TPR's Scandinavia 2009 Trip!

[MeteornotesKeeper Of The Carnivorous Bees!]

OK, since I paid for internet access, I might as well make some comments on the trip:

Amazing Fact We Learned: The difference between a bacon cheeseburger and a cheeseburger is apparently...BACON (Thanks Hanno!)

Amazing Fact #2: Ice cream is cold (Thanks Hot Fuzz Rich!)

Phrase That You'll Only Ever Hear At Bon Bon Land: "Yeah, the vomiting rat is still over there".

Most Insane Thing Ever: Letting Robb be the brakeman on the coaster. Seriously, this was so awesome. And had he killed the train full of riders, there would have been more room on the bus for the rest of us!

Ride Of The Trip (so far): Tornado. Absolutely insane, especially the way it THROWS you over the lift and launches you into the most insane spinning twisting speedy ride experience ever. There is no way I could marathon this, as the spinning was very intense. Robb and I have almost altered the fabric of space and time with teacup rides in the past, and I still don't think it was anything as intense as this. I predict that there is no way one of these will ever be built in the US, unless they figure out a way to brake it ever three feet or so. I'd love to be wrong about that, though, as I'd love to have one of these somewhat closer than a day away by plane.

Song Of The Trip: The Snack Song. If you're on a trip in the future, you'll be singing this.

Thing That Probably Made Trip Participants The Happiest So Far: I'm guessing that NOT having to play Elissa Bingo is right up there! Deep South/Texas and West Coast Trip participants will not be so lucky...

The trip rocks hard thus far, and we haven't even gotten to the godliness that is Balder yet. I've taken about 700 pictures so far, and four or five of them might actually be good. Look forward to many photos of Ice Bat in front of random objects in the future...

dt

[LoefetBooks are dumb]

There are rumors circling on the ECC mailing list, that this season might be the last with brakemen's at Bakken on Rutschebanen. Since there are some new trains coming next year that will make the brakemen's redundant...

Maybe that's why they let him "drive" the train, so it didn't matter that much if he had crashed it...


We had a great time when we visited Bakken little over a week ago.
I can agree that Tornado gives a brutal ride, and it suffers bad from neck slashing due to it's twistyness, but since it's a spinner then not all rides do that...

Looking forward to the report from Hansa Park...

[rollin_n_coastinDon't put that donkey on the floor!]

As with Dave sitting right across from me right now, I paid for 'value' internet access and had a few minutes left. I also wanted to to comment on how incredible this trip has been so far!

We may not have done a 'large' park but the atmosphere, people and craziness along with some of the most imaginative attractions around have made the trip worth every penny and then some. Stay tuned for Hansa and Fluch Von Novgorod updates! Can't wait for Sommerland Syd and Legoland tomorrow!

Oh, in addition to the amazing company, parks and cities, snack time will be a favourite time.

^Unfortunately, the rumors are true (for various reasons) but the other improvements coming will only continue to maintain the park's traditions and uniqueness.

[Speeddeamon128Thought "Laser Snake Horse" was real.]

Great update Robb keep having fun!

Today was Hansa Park...the "original Legoland." The park today, however, looks nothing like a Legoland (it was like 30 years ago!)

The park though, is undergoing many changes and has vastly improved since our last visit in 2005.

New this year was "Fluch von Novgorod" which is the first ever Gerstlauer launched Euro-Fighter!

It's kind of part Mystery Mine, part Revenge of the Mummy. We are told that many of the effects and theming won't be installed until this fall, but what they have already is still better than 90% of the theming on most US coasters!

Anyway, onto some photos...

[megamattIndiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Donkey.]

Looks like the parks only got better since your last visit. Once again, great TR

[DanEh, at least I'm not a Jew!]

If you think you can pronounce this correctly, record yourself saying it and send an MP3 file of your pronunciation to Dan!
... ... ...
If you can spot the "coaster porn" in this picture, email dan and tell him where it is

Die

[Airtime&GravityWhy do I still have a donkey title???]

Great trip report so far, and Hansa Park looks really nice. A lot better than it did in 2005, and Fluch von Novgorod seems like a great coaster even with the theming incomplete. I didn't think there was any theming inside the buildings, and it looks like it should be great when it is all done.

[terrancew_hodI prefer to mate with donkeys over humans!]

Terry's Notes on the two launched coasters on the trip so far:

Tornado: "Ow. Ow. Ow!" Intended to be a surprise for you, but there needs to be a sign that says to hold your head back to keep some of the pain down from that violent launch! Evil!

Fluch von Novgorod: Surprise launch done right. You think you're going one way, but uh uh. Out you go! And to think they were apologizing for the missing special effects; the tower was awesome with what they had. You don't need to add much the dark and you have no idea where you're going. Makes me want to come back when they finish and see what they have in store.

Terry

EDIT: The two "scenic highway" coasters were awesome, especially considering how old they are. I was sitting in the back of the last one when the brakeman asked everyone if they wanted to go faster. WE FLEW! I was holding the lap bar for dear life as I almost vaulted out of the car on a double down drop!

[robinschroderWhen I grow up, I want to breed donkeys!]

Glad you're all having such a great time! Thanks for all of the excellent updates so far, and really looking forward to seeing you all very soon!