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Gröna Lund Discussion Thread


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Hey everybody!

 

This thread is simple! Rather than having a million little threads about everything that goes on at Gröna Lund, this thread is designed to consolidate it all into one user-friendly thread. Feel free to use it to post updates, trip reports, questions, comments, and of course, general discussion. For pictures and videos of the park as well as past updates, see TPR's Park Index Page.

 

Official Park Website

 

 

Below are some links to past updates from the park, you may be interested in. Enjoy!

 

--Robb

 

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2008

New kiddie rides for 2008 - SEE BELOW!

 

2010

February 1st, 2010 - Interview with Mattias Branker

February 26th, 2010 - Tuff Tuff Taget, new kiddie coaster for 2010

June 22nd, 2010 - New attractions announced

August 9th, 2010 - Twister announced for 2011

 

2011

April 29th, 2011 - Twister POV

May 1st, 2011 - TPR's Twister Video Shoot

 

2012

February 12th, 2012 - Eclipse (121 meter Star Flyer) announced for 2013

 

2014

April 2014 - House of Nightmares attraction announced

 

 

2016

June 6th, 2016 - teasers hint at Intamin Sky Jump, tilting drop tower (like Falcon's Fury) for 2017

June 7th, 2016 - Ikaros announced (Intamin Sky Jump)

 

2017

February 21st, 2017 - Plans filed for a B&M in 2020

 

2020

New construction photos of Monster, B&M Inverted coaster!

 

2021

May 24th, 2021 - new expansion announced for 2024!

 

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Original post:

 

 

Hi everyone, last week Gröna Lund opened for the new season. They don't have any special new rides, but they have news. Their ''Kiddie Land'' is renovated and there are three new rides there.

 

The flying elephants is the first one. You know what i'm talking about, right? The next one is ''Lyktan'', which translates into ''The Lantern''. It's another miniature of ''Fritt Fall'', our big drop ride. The last new kiddie ride is The Tea Cups, an old classic, that Gröna Lund wanna build now

 

They also have a more thrilling ride, called Rock Jet. It's one of these ''Thunder Bobs''. It's located at a roof... It's true.

 

I'm going there soon, hope you will come too...

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  • 7 months later...

Gröna Lund are sending in the expansion plans for building permission today and if granted will be the biggest expansion in the park's long history (just celebrated 125 years).

The park has been looking at the parking lot just opposite the entrance for some time. Now they're finally sending in the plans featuring what looks to be a 35m tall B&M inverter, a 100m tall star flyer and aiming for a classic tivoli theme. The parking lot is just 8.000 square meters, Gröna Lund's size would then with 43.00sqm be about half the size of Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen but Gröna Lund are pretty good at packing in a lot of stuff in a tight space.

The price tag is about $65 millions.

If permission granted and everything going as planned it will open on 2012-2013 season.

Let's hope for the best...

Gröna Lund's expansion plans

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^The Star Flyer would be 328ft tall.

 

Hopefully this does get built as it will be great for the park. However, I'm sure locals will complain about the noise, but with a 2012-2013 opening date, hopefully things will be sorted out. I assume the glass walls are to help reduce noise levels, so hopefully those help with getting permission.

 

It is amazing how Gröna Lund manages to fit all the rides they have into such a small area. Tivoli Gardens is also really small, and if the expansion will only make Gröna Lund half of Tivoli's size, then that shows how creative ride designers are when creating rides for the park.

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  • 1 year later...

On TPR's 2009 Scandinavia Trip, participants were lucky enough to meet Mattias and his business partners and be treated quite hospitably. Some of the Mattias' visions of the future are included in this interview from January 2010. Enjoy!

 

Online article from parkworld-online.com

 

Amid all the European consolidation of recent years, one group that has been quietly doing its own thing is Parks & Resorts Scandinavia (PRS). At the end of a record-breaking season, Owen Ralph caught up with Mattias Banker, one of PRS’ three young owners.

 

Since 2006, Parks & Resorts Scandinavia has invested over SEK500 million ($70m/€50m) in attractions and infrastructure. This Swedish chain entertains around 2.5 million annual guests and includes Gröna Lund and Aquaria in Stockholm, Skara Sommarland and the animal park Kolmården.

 

Q: Please give a brief history of Parks & Resorts Scandinavia

 

A: The group was founded in 2000 with Kolmården zoo and hotel, and a year later they added Gröna Lund and Skara Sommarland. Gröna Lund is Sweden’s oldest park, it’s 126-years-old, and until then it had always been family owned.

 

Q: However the new owners faced a few issues and in 2006 they sold everything to Johan Tidstrand and his sister Helena, who fought bravely against Parques Reunidos. After that they acquired a small aquarium in Stockholm called Aquaria.

 

A:Johan and I have been friends for a long time and recently he asked me to join him. Just a few months ago we bought 20% of a project called ABBA World.

 

Before this I was just a normal park visitor and had a company selling surgical implants. Johan had a tattoo business, he is a tattoo artist. Now Johan is the majority owner, I am minority owner and Helena is a silent partner; she is not working at the parks.

 

Q:How will you ensure the parks retain a family feel?

 

A: First I must say that we still have sons and daughters from the old owner family working here and they are doing a fantastic job. I think my approach to keeping that old atmosphere going is just be here, to live it. PRS previously had its office in the centre of Stockholm, but we said ‘this is stupid,’ so as I speak to you now I am in my office in the centre of Gröna Lund, and Johan sits just across from me. It was great when we moved in, we found all these posters of some of the concerts artists that have played here, people like Roxy Music and Bob Marley. There’s a fantastic heritage here.

 

If you start planning exit strategies and looking at EBITDA all the time you loose that feeling. We do have people looking at the figures, but personally I am not as interested in that. It’s important to look at what our customers want and ask, “How can we make this the best park possible?” I think I know what it’s like to be a visitor to this park, and I know what I want.

 

Q: For the 2009 season you added a new coaster at each park. Was this a defensive move in light of the economy or would you have done it anyway?

 

A: It was always part of our plan when Johan and I bought the parks, but then all hell broke loose. I don’t know if we would have decided to buy the coasters if we were in the economic climate we were in a year later, but to be perfectly honest I am really glad we did.

 

This has been a fantastic season; I think we were up over the group by about 20%. Now we can have a little slower year in terms of new attractions. There will be something new, but I think it’s important to spend some money renovating our parks too.

 

Q: How did each of the parks perform in 2009?

 

A: Gröna Lund attendance was up by 23%. The park smashed its daily attendance record on August 2, when 23,000 guests packed the park for a Lady GaGa concert. The same week we smashed our weekly attendance rate with 120,000 visitors!

 

At Skara, they had really lousy weather in that part of Sweden but it was still one of the best seasons ever. Tranan [the new S&S Freefly Coaster] was key to their success. It’s a good ride. Weird, but good!

 

At Kolmården, attendance was up by 16%. This year we put a coaster into our marine area. It’s a just a family coaster from Vekoma but it’s a huge step for the park and as its shows it’s possible to have attractions and animals in the same park.

 

Q: Did the “stay at home” trend help?

 

A: In Sweden we are “easy” people. If it says in the newspaper you don’t need to travel, 80% of us don’t. People are doing their vacations at home, and I think a combination of this, some good attractions, and a lot of PR actually, put us in a good position compared to previous years.

 

 

Q: What are your plans for Gröna Lund?

 

A: Our big goal is to develop the parking lot at Gröna Lund and put a real top 10 rollercoaster and maybe a Star Flyer or something on there. I think we can absolutely do this. We aim to have a building permit within a year-and-a-half, so maybe in three years we can move ahead with new projects.

 

The parking lot will add about 10,000 square metres of extra space to the park. At the moment we have something like 38,000 square metres. Actually we will only be loosing about 220 parking spaces, and most of our people come by boat or by bus anyway; this is a city park. I still have my parking space though!

 

Q: What about the other parks?

 

A: I am pretty sure we will be following the resort model in future. We have a small camping area outside Skara, maybe we can add a hotel. At Kolmården we have a hotel already. If I say it’s like [Disney’s] Wildnerness Lodge I am lying, but it’s like a lodge you might find in Africa.

 

We would like to make our animal park more like Animal Kingdom or Busch Gardens, with a mix of attractions and animals. Kolmården used to be owned by the city, but didn’t make money. We added the first ever theming in 2007 when we moved our tigers into a new area called Tiger World and this year we added Delfinexpressen, the new coaster. It worked out perfectly, the people were happy and the animals were happy.

 

It’s a huge park and I think the future we will be more of a themed park, a destination resort you can stay for two days. We also want to move towards pay-one-price. At the moment, you pay your entry and you can see the animals and a dolphin show, but you need to add money for our safari park and some other attractions.

 

Q: Tell us more about ABBA World

 

A: It’s a semi-permanent museum that will tour the world starting this January in London. I’m not a big fan of ABBA, but the way they are using technology and 3D is very interesting. It’s comparable to being on stage with ABBA.

 

The ABBA museum was supposed to open in Stockholm, but the backers had some financial difficulties and together with Stockholm city called Gröna Lund/PRS and asked us to help. We contacted Live Nation and Universal Music and together bought everything. Now ABBA will travel the world and finally, maybe in two or three years, end up in a permanent museum here. Personally I am not very involved with this project, but it was a good opportunity for PRS.

 

Q: Do you have any plans to expand outside Sweden?

 

A: It’s embarrassing because we are called Parks & Resorts Scandinavia but we don’t own anything outside Sweden! It’s a name we inherited, but we have no plans to change it. Maybe some day we will expand outside Sweden. We get contacted from time to time with different parks and projects, but our main goal is to work with the attractions we have already. Except for ABBA, I want to be personally involved in everything. I can’t say we won’t buy something else, but right now if we add any more I will probably have a heart attack!

 

Q: Would you sell out to a larger group?

 

A: This is not something we want to sell; I want to give this to my kids. We don’t have an exit strategy and we don’t buy other parks just to make money. We have been contacted by bigger groups [about takeovers] but have said, very politely, “Thanks but no thanks.”

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Grona Land looks like one of the best parks out there (and is supported by TPR Scandi Trip members!) and looks like it will keep on growing. I would LOVE to visit this place, having Indiana Beach one of my favorite parks. GL just looks like a souped up IB!

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^I went in expecting a Swedish version of Indiana Beach, but there are more differences than you'd expect. Indiana Beach has a seedy feel to it. Gröna Lund is much classier. And, ahem, the people in Stockholm are easier on the eyes.

 

I'm not knocking IB in any way. I'd rather go there than most places. Just pointing out that going to a park in Sweden is very different from going to a park in Indiana.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very cool to see a reply from you. I had no idea that park owners even posted here, im pretty sure your one of the first to do so.

I personally think it would be great if you added something like Balder or some Intamin mega coaster (for example; http://rcdb.com/1565.htm, rcdb.com/4038.htm), something really airtime filled.

 

What I am missing from Gröna lund is something like that. You already got insane so I dont know if a B&M Inverted is the best way to go. It feels like it kinda overlaps the Insane audience if that makes sense. But with the limited space its certainly going to be a challenge.

/ End random thoughts

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  • 2 weeks later...

Credit whores rejoice!! there is yet another reason why you need to get to Gröna Lund this year, they are going to open yet another coaster!!

 

 

It's called "Tuff-Tuff Tåget" (Choo-Choo Train) and will be the smallest coaster they have there (even though it's actually 1 meter longer than Nyckelpigan (Tivoli Small)).

 

Source: Gröna Lund [swedish]

 

And to quote the Attraction Manager of Görna Lund about this new coaster "It feels really great that we now have six roller coasters, 50% more than Liseberg"

 

Wonder if this will make Gröna Lund the park with most coasters/m2 (they have 6 in 35000 m2)??

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WooHoo!!

 

Looks like a Fiesta Express...definitely a good small kiddie coaster. Was there any idea on where they're placing it? I hope they put it in more the 'main' thrill area of the park since there weren't as many kiddie rides over there.

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"It feels really great that we now have six roller coasters, 50% more than Liseberg"

 

I love the rivalry between Liseberg and Gröna Lund. It can only benefit roller coaster dorks when two of the best parks in the world try to outdo each other.

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Liseberg had loads of advertisement in Stockholm on the tram stations on the way to Gröna Lund last year.

They said something like "If you want to experience a real roller coaster come to Liseberg"

The last time there were a great "Coaster War" in Sweden was in the late 80's when Lisebergbanan, Jet-Line and Stand Up were built, I really hope that something similar will take place in the upcoming 5 years, especially with both Liseberg and Gröna Lund have big expansion projects in the works and with the "new" owners of Skara Sommarland then you never know what they will add to the mix.

 

The rivalry between Liseberg and Gröna Lund have it' roots in the rivalry that always have been between Gothenburg and Stockholm, just ask anyone in Gothenburg what they think about Stockholm or vice versa...

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When I saw the title of the thread, I thought the new ride would be that B&M Invert that was rumored to be built. But this kiddie coaster is great too. When I went in 2003, they didn't have many kid rides (Things could be different now.) Can't wait to visit in the upcoming years

 

P.S. Liseberg and Grona Lund are great parks, I think it's fun they are competing! Brings out the best in each other!

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Sorta offtopic, but still hilarious:

 

Linnanmäki has a kiddie train ride that gently goes around the big round building in the centre of the park. This ride is called in finnish Muksupuksu, BUT the swedish version of the park map says it's called Tuff-Tuff Tåget!

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