We arrived to a massive queue at the entrance and started to get worried. Thankfully things were just moving slowly because everyone was buying fast track packages with their entrance tickets. It seemed a bit strange to me to buy fast track before you knew how busy the park was, not to mention it massively slows down entry. This wouldn’t be the only slightly dirty trick Universal pulled to sell fast track, they were adding up to 30 minutes extra onto some queue times, which seems a bit desperate from a park chain as massive as them but alas, money.
Space Fantasy The Ride – Space Fantasy was sadly in a VR overlay when we visted. So instead of getting a supposed World class attraction, we got giant robots destroying the city, what a disappointment.
Jaws – The classic Universal attraction I’d seen so many times online and I loved it! It helped even more that our skipper was fantastic.
Jurassic Park The Ride – Another Universal classic and once again outstanding. The attention to detail is breathtaking, the animatronics were awesome and the drop was even more intense than I expected, I can’t praise this enough.
Backdraft – The park’s special effects show and ignoring the boring preshows Backdraft was amazing. I love fire effects and I’m super interested in movie special effects, so it was clear I was going to enjoy it but it ended up being so much more intense than I was ready for.
Spiderman – My first experience of this amazing ride technology and I can see why it won many awards and spawned copy cats, it’s incredible. Easily one of the best dark rides in the World, an absolute joy from start to finish.
Harry Potter & The Forbidden Journey – The Wizarding World of Harry Potter had never really interested me, despite being a huge fan of the books and not against laughing at how bad the movies are. With that in mind I went into the Wizarding World with low expections and yeah, it was fine I suppose. I’m not going to lie and say it doesn’t look massively impressive because it does, it just doesn’t do anything for me. I don’t think it helps itself either with how busy and cramped the area is, plus all the super expensive merchandise on sale really makes it scream cash grab to me. All the power in the World to you if you love the Wizarding World but it’s not for me.
I went into Forbidden Journey with equally low expections and even then somehow managed to walk away disappointed.
Firstly just getting on the ride was a major hassle. Thousands of people everywhere outside the queue, then you enter the castle and have to pick between castle walkthrough or Forbidden Journey but it’s not sign posted well and there’s people everywhere so good luck with that. Then you get to a massive room full of lockers, full of tons of people all faffing about, then finally you can ride.
I’ve since ridden a Chinese knock off that’s so much better than Forbidden Journey and has further helped me to explain why Forbbiden Journey isn’t for me.
3D glasses, screens 2 inches from your face, crazy out of control robot arm and everything going 1000 miles an hour. At best it’s a bit of a mess, at worst it’s motion sickness. What’s even more annoying is how short it is and that it basically just showcases scenes from the movies in a “best of” Harry Potter vibe.
Terminator 2 3D – Much like Backdraft if you ignore the hours long preshow that’s only in Japanese, then T2 3D is amazing. I’m a massive fan of Terminator and this show took that and went crazy with it, there’s just so much awesome stuff going on it’s hard to keep up.
Now for Universal Japan’s big guns, their 2 custom B&M monsters.
Hollywood Dream: The Ride – At the time of riding this was my 2nd ever B&M hyper coaster and I really enjoyed it. Having now ridden quite a few B&M hyper coasters it’s even better than I gave it credit for at the time.
3 things make Hollywood Dream amazing.
1 – Combining the tried and tested B&M hyper air time with lots of twists and turns.
2 – Having on board audio.
3 – BACKWARDS! While Hollywood Dream forwards is great fun, riding it not knowing what’s about to happen is fantastic, surprise airtime is so much more intense. On our last ride of the day, we rode backwards with intense anime music playing and it’s something I’ll never forget.
Flying Dinosaur – I wasn’t expecting this to be one of the best roller coasters in the World, but it is. I didn’t think B&M or their flying coaster model was capable of making one of the most intense coasters ever made, but they did.
Easily one of the most intense coasters in the World, body crushing forces, perfectly paced and all while flying, this coaster is unbelievable, there really isn’t anything else to say.
We had planned to end our day watching the Hogwarts projection show but due to major faff related to the Wizarding World we only managed to catch the last 5 minutes and it was laughably bad, so thankfully we didn’t miss much.
Universal Studios Japan is home to some seriously fantastic attractions but as a park it never really did anything super special. I never had my “OMG I’m at Universal Studios” moment and the staff never went out of their way to improve my experience. Small probably pointless complaints I know but this is Universal Studios after all.
Thanks for reading, click here for day 7 and an awful experience at Nagashima Spa Land…
Today began with my first ever trip on one of Japan’s legendary bullet trains and while it was everything I wanted it to be and more, it did cost over one hundred pounds each, ONE WAY, not the full way, so for the price it’s probably about what you’d expect.
We were on route to Osaka but were stopping off at Himeji for the park and to see the castle. Once we got to Himeji station we rented the last 3 large luggage lockers and now free of that burden we set off to explore.
First we took a bus from the station to Himeji castle and in stark constrast to Korea the bus drivers here are the friendliest people on Earth. We spent about half an hour seeing as much of the castle as you can for free before we caught another bus to the park.
Himeji Central Park is home to an amusement park and a safari and you can’t buy tickets for just one, also if you want to ride the rides once you’ve paid to enter the amusement park, then that’s a further cost. I’ve easily paid worse for less but that didn’t make it sting any less.
It stings even more when the park itself feels very tired and forgotten, with some areas looking totally abandoned. A perfect example of this is when I went to the bathroom, the light didn’t work and there were spider webs everywhere. Another would be the park’s Ferris wheel which was covered in rust and felt like it was about to collapse.
Hurricane Screw & Loop Coaster – Togo looping coaster that was nothing special but it wasn’t rough.
Labryinth – Probably the best coaster in the park was Labryinth, a Meisho mini coaster that was alot more brutal than I was expecting but in a good way!
Freefall – My first experience of a first gen Intamin drop tower and I loved it. Scary, janky and hilarious in equal measure.
Giant Ferris Wheel – As mentioned before this Ferris wheel was in a digusting state and I was quite honestly worried for our safety.
All said and done I walked away from Himeji Central Park pretty disappointed. The park really does look a state, the star attraction (Diavlo) rode badly and we paid through the teeth to experience it. Space World was in such better upkeep than this place and that’s gone now, so what does that say really?
We needed to take a taxi back to Himeji station because the next bus to arrive at the park was 4 hours away and we had no reason to stay for that much longer. From the station we had 2 options, bullet train or scenic train to Osaka, we opted for the latter because we were making such good time.
After checking into our hotel we went out for shopping and food. I had been warned Osaka was rougher and ruder than other places in Japan but it still took me by suprise when the staff at some expensive pizza place treated us like scum, the polar opposite of how we were treated in Fukuoka.
Thanks for reading, click here for day 6, Universal Studios Japan!
Sadly Space World closed at the end of the 2017 season, apparently from a combination of lack of visitors and the land it was sitting on being worth alot of money. I knew very little of Space World before visiting and I can’t honestly say I grew majorly attached to the park, yet I find it hard to not get upset knowing that this place full of memories and fun days out is gone forever.
Zaturn – This Intamin hydralic launch coaster is an exact clone of Stealth at Thorpe Park and neither coasters do anything for me personally. Zaturn was also our first taste of the sometimes over the top Japanese coaster rules. In this case, you are batched to the air gates, then told to go to a small room full of lockers next to the station, then back to the air gates, then they let you into the train but don’t pull the restraint down, then a man with an information card walks up and down the train reading rules, then they secure the restraints and then you’re off. It was taking about 15 minutes to launch each train, probably a good thing we only needed one go on Zaturn.
Titan MAX – I normally quite like Arrow Hyper coasters, sadly not this one though and it’s all down to the horrible new S&S trains they have added. I left the station with a mild lack of sleep headache and came back literally crying. The already less than perfectly shaped Arrow transitions are amplified 100 times with these awful trains, it quite literally rode like a series of car accidents.
Venus GP – The star attraction at Space World is easily Venus GP. This Maurer custom looping coaster whilst perhaps not as good as I was expecting still managed to provide a fast and intense experience. Possibly the best part of the coaster was that on dispatch rock music would blare over the speakers and the operator would get the train to raise their devil horns.
We once again ended a park in Japan with a ride on a giant Ferris wheel, this time however each pod had a notebook in it for you to leave your mark on Space World and personally I think that’s genius.
It really is such a shame that Space World is no more. Sure the coaster line up was lacking quality (certainly unique though) and certain areas of the park looked worse for wear but Space World had a real sense of character that many parks I’ve visited would kill to have. From the excitement of the staff to the little touches like the notebooks on the Ferris wheel and the wall to write your goodbye message to the park on, Space World had heart and I’m sure the park will live on in the memories of everyone who visited.
We had planned to half day Space World and Kijima Kogen but due to over running at Space World the plans had to change. For the record, it would have cost £70 ONE WAY in tolls to go from Space World to Kijima, so maybe it was never going to be worth only having half a day.
A quick look online and we managed to find a park nearby that had a couple of coasters to check out.
Kashiikaen Yuenchi was it’s name and we probably spent 45 minutes trying to find the car park and then the park entrance to this tiny obscure park but it was worth it for another chilled out jet coaster and twin helix for the count.
Today started very early because we needed to be at the airport to fly to Fukuoka. After a short and pleasant flight we were in Japan and immediately the sentiment that the people here can’t help you enough shone through, I have to this day not met a friendlier immigration officier.
A slight faff with car hire later and we were on the roads of Japan. It’s worth saying now, if you want to go anywhere in Japan that’s not local then you’re going to run into many tolls. That’s fine you’ll think, that’s a pretty common occurance these days, well the thing is, the tolls in Japan are very expensive. It’s not uncommon to pay £30-£40 for a couple hours of driving. Now it can still be cheaper than taking trains and you can get prepaid toll cards that reduces the fee slightly but it’s something we weren’t expecting so it’s worth knowing.
Greenland
After paying for parking with the wrong currency we arrived at Greenland. We really couldn’t have picked a better first park in Japan. Whilst Greenland has no stand out attractions, no mind blowing theming and no breathtaking scenery, there is just something really nice about the place. A major part of that is because of just how welcoming the staff are, in some parks you feel like you are a burden for being there, Greenland felt like the polar opposite of that. Couple that with my first taste of wacky Japanese coasters and I really enjoyed my time spent at the park.
Blackhole Coaster – A slightly ghetto enclosed powered coaster, I remember enjoying this.
Gao – My first Jet Coaster, a nice sit down and chance to think to myself “damn you’ve made it to Japan”.
Grampus Jet – Vekoma suspended coaster, it was alright.
Milky Way – Milky Way is actually 2 Togo coasters side by side, one features sit down trains and the other stand up. The sit down side is good fun but the stand up is kind of awesome. The Togo train design means you are properly standing, not just sitting uncomfortably like Intamin and B&M. Not just that but you are properly standing with what feels like almost nothing holding you in. When you put that train on a layout that’s smooth, forceful and includes air time then wonderful things happen. The 2 best coasters in the park hands down.
Ultra Twister Megaton – I’d been wanting to ride one of these very unique coasters for a long time and wasn’t disappointed. The lift is unnerving, the drop is terrifying, the air time is strong, the inversions are vicious and going backwards is crazy. Just watch out for the brakes!
We ended our day with a ride on the park’s massive ferris wheel and with views like that it was the perfect way to conclude our first day in Japan.
Our hotel for the night was located miles from any restaurants or shops, thankfully because this is Japan, the hotel staff went out of their way to make sure we didn’t go to bed hungry.
Thank you for reading, please click here for day 4 and Space World.
It was time for the first major trip of my life, flying to the other side of the World to take in the culture and coasters of Korea and Japan. I’d been interested in visiting Japan for a while, their way of life had always intrigued me and some of their coasters were living legends. Korea was a different story, I’d just only been introduced to K culture and was dying to see it for myself.
Day 1
Despite this being my first ever long distance flight everything went by quite fast and soon I was in Korea with the first of now many stamps in my passport.
We picked up our T Cards (prepaid transport card) and took the high speed train from the airport to Seoul Station, then checked in to our hotel which was just across the road.
After finding out on the day that a coaster at Lotte World was down for maintenance, we quickly changed our plans to visit Everland today and Lotte World at the end of the trip. We hadn’t planned for this, so we weren’t quite sure how to get to the park from Seoul Station. Thankfully I was able to ask a friendly lady at an information desk, who couldn’t have been any more helpful in setting us in the right direction.
We topped up our T Cards in the station, which takes all of 2 seconds and is all done on a machine that you can set to English, so there’s no excuse. From there we took the subway to Gangnam and then caught a bus to Everland. Quick word of warning, bus drivers in Korea are on tight schedules and any hold up sets them right off, so be prepared to get shouted at if you aren’t quick enough when paying.
Everland
Everland is probably Korea’s most loved amusement park, it’s featured in many forms of entertainment and has an almost cult like following, this has lead it to be one of the most visited amusement parks in the World. The park is located in the mountains and is surrounded by trees, which is probably the best setting I can think of for a park. Perfectly complementing the beautiful setting is the theming and upkeep of the park, both of which are fantastic. It’s easy to say Everland is Korea’s most beautiful park and it’s clearly something the park themselves are very proud of.
After using our T Cards to get 30% off the entrance price, we made our way into the pretty and very hilly park!
Dragon Coaster – While this is just your standard Zamperla Twin Helix coaster, the members of staff working on it were putting on such a show you couldn’t be help but be impressed.
Rolling X-Train – Me and Heartline started laughing at how just wrong this Arrow Looper was as soon as it left the lift, by the time we reached the final brakes we were laughing so hard it prompted an emergency trip to the bathroom.
T Express – Much like the park name itself, the name of T Express is on the lips of everyone in Korea. This coaster is an icon of the country and it damn well should be. Easily one of the greatest coasters on this planet, this Intamin prefab is a spectacular piece of technology and it’s sole purpose to eject you into orbit. Featuring one of, if not the most intense drop in the World and several moments of insane sustained ejector airtime. If like me you demand your woodies to feature insane amounts of ejector air, then you cannot do better than T Express, unless you go to Six Flags Great Adventure.
Live Hologram Theatre – If you’re into Kpop, then trust me when I say it’s well worth the upcharge fee to experience your favourite idols in hologram form!
Rotation House – A madhouse type attraction, where the only thing I can remember is how loud the preshow was.
Rapids – This rapids ride features full body covering plastic sheets but you somehow manage to get soaked regardless, extremely good fun.
Everland also features a large zoo that includes 2 different vehicle based ways of seeing the animals and the traditional walk around enclosures. We went on one of the vehicle based ones (I forget the name) and it was great fun, helped massively by the ethusiasm of the staff members.
Everland more than deserves to be regarded as Korea’s top amusement park, with it’s beautiful aesthetic, wonderful atmosphere, friendly and hard working staff, solid and wacky ride line up and the existance of T Express, it really is a hard park to fault.
I’m not going to pretend the journey from the park to our hotel wasn’t a struggle. After not sleeping on the plane and having now been awake for nearing 35 hours I couldn’t wait to get back and finally get some sleep.
Day 2
Today was sight seeing in the morning and a Kpop show in the evening.
Heartline decided he’d take charge of the sight seeing after the planned tour bus didn’t exist and he did a great job. We saw many pretty looking and probably quite important buildings and never stayed long enough to get bored.
Long story short the Kpop show (Music Bank) is a must if you’re into Kpop and more than worth the amount of hassle you’ll have to go through to get the tickets.
Thank you for reading, click here for day 3 of my report where we fly to Japan and spend the day at the lovely Greenland.
Ever since I got serious about getting out there and visiting the theme parks of the World, Hansa Park had always been right near the top of my list. From the stories of just how lovely the park is, with some calling it the best park in Germany, to the creation and opening of the unthinkable Karnan, Hansa Park was just begging for a visit. And now, thanks to Heartline’s genius, it was now.
I knew as soon as I reached the park entrance that the stories of how nice the park looks were true. Hansa Park in places is breathtaking and as much as I’m all about massive intense roller coasters, these days I can really appreciate how much effort and upkeep goes into making things look nice and it’s something Hansa Park fully understands and excels in.
Fluch von Novgorod – This is such a conflicting coaster to talk about so I’ll break it down into 2 sections.
Experience: As an experience, Novgorod is awesome. The theming is incredible and the story mysterious and gripping.
Coaster: The actual ride hardware however is a little lacking. While Gertslauer Eurofighters sometimes get it right, with Novgorod they haven’t quite nailed it. The launch and airtime hill combo are great but then you sort of just rattle around a bit, before an enclosed lift hill that doesn’t really do much, then a drop that does less and it’s over. What the park could have made this if the coaster hardware was better pains me.
Nessie Superrollercoaster – I can’t say I remember much from this Schwarzkopf looping coaster but I did have a headache at the time.
Schlange von Midgard – Hansa Park have turned a Gertslauer family coaster (which are awesome as standard) into something really impressive.
Schwur des Karnan – I’ll be doing a full coaster write up on Karnan soon, so please click here to read about this insane coaster in more detail.
Where can I begin with Karnan? From the moment I saw the tower from the car park I was filled with immense fear and excitement. There really is not much like Karnan in the coaster world. Where else can you find a near 300 foot fully themed castle tower that every few minutes a coaster train comes flying out of?
The attention to detail with Karnan is outstanding. Theming levels or beats Disney and the effort put into telling the story of Karnan needs commending, with no less than six 15 minute mini documentaries playing in the queue.
You are batched into your rows by mystical forces in probably one of the best preshows I’ve ever seen.
Karnan’s trick lift hill is one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced on a coaster. Waiting there, music blaring, heart throbbing, palms sweating, brain racing, Christ, this is something special. All this made even more insane by the levels of freedom made possible by lap bars. The coaster hasn’t properly started yet and it’s already a better experience than most out there.
Then you crest the lift, where riders in the back row will be violently ejected, over 200 feet in the air, almost into the tower structure itself, in yet another terrifying moment brought to you by Karnan. What follows is an intense blur of positive Gs so strong the seat tries cut your thighs, crazy pops of airtime, relentless pacing and one of the most intense inversions out there.
Karnan is all about taking everything to the extreme, whilst some may not like that, I love this thing to pieces.
Hansa Park is a fantastic park, beautiful and an absolute pleasure to exist in, features a very strong coaster line up and it’s home to Karnan, I cannot recommend enough.
After the typically delayed flight home, one of my favourite Europe trips to date was over but it’s not one I’ll soon forget.
You buy your park tickets from the comfort of your car as you drive into Denmark’s most Northerly park, a nice idea as it leads to less faff later on. Despite the website claiming this was “Denmark’s Best Sommerland”, it’s lineup didn’t look anywhere near as exciting as over at Djurs but with some rather interesting coasters to be ridden, let’s get right to it.
Falken – My first ever experience with an S&S woodie (there’s only 2 operating in the World) and I was very impressed! Fast, forceful, strong pops of air and a lovely out of control feeling. 3 laps on this got me wishing for more of these, if only to help drown out the swarms of mediocre GCIs.
Lynet – I was a bit apprehensive about this Gertslauer launch coaster (after a slight disagreement with Karacho) but I needn’t have been as it was awesome. The launch is great and quite forceful and the rest of the layout is full of great moments of airtime and smooth inversions. If Lynet featured Gertslauer’s fantastic lapbars then it would have been even better but it’s certainly still a really fun little coaster.
Orkanen – My first ride on the biggest of the Vekoma SFC models and it was good fun. A definite improvement on the more common smaller model, faster and slightly more forceful. The setting over the water, the impressive theming and how damn smooth this coaster rides, made it very easy to reride, even more so because it was walk on.
Farup Sommerland is more than worth your time to visit. Lynet and Falken are very good unique coasters and Orkanen is great fun too. The park is beautiful and in places is so secluded and wooded that you’ll forget you’re even in a theme park.
We had planned to spend all day at the park but due to short queues had done everything we wanted and more by half 12. Heartline says to me, “you can get ferries to Norway from near enough here I think, do you want to see if we can do TusenFryd?” …Yes! After that plan sadly failed (don’t worry we’ve been since), he came up with another plan, an even better plan. “Shall we do Djurs today instead of tomorrow and then tomorrow take you to Hansa Park to ride Karnan” …YES!!
Djurs Sommerland
We pulled into the car park and my heart literally sank, there were cars everywhere and I mean everywhere. After parking I scaled the car to assess the situation, cars for as far as the eye could see in all directions. That’s it then, for being greedy we’ve screwed up and this is going to suck big time.
I was on the verge of freaking out during the long walk from the car park to the entrance. I could see Piraten and the new hotness DrageKongen but the chances of riding these beasts without queueing hours seemed impossible now.
Thankfully much like Legoland the day before, despite the park heaving with people, the queue for Piraten was only 10 minutes, thank you people of Denmark!
DrageKongen – Intamin’s brand new and first (only 2 exist even now) SFC and despite what everyone was hyping this up to be, it’s just a rattly, more unrelaible version of Orkanen. The brand new Asia area the coaster lives in looks fantastic, as does the ride itself with it’s striking paint scheme but it’s just an overpriced SFC that rattles and breaksdown a lot, not the inverted Mega-Lite the World expected it to be.
Juvelen – I love Juvelen to bits. The first section had me thinking this is a great family coaster, then you hit the second launch and suddenly things get really crazy and a lot more intense than I was expecting! Juvelen quite simply redefines what a family coaster can be.
Piraten – What more can I say than Piraten is damn near perfection. There are absolutely no dead spots or pacing issues on this relentless Intamin Mega-Lite. From the bottom of the first drop to hitting the brakes hard, with your shirt half off your body and your internal fluids now external, it’s non stop. Piraten puts Expedition Geforce and Goliath to shame in my opinion. The sideways airtime hills are some of the most intense airtime moments I’ve ever experienced, you literally don’t have time to prepare yourself for them, even after 10 goes. On my 9th run it managed to make me loose vision in my right eye, so we decided to call it a day at 10. If vision loss wasn’t on the cards I could ride this monster all day long!
Thor’s Hammer – Gertslaurer Bobsled coaster, fun for what it is.
Rio Grande Rafting – I love a good rapids ride and this one passes my test.
Ørnen – My first topple tower, we spent the whole ride laughing at how dumb it was, can’t deny it’s fun though.
Djurs Sommerland is a fantastic park with a spectacular coaster line up! Piraten is World class, Juvelen is one of the best family coasters ever created and Skatteøen, Thor’s Hammer and DrageKongen are quality support coasters.
Thank you for reading, please click here to join me at Hansa Park on day 3 of my trip report.
In summer 2017, me and Heartline went on a weekend trip to Denmark. This was to be my second trip to the country, after visiting the parks in Copenhagen in 2016 and falling in love with it. This trip had been on the cards for a while and the opening of DrageKongen was the reason for committing.
Day 1
After an early flight out of Heathrow, we landed in Billund. Seeing Polar X-plorer from the runway was really strange and got me thinking, how many other coasters can you see from runways? In almost no time at all we were in arrivals and after too much car hire faff we were on the road for the extremely short drive to Legoland.
Legoland Billund
I haven’t cared much at all for Legoland parks in years, so why did I go to the effort of begging Heartline to let us pop into Legoland Billund for a couple of hours? Simple, I’ve been dying to ride Polar X-plorer for ages.
We got to the park and began to get worried when the main car park was full and we had to park 2 miles down the road in the overflow car park. We only allowed ourselves a couple of hours max at Legoland, so this was the last thing we wanted to do. After walking the entire length of the park from the outside to reach the entrance, it was time to buy tickets. Via some amazing luck combined with typical Merlin confusion, I managed to get into the park for free, which was handy because I had to buy Heartline’s ticket to get him to agree to this idea.
Now in the park and it was heaving with people as far as the eye could see. Heartline, who had visited before, powered us over to a queue board, 30 minute queue for the powered Dragon and everything else 10 minutes. This strange occurance of rammed park, no queues, would become a staple of this trip thankfully.
I’m no good at remembering the order we did things in, so I’ll just recap the attractions we experienced.
Dragen – Mack powered version of the classic Legoland star attraction, the dark ride section before the coaster begins is in a much better condition than it’s Windsor counterpart, as for the coaster itself, it is what it is.
Ghost – ABC drop tower rides normally pack a suprising punch and produce amazing on ride photo reactions from me. We will put it down to this one being tamed down for children but I came away pretty disapointed.
Ninjago – Quite fun for what it is but nothing too special. It is pretty amusing flailing your arms like crazy though.
Polar X-plorer – What a fantastic coaster Zierer have created here, this is what Windsor needs, but I’m not sure it deserves it. The coaster section before the drop track is great fun, with some good forces and nice pops of air. The drop track section to me feels more forceful than Thirteen and you really do get ejected out of your seat, with alot of help from the brilliant train design. I got 3 laps on this and loved it every time.
Temple – If you think Windsor’s Laser Raiders is bad (and I do), this is even worse. A dark ride with almost nothing happening, while fully aware you’re just doing a big pointless circle in a warehouse.
X-treme Racers – I don’t remember Jungle Coaster riding this poorly. This clone Mack Wild Mouse was slow, jerky and an absolute chore to the add to the count.
While it’s completely fair to say I only visited the park to ride Polar X-Plorer and that in no way Legoland is targeted to me, my impression of Legoland Billund was quite positive. Friendly Danish staff, well maintained effects and theming and a general feeling of life to the park. All of the above are missing from Legoland Windsor.
We drove about an hour from Legoland to the next park and due to no parking being available we parked in the car park for a massive baseball stadium, then walked a couple of minutes down pretty Danish streets before arriving at Tivoli Friheden.
Tivoli Friheden
Whilst I was begging on my knees to ride Polar X-plorer earlier and my hype levels for the rest of this trip were at a critical level, Tivoli Friheden was only on the trip as a means to knock it off the list. I went into this unique little park with unfairly low expectations and then walked away rather impressed.
As before I don’t recall the order we did things in but interestingly this park has really stuck with me.
Cobra – This strange little one off Italian SLC was all kinds of messed up. Was it as brutal as a Vekoma SLC? Yes! Was it more interesting and memorable though? Certainly.
Orkanens Øje – Pinfari single loop coaster that has since left the park. It can’t have ridden too badly because we managed to spend the whole ride discussing plans and then it was over.
The main draw of the park is their famous SCAD tower attraction, where you are taken to the top of a massive tower, then free fall completely unaided many feet into a catch net at the bottom. I’m ashamed to admit I wasn’t feeling up to it but Heartline took his turn while I ate ice cream.
Because we had time to spare after riding everything we wanted, we took a break from rushing around and wasted an hour or so attemping to play the park’s crazy mini golf course.
So you are probably thinking to yourself, low quality credits, you didn’t do the park’s best attaction (SCAD tower) and you spent an hour playing golf, why exactly are you saying you walked away impressed? I believe it comes from the combination of friendly staff, a pretty setting and the sights and sounds of everyone in the park having a great time.
Thank you for reading, please click here to read day 2 of this Denmark trip report, where we hit up Farup Sommerland and Djurs Sommerland.
