Finland 🇫🇮 - June 2023

[Burbs]

On 24th June, @JAMMYD778 and I departed from Heathrow for a week of theme park fun in a lesser-visited part of Europe. It seems that no one really talks about this particular country much, despite there being 3 “worth visiting” theme parks and a smattering of excellent rides, so it was refreshing to go to places without many preconceived expectations.

The plan for the week was as follows:
Day 1: Travel/Fly to Helsinki
Day 2: Helsinki sightseeing
Day 3: Linnanmäki
Day 4: Helsinki sightseeing + Travel to Härmä
Day 5: PowerPark
Day 6: Särkänniemi + Tampere sightseeing
Day 7: Linnanmäki
Day 8: Travel/Fly home

We began the trip at Heathrow, with a flight to Helsinki operated by Finnair. Originally I had looked into Ryanair flights from Stansted, which were over £100 cheaper, however thanks to the rubbish flight times and it being an awkward airport to get to, we would have needed another night in a hotel plus it’s a more expensive journey getting to and from the airport, so it seemed to make financial sense to bite the bullet and use Finnair on this occasion.

The flight itself was rather pleasant. Despite it being on an A320 (one of the least comfortable aeroplanes I’ve travelled on), this one seemed a touch more luxurious than the Lauda/Ryanair equivalents I’ve experienced in the past. The seats were a more comfortable fabric, the flight was only about 3/4 full so we had a spare seat in our row, and there was a complimentary glass of blueberry juice on offer too! How fancy. We touched down at Helsinki Vantaa at about 9pm and made it quickly through passport control, before boarding a train to the city centre.

Trains run fairly frequently and tickets can either be bought on the HSL app or from a ticket machine in the station, and they are valid for 90 minutes after purchase on these regional services. However, we found that there was an issue with the app where it wouldn’t approve our logins as it couldn’t send us a code to do so on its network. This wasn’t an issue thanks to the in-station ticket machines, but later proved potentially problematic for taking trams and busses around the city, as there aren’t many stops which have machines and you can’t purchase on board.

After the 40 minute journey to the city centre, complete with views of Linnanmäki alongside the tracks and on the horizon when looking from the station, we walked over to our accommodation for the next 3 nights. Hotel Finn is situated 5-10 minutes walk away, and whilst the rooms were pretty small and basic, provided a comfy bed and modern bathroom if nothing else. The hotel was pretty bizarre as it seemed to be in a block of other flats and offices, with reception on the ground floor and rooms on floors 5 and 6, with access being from either a reeeeeally long staircase or the world’s smallest and slowest elevator. We opted for the latter!

By this point it was around 11pm and thanks to the 2 hour time difference and the fact it didn’t really get dark at all, I for one was all out of sorts! Tomorrow, we’d be doing some sightseeing and walking for miles in Helsinki, which I will report on in due course.

 

[Rob]

Blueberry juice, laaa deeee daaaaa!

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on these lesser visited parks.

 

[Llama]

As a visitor, what did you think of Finnish sauna culture? Are saunas really as ubiquitous as they seem from outside the country?

 

[Burbs]

As a visitor, what did you think of Finnish sauna culture? Are saunas really as ubiquitous as they seem from outside the country?

The only sauna we came across was in the much more upmarket hotel on the last night, which had a gym and sauna in the basement. Aside from that, we didn’t see or notice any others, but I’m lead to believe they’re fairly common in Finnish households.

 

[Alastair]

As a visitor, what did you think of Finnish sauna culture? Are saunas really as ubiquitous as they seem from outside the country?

As a regular visitor to Finland (partner is Finnish), I can tell you that they are absolutely as ubiquitous as they seem from outside of the country. And it's frankly magnificent. Every house, every cottage, every apartment building has a sauna (most apartments actually have their own, but if not, one for the building at least). Personally I think there are enormous health benefits to daily sauna, and there's something about the practice of going into a boiling hot, dry wooden room and broiling in your own sweat that is just incredibly primeval.

 

[Burbs]

Day 2

Hotel Finn was the only hotel of the trip to not offer breakfast, so we opted for the old faithful - Lidl bakery! Why are supermarkets always loads better abroad? Hot dog in a croissant FTW! Today had been earmarked as a sightseeing day, and I'd compiled a list of free things to see and do to fill a day. The weather forecast was poor but with a brolly and raincoat in tow, we set off for a long walk around the city!

Top of my to-see list was the Seurasaari Open Air museum. Seurasaari is an island to the west of the city, which houses a collection of, well, houses. All kinds of traditional Finnish buildings have been transported to be showcased here, set amongst the quaint woodland. As a huge fan of traditional architecture like this, I was in my element. The island is about an hour's walk from the central station (there's also a bus service if you can find out how to buy a ticket) and is free to walk around. There is an upcharge of €10 if you wish to go into any of the 87 buildings, aside from the gift shop/cafés/a couple of small structures, but we were more than happy just wandering around the island. It seemed to be a popular destination for locals take their dogs for a walk, so if you're into a bit of #DogWatch, this is the place for you!


The bridge from the mainland to Seurasaari


Seurasaari buildings

Fortunately the weather had pretty much held off up to this point, so with coats away we left the island and carried on our sightseeing journey. Other items on the list were fairly quick to do, such as the Sibelius monument and the Temppeliaukio Church (which I didn't want to pay the €5 to go in to, #Maaartin). Somewhat aptly, around this point the heavens opened so we aimed to take shelter in a coffee shop, however it's worth noting that it was Midsommer Weekend in Finland, where most of the locals seem to bugger off to their summer houses. This meant that lots of restaurants, shops and cafés were shut all day, and explains why Helsinki felt so quiet and empty of people! We eventually found a shopping centre to grab some lunch in, before heading back to the hotel for a chill while we waited for the rain to pass.


Sibelius monument

In the late afternoon, we took a wander over to the east of the city, and to the Katajanokka peninsula at the recommendation of @Alastair! Here there is a "flying cinema", which didn't look particularly good, a ferris wheel and the Uspenski Russian cathedral. Hoping to be able to go in, we checked Google to find out it was closed, so proceeded to just go for a wander around the edge of the island. Once we'd got past the industrial dockyards to the south, we found a lovely coastal trail where we sat for a while to watch the world go by. From one point of view, you could see Ukko, the Maurer Sky Loop, in the distance at Linnanmäki. We stopped to observe it for a while but no trains were to be sent round. Considering we'd be at Linnanmäki the day after, you can but imagine the mounting cred stress. After this we walked back to the hotel, then decided to find somewhere for an evening meal.


The view from the north side of Katajanokka

As aforementioned, most restaurants were closed this weekend, but we did eventually come across a nice Italian joint to the south of the city. Here I enjoyed a Reindeer bolognese (well, when in Rome!), before we took a final wander down to the south coast to sit and enjoy views of the Baltic Sea. Having covered what felt like the majority of the city by foot (over 30,000 steps were clocked), we turned in for the night ahead of our first theme park day!


The harbour to the south of the city

 

[Zeock]

I am excitedly anticipating your report from Linnanmäki tomorrow!

 

[Burbs]

Day 3

The time had come for us to visit our first theme park of the trip! Linnanmäki, translating to Castle Hill, is a city centre amusement park which can be seen from numerous different vistas around the area. Originally we were planning to take the tram to and from the park, but with a combination of beautiful weather, still struggling to purchase public transport tickets and realising that a half-hour walk seems like nothing compared to the amount we did the day before, we decided to hoof it instead.

The walk to the park effectively just follows the railway tracks out of the city, which incidentally runs along a large lake and through some lovely, shaded woodland. After around 40 minutes (we seemed to take a wrong turn at one point which took us the long way around), we had arrived at Linnanmäki, greeted by some impressive views of the main event - Taiga! The park is free to enter and then you can buy wristbands for the rides once inside, or book them online in advance, which we had done. There are also a handful of free children’s rides. Upon arrival we were pointed in the direction of a games stall to retrieve our wristbands, which seemed bizarre, and quickly realised that the park was not going to be busy at all when we saw that the rides closest to the park entrance didn’t have any wait at all!

Linnanmäki packs a lot of rides in to a really small footprint! It’s all laid out around an old water tower in the centre, which is where I believe the park originally gets its name from, and is effectively just one not-so-large circle around it. With a stomp on you could probably do a full loop of the park in 5 minutes. The park was also open from 11am ‘til 10pm, and as such, there was no need to strategise doing any particular ride at any particular point in the day.


Ukko

The Coasters

• Taiga x4 - (Intamin LSM Coaster) - This ride is truly phenomenal. I hadn’t really any expectations of this coaster; I’d avoided POVs for a while and obviously as not many enthusiasts have ridden it, it’s not been the victim of any sort of hype train. The air time is incredible with some proper ejector moments, the stall is great, transitions take you by surprise and the pacing is spot on. The only bit that lets it down I thought was the latter part of the first block section. This is after the first launch and inversion where it does a bit of a “Taron” and faffs about a trying to get to the 2nd launch. Besides that, I have no complaints at all, and it has shot straight up to my top 10.
• Ukko x2 - (Maurer Sky Loop) - The first Sky Loop I’ve done and it was perfectly fine. The hang time is obviously quite prominent (and always a slight concern in those Maurer restraints…) and it really does warm up becoming very intense by the end of the day.
• Kirnu x2 - (Intamin Zac Spin) - Another first for me having only been spited by Wuzeball in the past, yet I have to say I didn’t find it all that bad! It’s surprisingly smooth and it’s not really long enough for it to become uncomfortable. Looking forward to seeing whether Insane matches up to this experience next month (I imagine not, however).
• Tulireki x2 - (Mack E-Motion) - One of only 2 to have ever been built and you can see exactly why. The movement of the trains adds nothing to the ride experience (what is it even trying to do?) and the jolt at the bottom of the main drop is unpleasant at best. Had to do it twice “just to make sure” and it was even worse second time around. #RolandsShame #MackGash
• Pikajuna x2 - (Mack Powered Coaster) - Some more Mack goodness right next door. A bit of a rubbish layout for a custom coaster but at least you get good views over the city, and up to 5 laps of the track depending on how generous the operator is feeling.
• Salama x2 - (Maurer Spinner) - A very compact layout over the top of the rapids, but it’s perfectly fine for what it is. Probably the second worst Maurer Spinner I’ve done (after Dizz/Naga Munchetty Bay) as we struggled to get any sort of spin going and I didn’t find the layout to be particularly inventive.
• Linnunrata eXtra x1 - (Zierer Force) - Now I do love a Zierer Force! This one is actually located inside the old water tower and is themed to space, but they have decided to whack VR headsets on to it, in turn completely destroying the throughput of the ride. It’s not even very long and you only do the 1 lap, so god knows what they were thinking.
• Vuoristorata x1 - (Side Friction/Scenic Railway) - Complete with brakesperson, this is the park’s oldest coaster, and is one of the better scenic railways I’ve been on. You absolutely fly up the lift hill and the drops are large enough to be quite good fun. It also has a bit of a Wicker Man moment at the very end where it goes into a dark tunnel before the station. Bonus points too for restraints unlocking before the train is even close to being stationary!

Taiga, Tulireki, Pijakuna, Salama and Rinkeli behind the water tower

Other Rides

• Kingi x2 - (Moser Drop Tower)
• Maisemajuna x2 - (Ihle Monorail)
• Raketti x1 - (S&S Shot Tower)
• Magia x1 - (Technical Park Moondance)
• Panoraama x1 - (Intamin Observation Tower)
• Kammokuja x1 - (indoor walkthrough) - Complete with 3D glasses, this silly walk through aims to provide a few light frights but largely fails. All the triggers for the basic animatronics seem to be somewhat delayed, but it’s a bit of fun nonetheless.
• Taikasirkus x1 - (WGH Dark Ride) - It seemed like a very budget version of Carnaval Festival themed to a circus. The ride system was rather amusing with very clunky steel bars all over the track to force the ride vehicles to turn when they bash into them.
• Mustekala x1 - (Schwarzkopf Polyp)
• Kyöpelinvuoren hotelli x1 - (Gosetto Dark Ride) - Themed to a witch hotel, this is very basic and rather Barbara Cartland. The façade is lovely though.
• Hepparata x1 - (Ihle Pony Trek)
• Hurjakuru x1 - (Intamin Rapids) - Quite a short layout but frankly it’s impressive they managed to fit one in at all. There aren’t any real waves that will splash you at all but there’s a handful of waterfalls and other elements to dampen you a bit. The main waterfall has a large area of “dead water” directly in front of it, so you could be very unlucky!
• Pellen Talo x1 - (Gosetto Fun House)
• Rinkekli x1 - (Technical Park Ferris Wheel)
• Kahvikuppikaruselli x1 - (Mack Teacups)

Total ridecount: 32


Taiga’s station - it was not busy!

The food at Linnanmäki is largely pretty basic, but I did manage to find a lovely salmon and cream cheese waffle for lunch, then we decided to head off park for dinner. Merchandise doesn’t really exist here either. I couldn’t find any generic Linnanmäki branded merch, with the main shop seeming to be more of a sweet shop than anything else. Taiga does have its own outlet however, so I did manage to pick up a T-shirt!


Lunch!

We left the park at about 9pm as the only thing left to do was re-rides on Taiga, however it had broken down with about an hour to go and no sign of coming back online. No bother as we would be returning for more rides later in the week!

 

[Matt N]

It sounds like you had a great day @Burbs; you certainly got a phenomenal ride count!

If you don't mind me asking; how does Taiga compare to VelociCoaster, in your view? I recently did VelociCoaster for the first time and absolutely loved it, and I always thought that the two looked like quite comparable rides, so I'd be interested to hear the opinion of someone who has done both (I seem to remember you saying you'd done VelociCoaster, but correct me if I'm wrong there). Taiga is a ride that intrigues me because as you say, it gets very little hype compared to Taron, VelociCoaster and the like, but those who've done it often say that it's absolutely brilliant.

 

[Burbs]

It sounds like you had a great day @Burbs; you certainly got a phenomenal ride count!

If you don't mind me asking; how does Taiga compare to VelociCoaster, in your view? I recently did VelociCoaster for the first time and absolutely loved it, and I always thought that the two looked like quite comparable rides, so I'd be interested to hear the opinion of someone who has done both. (I seem to remember you saying you'd done VelociCoaster, but correct me if I'm wrong there)

I have done Velocicoaster, albeit only the once thanks to some scuppered plans while we were in the States, so it’s perhaps not quite a fair weighting. However, I have Velocicoaster as my number 3 and Taiga number 6.

 

[Zeock]

I am glad that you liked Taiga! What was your favourite element, out of interest?

 

[Burbs]

I am glad that you liked Taiga! What was your favourite element, out of interest?

There are so many to choose from! But if I had to pick I would say the dive towards the end of the layout, as the s-bend immediately before makes you think you’re going one way then it whips you the other! Especially pronounced towards the back of the train.

 

[Burbs]

Day 4

The main activity for today was to be a long train journey up to Härmä, ahead of our day at PowerPark! The train wasn’t until 1.20pm and with a couple of other bits to see in Helsinki, we left the hotel around 10.30am and headed back to the Katajanokka peninsula for breakfast in a park. This was right next door to the Russian cathedral, which happened to actually be open, so we went in for a quick look around before taking a slow wander back to the hotel. We collected our bags from the free lockers in Hotel Finn then headed to the station, via Lidl to pick up some lunch.


Uspenski Cathedral exterior


Uspenski Cathedral interior

Travelling along one of Europe’s most remote railways up to Härmä took just under 4 hours, but was perfectly pleasant. We booked our tickets well in advance so the price was remarkably affordable at around £17 each. It was also a double-decker train (of course, we booked seats on the top deck) - how continental! Upon arrival, a free shuttle bus was waiting to whisk us away to the PowerPark resort. We got off the train with around 25 others, but we were the only 2 to actually use the bus. A private transfer!


Shuttle bus transfer

Thanks to the remoteness of PowerPark, the most sensible accommodation option was the on-site hotel. It was the most expensive hotel of the trip, although that can be expected being a theme park, coming in at £22pppn more than Hotel Finn,. The main hotel, which we stayed in, has a whopping 20 rooms (no, I didn’t miss a 0), is themed to a beautiful traditional cottage on the outside but for some reason has a slight nautical theme on the inside, the rooms are nice enough with balconies and spacious bathrooms but they do feel like you’re staying in your nan’s spare bedroom. There is also another hotel and large camping ground, with an (unheated) outdoor pool and a western theme. Breakfast is all served in the main hotel though.


Park Hotel exterior


Park Hotel interior from above

We even seemed to have been upgraded, being assigned a “suite”, which looked out onto the race track and in the distance, a couple of Gerstlauers! After checking in, we went on a wander to the nearby “RoadHouse” shopping centre which is ran by the park, where we had a very average evening meal, picked up a few supplies from the K Market and got some great shots of the theme park on the way back.


PowerPark skyline from RoadHouse

Tomorrow… PowerPark!

 

[Burbs]

Day 5

PowerPark was to be our second theme park of the trip. It was scheduled to open at 11am and as we were staying on site, this allowed for another lie in! It’s worth noting that we didn’t have a single early start at any point during the holiday, which was a real blessing as it meant we didn’t become too exhausted at any point. Breakfast in the hotel was really nice, with a good selection of hot and cold food, though it was nothing overly remarkable.

We were only at the hotel for the one night, so we enquired about storing our luggage somewhere for the day. We were guided towards the unused upstairs restaurant seating area and told we could leave our bags behind some of the tables and chairs. Considering we had passports and other valuables, we decided instead to use the lockers provided in the park itself. These turned out to be free too, which was a real win!

Once the park had opened and we had put our luggage away, we set off on a cred run thanks to an incoming thunderstorm which was likely to affect the operation of some rides. The park is REALLY small, likely the smallest major theme park I’ve ever been to, but it packs a lot in with a similar number of “worth doing” attractions to Linnanmäki.


PowerPark entrance… or is it PowerLand? No one knows

The Coasters

• Thunderbird x2 - (GCI Woodie) - Unfortunately I was disappointed by the world’s most northerly wooden roller coaster. The layout is understandably compact and it is fun, but I just found it to be a bit lacklustre. It’s fast enough but the airtime moments simply don’t deliver. The brake run is really odd too, with there being nothing to propel it from its stop on a very very very shallow brake run, so it takes ages for the train to make its way back around to the startion. Not ideal when it’s only running a one train service. It’s not the worst GCI I’ve done though - that title still belongs to Heidi at Plopsaland!
• Junker x2 - (Gerstlauer Infinity) - Now this really IS good! The rolling launch is intense, the elements are brilliant and the headchopper moment genuinely made me duck down! It’s got a really snappy layout, the track seems to be pretty well-profiled and the trains with lap bars are comfortable. Highlight of the ride is the Finnish loop! Straight up to my top 20.
• Pitt’s Special x2 - (Gerstlauer Infinity) - You really do come off this coaster questioning “but why?” It’s the exact same coaster model, same colour track, same trains, right next to Junker and aims itself at the same demographic. Only, without any inversions, a shorter layout and with a vertical lift hill. It also has an uncomfortable jolt towards the end of the ride which would be pretty horrible if there were OTSRs. It’s also the lowest throughput ride in the park, achieving a minuscule 145pph.
• Cobra x1 - (Vekoma Boomerang) - Not much to report on this one, besides the marginally more comfortable MK1211 open-sides trains. Now if all Boomerangs could be equipped with the lap bar-laden Sunkid trains, the world would be a better place.
• Neo’s Twister x1 - (Fabbri Spinner) - The last one of these I went on was the positively woeful Kung Fu Panda Master at Gardaland, so I was expecting the worst, but we actually managed to get a half decent spin going.
• Joyride x1 - (L&T Compact Coaster) - We walked past this at the start of the day and the train had overshot the station, with tech services working on it! Fortunately about an hour later, it was back up and running, and you know what, for a compact family coaster it wasn’t bad at all.
• Mine Train x1 - (Zamperla Family Coaster) - Hidden away in a far corner of the park is this shameless cred grab. That is all.
  
  
  Thunderbird
  
  
  Junker
  

Other Rides

• Dino Safari x1 - (Zamperla Track Ride) - Pretty mediocre but bonus points for having come from Gulliver’s Kingdom!
• Dragon Tower x1 - (Moser Drop Tower) - It’s like waiting for a bus, I’ve never come across any of these and then 2 rock up at once! This had a very harsh brake at the bottom of the tower which was rather uncomfortable. It also had 2 operational modes, 1 being the normal slow rise and free fall, and the other being a slow descent like they would run in manual mode. You queued for whichever you wanted and then they’d just run that mode. Very odd.
• Booster x1 - (Fabbri Booster) - This was my first ever Fabbri Booster and I found it a lot of fun! This is quite a popular ride so the queue can get long with only loading 4 people at a time, but I managed to time it well and skip a group ahead as I was a single rider.
• Devil’s Mine Hotel x1 - (Gosetto Dark Ride) - Another hidden attraction that took us a while to find, this is a very strange ghost train in the vaguely western-themed area. It has guns which you use to shoot at theming items to make them move. You also get a point for each item you shoot, but there is an upper limit of 250 shots, so I had used all mine by about 2/3 of the way through the ride and then wondered why it stopped working! The theming in there isn’t bad (personal highlight was the rudimentary animatronic at the beginning that appeared to be doing a Nazi salute) but it is very quiet with no music and only a handful of sound effects.
• Music Express x1 - (SBF Musik Express) - Where was the music?!
• Real Snacks JetSki x1 - (Zierer Jet Ski)
• Enterprise x1 - (HUSS Enterprise)
• Piovra x1 - (Moser Polyp) - This seems to have been the model that the Octopus in RCT3 was based on.
• Giant Wheel x1 - (Fabbri Ferris Wheel)
• Fun House x1 - (Fun House) - This is very much tucked away round the side of the park and I didn’t realise it was even there until I saw it by chance from the Thunderbird brake run. It’s quite apt that it feels like you’re in a staff area as it is themed to a construction site. Each element is repeated several times throughout and feels completely devoid of life. Very odd indeed.

Total ridecount: 20


JetSki

Whilst the lineup is pretty good on paper and the park is a nice place to be, the operations there are absolutely shocking. There can’t have been more than 1500 people there yet the fact that they were running everything on 1 train (bar Neo’s Twister) was infuriating. They managed to manufacture waits of half an hour by running Pitt’s Special on 1 car, for instance. It doesn’t sound much but when you’re stood still and not moving it’s arduous, especially when you know they have more trains that they could put on. We were also affected by a nearby thunderstorm around 1pm which meant all rides closed for around an hour. Still, we got on everything we wanted to.

We headed back to the bus stop for the shuttle transfer back to the station, although this time we were joined by a number of others. The train to Tampere was delayed by 20 minutes but this allowed us time to chill in the evening sun at Härmä station, which was surprisingly enjoyable. The train made up time and we actually arrived in Tampere on time!


Härmä station

Our hotel for the next 2 nights would be Hotel Citi Inn, situated right next to Tampere station. This hotel felt like a converted office block, complete with boxy rooms, high ceilings and white fluorescent lights. Hardly sparks a welcoming experience, especially since reception was only open from 3pm-8pm and we didn’t arrive until 9pm (so only saw a member of staff once throughout the entire stay). That being said, it was fairly cheap and the beds were comfortable.

We had a quick meal at McDonalds before turning in, ahead of the 3rd and final new park of the trip.

 

[JAperson]

• Junker x2 - (Gerstlauer Infinity) - Now this really IS good! The rolling launch is intense, the elements are brilliant and the headchopper moment genuinely made me duck down! It’s got a really snappy layout, the track seems to be pretty well-profiled and the trains with lap bars are comfortable. Highlight of the ride is the Finnish loop! Straight up to my top 20.
• Pitt’s Special x2 - (Gerstlauer Infinity) - You really do come off this coaster questioning “but why?” It’s the exact same coaster model, same colour track, same trains, right next to Junker and aims itself at the same demographic. Only, without any inversions, a shorter layout and with a vertical lift hill. It also has an uncomfortable jolt towards the end of the ride which would be pretty horrible if there were OTSRs. It’s also the lowest throughput ride in the park, achieving a minuscule 145pph.

I think this just goes to show how inconsistent Gerstlauer seem to be with there thrill coasters. I get that they could've used two infinity coasters to do completely different things but from the way you described it they just sort of don't make sense next to eachother. I can't help but feeling even a different colour scheme for the newer one would've made more sense.
Sounds like you had a great trip so far @Burbs

 

[Burbs]

I think this just goes to show how inconsistent Gerstlauer seem to be with there thrill coasters.

I'm not sure about that. Besides the jolt there's nothing wrong with Pitt's Special, and I guess Gerstlauer just build whatever they're asked to build?

 

[JAperson]

I'm not sure about that. Besides the jolt there's nothing wrong with Pitt's Special, and I guess Gerstlauer just build whatever they're asked to build?

Yes but I don't get why it should even have a jolt like that at a relatively young age it's just quite a Gerstlauer thing to happen. and yeah it's definitely the park who's gone and ordered another infinity in the same colour but you can't help feeling that it's a bit of a silly move. Gerst will obviously build whatever they are told and you can't blame them for that at all but you can blame them for the jolt. Either way Power Park does look like quite an interesting park.

 

[Burbs]

Day 6

Särkänniemi, the last new park of the trip, was about half an hour’s walk away from our hotel in Tampere. After possibly the world’s most mediocre hotel breakfast at Citi Inn, we headed across. The opening hours were 10am-8pm and with less rides we wanted to do than the other parks, we anticipated that this would be a fairly easy day. Much like the other Finnish parks, rides were accessible through a wristband system, which we collected at the ticket booths outside the main entrance. I believe the park is free to enter, but our wristbands were being scanned to enter the main rides area. A strange setup.

The park is located on the side of a very large lake, and some incredible views are offered from various rides. To the right of the entrance is the amusement park area but to the left is the children’s farm and the rapids, which we only discovered half way through the day!


Särkänniemi across the lake

The Coasters

• Tornado x4 - (Intamin SLC) - A lesser-ridden coaster model, I was very much expecting the worst, but we decided to give it a go. And how was the ride? Well, it was actually surprisingly good! There’s no denying it’s got a short layout, but it’s very intense in places, goes at some speed, and isn’t uncomfortable at all. The smooth heartline rolls at the end are great and nothing like Colossus’. Additionally, the station building being blasted out of a cliff is really cool. We rode in the front, back and middle, and it was good fun all round. The trains are also really stark in their bright orange and yellow colour palettes against the grey track. It works nicely. I’m surprised more of these weren’t built - I’d take this over a Vekoma SLC any day.
• Hype x2 - (Premier Sky Rocket II) - My second Sky Rocket after Tigris last year. I do like a swing launch and the speed through the station is impressive. I maintain the best thing about these rides is how it so satisfyingly stops bang on its mark in the station, just a shame the trains themselves are so goddamn awful.
• MotoGee x1 - (Zamperla MotoCoaster) - Zamperla’s answer to the Motorbike Coaster, this feels a lot less refined (a bit of a jolt towards the end of the launch track) and has a strangely compact layout for this ride type I thought. Nothing to write home about.
• Vauhtimato x1 - (Zierer Tivoli Small) - Another shameless cred grab.
• Trombi x1 - (Zamperla Volare) - Just WHY do these things exist?! Who rode one and thought “yes I’d like one of those in my park please”? I didn’t think much of the one we rode in Vienna but this one was really very painful. A horrid contraption.

Entrance to the park

Other Rides

• Postiseikkailu x1 - (Ihle Track Ride)
• Troika x1 - (HUSS Troika)
• Tyrsky x1 - (Zamperla Disk’O Coaster)
• BOOM x1 - (Zamperla Drop Tower)
• Koskiseikkailu x1 - (Intamin Rapids) - This is another rapids with a pretty short layout and doesn’t get you wet at all. The only bit that threatens wetness is the run off from the “waterfall wot turns off just before you go under it”.
• Take Off x1 - (HUSS Take Off) - Never seen one of these in the wild before and it is quite the spectacle offride. A pity that on ride it feels a bit pointless as it’s not particularly intense and doesn’t do much.
• High Voltage x1 - (Zamperla Power Surge) - Another new one to me, and it was rather amusing as a single rider with a lop-sided car. (They swing freely, for the uninformed.) Especially hilarious as it locks in whatever position it’s in at the end of the ride cycle, but some were so far off their marks that the restraints couldn’t open without the poor ride host having to manually release the cars and push them into a more suitable position!
• Järvikaruselli x1 - (Gerstlauer Krinoline) - Apparently?! Even though on the central column there is a Schwarzkopf plaque. This is quite fun and offers nice views over the lake.

Total ridecount: 18


Tyrsky

Without doubt this park is held up by Tornado and to a lesser extent Hype. It’s a nice enough park to be in and like the others has a fair amount packed in, but could really use a decent headliner like Taiga and Junker are, just to round off the lineup. Despite the park being open until 8pm, we were done by 5.30 ish so went back to our hotel before heading out for food at BAB, a local pizzeria. Very tasty!


LeBAB Pizzeria

I actually went out after this on my own for a walk around the city, as we had not properly explored it, and spent a while sat at various points around the lake, even making it all the way back to Särkänniemi at one point. That part of the world is awesome at this time of year, with it getting on for 11pm and still it is broad daylight, people are just generally out and about in groups of friends, drinking and having fun in communal green areas, just like it’s the middle of the afternoon. Incredibly chilled VIBES!


View across the lake in the evening

Tomorrow, we’d be heading back to Helsinki for a final day at Linnanmäki.

 

[Burbs]

Day 7

Our train back to Helsinki was mid morning at about 11am, which brought us into the main station at 12.50pm. With luggage in tow, we needed to drop this off before heading back to Linnanmäki, so we walked to our final hotel, the Scandic Helsinki Hub. This was only a few minutes further away than Hotel Finn so the area was very familiar. Unfortunately we were too early to check in but were able to leave our bags in their luggage storage room. First impressions of the hotel were great, with it being the grandest and most modern of all we’d been to that trip. But would the rooms live up to it? We’d have to wait until later to find out!

At the station we’d bought a 90-minute public transport ticket so that we could finally use the tram network and save our legs walking to the park! There was a tram spot just down the road from the hotel, so we nipped on and within 20 minutes we were back at the park entrance. This was a Friday and we were expecting the park to be a bit busier than earlier in the week, but even considering we didn’t arrive until going on 2pm and had missed the typically quieter first hour, the place didn’t seem any busier than before.


Helsinki trams

The first port of call was obviously Taiga, which seemed like a good “scenic route” to the Taiga shop, after I picked up a T-Shirt on Monday and it turned out to be a “women’s fit”, and despite the fact I didn’t have the receipt, this got exchanged without any hassle which was great! The queue for Taiga was a bit longer than Monday and averaged around 30 minutes all day. This would be fine except for that it only managed to achieve a throughput of 500pph, so the queue moved incredibly slowly and resulted in stacking on the brake run for up to 2 minutes at a time. Fortunately the waits across the rest of the park were largely the same as Monday.

Ridecount for the day was as follows…

The Coasters

• Taiga x3
• Pikajuna x1
• Vuoristorata x1
• Ukko x1
• Kirnu x1
• Linnunrata eXtra x1 - This time we asked to ride without the VR headsets, which they allowed, then we started joking about whether the ride’s show lights and effects from the pre-VR days would still be on as though nothing ever changed… Lo and behold, they were indeed! The theming is perfectly adequate for a ride of this calibre and in my view, given how cheap the VR feels and how poor the capacity of the ride currently is, it would be better to just get rid of VR on it once and for all.
• Salama x1

Other Rides

• Kingi x3 - Including 1 ride during which we broke down at the top of the tower and had to be lowered down in manual mode. How exciting!
• Kammokuja x1
• Taikasirkus x1
• Pilotti x1 - (Technical Park Suspended Monorail)
• Raketti x1
• Kyöpelinvuoren hotelli x1
• Panoraama x1

Total ridecount: 18


Ukko

The park was open until 10pm again but with the only thing worth more rerides at that point being Taiga, and the queue becoming painfully slow to wait in, we bailed, satisfied, at about 8.30pm. The main things I noticed on this day was how low capacity the park is (much like the other 2 parks, I would hate to be here on a busy day), and the sheer amount of graffiti on the fences and walls of pretty much every queue line! Absolutely disgusting and unnecessary, Linnanmäki really need to do something about this.

We took a leisurely walk back to the hotel at this point with hope that it would be a comfortable location to just chill out, which I’m thrilled to say it was! The rooms were huge in comparison to the other accommodation we’d stayed in this week, complete with much sought-after aircon, a large bathroom, a very contemporary style, hospital-style adjustable beds, blackout curtains and enough lighting modes to keep a West End lampy entertained for hours!


Scandic hotel room, photo from booking.com

At this point we grabbed some snacks from a nearby supermarket and turned in for the night, ahead of our final day tomorrow.

 

[Burbs]

Day 8

After the best night’s sleep of the whole week, it was time for breakfast on our last day of the trip. Breakfast in the Scandic was really tasty with lots of hot and cold options, but somewhat chaotic, thanks to a poorly thought-out layout of the buffet leading to people milling about everywhere and there being no sign of where anything in particular was. It took me a few minutes just to find the crockery. It’s unfortunate that this is the only thing that really let the stay down, though I would still thoroughly recommend this hotel when staying in Helsinki if the price is reasonable.

Our flight wasn’t until 4pm so we had a few hours in the morning for last-minute sightseeing. However, having ticked off everything earlier on in the week and due to the lashing rain outside, we decided to just chill in the hotel room until check-out time at noon. We made our way back to the central station at this point, which was only a 10 minute walk away, then bought our train tickets to Helsinki Vantaa airport. Trains seemed to run very frequently, every 15 minutes or so, and cost €4.10pp each way. The journey takes around 40 minutes.

Vantaa airport was an absolute delight. I’d heard from @Alastair that it’s a very stress-free airport, largely down to the sheer efficiency of security, which I can attest to. They have invested in those bag scanners which don’t require you to take anything out of them, and you can take as high a volume of liquid through as you like. The flight was nice and on time, but it did feel odd travelling in the large A350 on such a short haul flight. It was clearly necessary though as the flight was full. Border control at Heathrow was painless - last time I was there we queued for ages down all the approaching corridors, but this time around we were straight through.

It was a really fantastic holiday which I hadn’t ever seriously considered doing until the thought crossed my mind earlier in the year, and has been one of the best theme park and sightseeing trips I’ve done. Naturally, it wouldn’t be a Burbs trip report without a cheesy video montage… so… enjoy!

Thanks for reading!


From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl0-R7f8yP4