorado sounds amazing!

Cannon ball comin'.

If I’m being completely honest with you, I’ve been looking forward to this trip report for one reason. Now, my mate Steve is a good guy. We’ve hit it off since our first TPR trip, and he’s a good sport. This next story is probably my favorite thing that happened on the entire Scandi tour. After the log flume, our group was trying to find the train so we could get over to some of the other areas of the park. We passed one of those huge bubble trampolines things, and Steve took off towards it without saying anything. I wish that I’d set my phone to video, because what followed was pure hilarity. I’ll just let the pictures do the talking. Just so you know, he jumped once, and this happened…

 

Steve is prancing.

LOL! WTF just happened? Can we zoom in, please?

A little more...

Enhance...

Keep going...

Not close enough yet.

Perfect. I couldn't have timed this any better! Oh, hope you're ok, Steve.

To watch this all go down in real time was amazing. We were all laughing so hard. I think Joe was crying. Steve was OK for the most part. A bruised ego, and his neck did hurt a bit. But this is the same guy whose ankle hurt because it “hung off the side of the bed” one night. I love ya, Steve! To show that I’m equal opportunity in my harassment, here’s a picture of me that Ross took. I had just done 2 front flips, and didn’t stick the landing…

 

Ross mistimed this photo. I had just attempted a double forward somersault, but overturned just a touch on the second rotation.

We saw the train station nearby, so we all went for a ride on it. Once again, we didn’t really know where we were going, but it was nice to sit down and take a break for a few minutes. You really get an idea of how big the park is, and also how many trampolines this place had!

 

This park is a creepy person's dream. You could just sit on the train all day and watch people bouncing up and down.

The train stopped at one of the stations, and since we hadn’t been to that area yet, we unloaded and started checking things out. Djurs Sommerland had a Wild West area. Say what? No way!

 

Speaking of creepy.

Another horsey ride for kids.

WILD WEST!

I think we saw a carousel and a wave swinger, but none of us were interested in those rides. The bumper cars were calling our names! It was time to take out some of our aggression on each other. After queuing up, we saw that the bumper cars were actually themed to look like buffalo. I’ll give them credit for that. It was a nice touch. The bumper cars weren’t as heavy as Tivoli’s, but you could get some nice hits on people. We had so much fun that the ride attendant said we could all go again. I think he liked watching us beat the hell out of each other. There also wasn’t anyone in line…

 

Buffalo themed bumper cars.

Typically in Texas, when someone says that they were inside of a buffalo, it has a completely different meaning.

Someone else from TPR saw us, and told us that we had to try out the Jungle Safari ride. It was apparently just the perfect amount of cheesy for people like us. It didn’t let us down. The ride is REALLY long. They put a lot of work into this, and honestly, it’s not horrible. It’s just kind of a weird mix of random scenes put together. We laughed and had a good time on it, so I guess it wasn’t too bad. I’ll just let the pictures tell the story of the ride…

 

The parks raft ride. I was told that it was pretty fun.

 

This is how they get people to ride.

I watched this guy eat a tourist earlier in the day. I'm telling you, he was STUFFED. He spent the rest of the day just LION around. Hey, I try to make myself laugh sometimes. Deal with it.

All that was missing was a skipper giving commentary.

The ape's banana is a lot less threatening than the guns we saw earlier.

I later found out that this wasn't part of the ride. Sad.

Oh great, his in-laws stopped by!

I find it hard to believe he's ever caught a fish with that technique.

Whenever I see this picture, I feel like there's some sort of glory hole thing going on.

An elephant.

So that's what Tim Tebow is up to!

Looks like he forgot to pack his snout. Wait, that doesn't sound right.

I'm pretty sure that's fake.

Hang in there! My favorite poster is the one with the cat on it.

This lion looks like it's been snorting crystal meth all night.

It was the Sophie's Choice of lion cubs. Loser dies. Mommy said so.

The father then feasts on the loser.

This guy has a double jointed everything, apparently.

At first we thought he looked hungry. Then our worst fears were realized. This hippo was hungry hungry.

I once dreamt of a video game mash up with Donkey Kong, Pitfall and the original Mario Brothers.

This is what that dream looked like.

WHY ARE THERE BIRDS IN EVERY PICTURE? Seriously. Go look. They're EVERYWHERE!

Except for this one, of course.

What's the old saying about lipstick on a pig? I'm assuming that translates to monkeys as well, right?

OK, now I'm interested.

Another monkey, and another mother f*@&$#g bird.

Well, that's at least a little different.

He's a big boy.

Careful. That box is covered in crabs.

This is the longest ride ever. And I did it twice.

Stop me if you've heard this one. A monkey and a water buffalo are trying to steal a boat...

He's definitely heard it before.

Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed that little trip through the jungle. I know we did. We had just enough time for one more ride before we were supposed to meet for lunch. Luckily, there was a ride nearby, and it looked pretty fun. We only had to wait for one cycle, and when the ride op was letting us in he stopped me. “Hey, an American! Do you like football?” I said, “Yes… American football.” He laughed, but then we actually had a nice conversation about how well the US was doing in the World Cup. He was cheering for us, which was nice to hear. I always assume that the rest of the world hates us all the time. The ride was fun. I have no idea what it’s called, and don’t care. You go around in a circle over little bumps, then it does it backwards. The ride op was having a blast. He’d play a game where he’d throw a damp towel from the operations booth into one of the guest’s cars as it went by. The guest was then supposed to throw it back to him when your car went by his booth. It was tougher than it looked, and I’m guessing it was a great way for him to pass the time. Another great ride op! Oh, yeah. The ride was really toeing the line of political correctness. I’ll let you be the judge…

 

Such a fun time riding this, but I feel somewhat guilty. I can't put my finger on why, though.

Lunch time! TPR was meeting at a restaurant over by the water park. There was a decent spread at this place with TONS of different kinds of pizza. I think this was the first time we’d seen salmon on pizza. It was cool the first time. More on that in future reports. We stuffed our faces with pizza and soda, then took a little time to sit around and shoot the proverbial crap. As much fun as the rides and everything are, it’s times like these that I really remember. Hanging out with great friends and just having a good time.

 

We’d had enough of each other, so it was time for more rides! There were still 2 credits left, and Thor’s Hammer had received great reviews from people that were on previous trips to Scandi with TPR. I think I’ve made it known that I don’t care for Wild Mouse coasters. This looked like it was going to be another one, so I didn’t really have my expectations set too high. Thor had about a 10 minute wait, which wasn’t bad for such a low capacity ride. While we waited, I took note of how little leg room there was in the cars. Not that it surprised me, but this looked worse than most. I really had to cram my legs in, and with my incredibly bruised thighs from earlier that morning, the last thing I needed was another tight restraint on my legs. Bad news… This was another tight restraint. I could actually enjoy the ride this time, but it wasn’t ideal.

 

The ride was a lot of fun, and the layout really surprised me. It starts out with the usual twisting and turning, but it was done in a more comfortable way than most Wild Mouses do it. You didn’t get slammed around on each turn. I’ve never understood why that’s “fun”. The rest of the ride was more like an actual roller coaster! What a novel idea. Lots of drops, airtime hills, and helices to be found. I really liked this ride! The bad part was when we got into the station. The bar couldn’t get over my knees again. Oh no. Not again! Luckily, I was able to wiggle out quickly this time. No need for an evacuation team this time.

 

Thor's Hammer

Thor! I know him! I know him!

Great little ride.

Very cool setting.

Hi EB.

This part was fun.

A family goes by in canoes. Snooks plans my death. Soon... Soon...

Nature? Exercise? What the hell is wrong with this place?

Coasters > Nature

Jackass.

We all seemed to like the ride, but the ice cream in the gift shop seemed to be more popular with my friends. We took another nice little break and sat by the water, eating ice cream. I finally had to try the chocolate covered marshmallows that I’d been seeing everywhere. They were delicious, and probably the cheapest thing you could buy in Denmark. It was at this point that some of the group split off from us to go and find the kiddie credit. Losers. That left me, Ross, Shawn, Jake, Adrian and Michael, who I believe is a new entry into this trip report.

 

Somewhere along the line, we ran into Robb and some other people. They talked a few of us into doing the Safari ride again. I’m not sure why, but we did it. There’s probably some pretty funny video out there somewhere from that boat ride. It was a good time waster, and we ended up making it pretty fun.

 

Boyfriend and girlfriend, Jeremiah and Nicole. Listed in opposite order of appearance.

The plan was to meet back by Thor, so we started walking back towards that ride. I’m not sure who decided it, but the 6 of us thought it would be fun to jump on the 4 person bikes and do the course. Will we make it? Can our poor, sad bodies handle all of this physical exertion? Tune in next time to find out! I should have the 2nd part of this out this weekend. Enjoy!

This looked like fun. We never ended up riding it, though.

This can't be a good idea.

There they go...

[Priscilla]

Flødebolles!

Edited January 29, 2015 by Priscilla

[Nrthwnd]

Djurs Sommerland is a wonderful park.

Piraten was my first megalite (2009) and still didn't disappoint.

The randomness of 'correctness' is really something to see in this park.

 

Great cover of everything there, Thad. Even the tilt tower! I love it!

 

And those peddle yourself carts, nearly killed me!!!

Edited January 29, 2015 by Nrthwnd

[derwood]

That was a great day! Nice set of pictures and reporting. Maybe I'll go through my pictures one of these days...oh hell who am I kidding I still haven't posted pictures from the 06 UK trip.

 

Keep going!

 

Daron

[gisco]

Brings back some great memories.