Gröna Lund Photo and Video TR

Came back last week from a visit to Sweden where me and a group of friends visited Liseberg and Gröna Lund.

Now I'm sure most of you have heard about Liseberg due to the hype around Balder, so I won't do a photo or video TR from that park, but I will Gröna Lund as its just as good as Liseberg, all for different reasons.

Firstly, the park is in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, so if you are visiting Liseberg for Balder, why not take a train ride up to spend the night there?

The park has the perfect location, right by the water front and being a city park, space is tight, so all the rides are really crammed together or built over water.

The park just oozes atmosphere, everyone is here to have a good time and you can tell it works, with a excellent selection of rides from flats, funhouses (more on that later), coasters, dark rides and tower rides (2 of them!)

There are 2 main coasters here, a classic 80's Schwarzkopf that really kicks ass and is now one of my top coasters. It's so compact and forceful and has a really fun layout with a tigh safetly envelope, so don't wave your arms around too much! It also has a awesome throughput, with trains being sent out every 30 seconds or so, this coater has a very short line!

The other main coaster is a Gerstlauer Bobsled, buit in the structure of the schwarzkopf to save space. Incredibe and is a real work of art when you see the support structure for both of these rides. While its not as good as Klotten's or Tripsdrills, its still a fun ride.

The fun house is a real classic and a dieing breed, you won't get many attractions like these being built any more! It's one of the most fun ones aswell, with a seriously good ending with a mat slide that has a fake low roof so you hit your head of on canvas (if you are tall enough).

As for photos...

The parks entrance at night. Sad to leave =(

The topscan at night in its full glory, had a wonderful light package.

From the top of the Intamin tower. Still impossible to work out the layouts. Note the boat in the top right hand corner....

Stockholm is a busy port with boats going in and out all the time. The park even has a entrance for boats!

The park had a very strict rule on loose articles, how they smuggled those giant balls on is anyones guess.....

....They were not soft either!

Paul and Andy swinging out over the water

The wave swinger at night. This park comes alive at night, as do most great parks.

The view from the top of Vilda Musen... trying to follow the layout of both coasters is near impossible

Yes, the S&S Tower gets *that* close to Vilda Musen

Jetline's second drop is just like the late Thrillers first drop... twisting and near vertical

Schwarzkopf and Topscan - Two names that mean intense and fun!

The Fun House was a massive surprise....

Some photos of the fun house follow.

The video of my day is also below

Clicky

Cheers

Phil

Greg disapears down the slide at the end, which was the highlight

Olov masters the wonky room better than most

Paul struggles to get into the fun house

The entrance to the Fun House

Great TR. Grona Lund has always looked like a great place to spend a night after going around Stockholm.

How long on the train does it take from Gothenburg?

Excellent video Phil! Gröna Lund looks like a great park. Jetline looks fantastic and Vilda Musen looks like alot of fun. And damn, that droptower is HUGE! I have to get there sometime. Maybe next year...

3hr ride on a tilting train, then catch the number 47 bus (i think), but if there is a group of you, a taxi works out cheaper to the park than the bus.

We booked our seats on the train before hand online and collected the tickets at the station.

Great video!!!!! The 2 coasters together are an awesome tangled mess! (liked to song too. LOL)

Now as you can see the park is really small and they've been using every square inch to be able to fit all the rides they have but what to do next? Well the park has wanted to expand on a parking lot located next to one of the entrances. The park was looking into building an Intamin accelerator at about 60m height but the neighbours have been resistent and want the plot of land to be used as a garden instead(the whole island is pretty much a garden park with some museums here and there).

So right now I'm not so sure what's going to happen but I hope the park wins the case and get's it's much needed major coaster and expansion.

Seeing as everyone knows about Liseberg, I won't bother with a photos or any kind of report, but my video can be found below... Not as good as the Gröna Lund video, as I was still learning how to use my camera...

Clickly

Hey Phil! I just watched your Liseberg video and had to comment. It appears they know how to operate a raft ride. In the short clip you can clearly see at least 3 rafts fully loaded in the same area of the flume, with much joy being had by all.

Contrast that with the one at SFGAm I was just at where they would only let ONE raft into the load area at a time. At this point the lift and turntable would be shut off while the guests load/unload. Once all their seatbelts were checked and everbody was reminded that shoes must be worn (on a wet ass rapids ride) then the turntable would be turned on and the raft would leave the station.

Now, it is only at this point that the lift would once again be turned on to let exactly ONE raft enter the load area before repeating the same process.

God why do parks have to suck sometimes?

Anyway I can't wait to get out to Liseberg. Too bad it prolly won't be until '07.

Cheers!

-Don

I'm surprised all Top Scans world-wide are still in current operation in the wake of the recent tragedy at Adventureland Long Island, NY (my home park 10 minutes from my house)...I thought Mondial would order a stopping of operation until the problem was investigated to prevent the random person ejection with OTSR still down...

^ that's exactly the line of reasoning that leads to seatbelts on raft rides. 8)

Zamperla didn't close all worldwide hawks when that fat lady fell out because the NASCAR dad running the place used jumpercables to bypass the safety systems did they?

It sucks that adventureland has a human-flinging flat ride but there's really no reason yet to shut down all world-wide installations.

I find the lack of any newsworthy autopsy reports or really any news follow-up strikingly similar to the Misson: Space incident.

I just watched the Gröna Lund video. I've wanted to visit that park ever since I saw that crazy Schwarzkopf/Guersty combo. Now I can't wait to go since I found out how much fun Europe is.

Don "Scandi '07" Garrison

Hey Don

I cannot believe they shut the turntable off to load/unload a rapids ride, thats lunacy! I'd be puling my hair out.

As for closing all topscans, I agree with Don. You cannot close all world wide installations of a ride because of one accident, if thats the case, shouldn't all Intamin coasters be closed after the DCA accident?

YEAH!!! TopScan rules!!

Only just seen your cool Gröna Lund video Phil. I'd go to that park just for their sexy looking Schwarzkopf! Looks as though its just as much 'fun' as the amazing Lisebergbanan (one of my top steelies!).

Oh, and their Bobsled coaster looks rather funky too

I love how all the rides are so close in proxemity (especially the two coasters!) due to space/planning restrictions. Looks great at night time too.

Gröna Lund certainly looks like my kind of park...High doses of 'fun' as well as thrills!

Nice video! I love some of the angles you got. And good choice of music.