Marcus
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Helix
As I had my first trip to Liseberg at the beginning of July to the park for two days I wanted to do a little write up about it. We flew out from Stansted flying with Norweigian for the first time (really great airline, espeically for the price). We flew out to Landvetter airport which is lovely as it is surrounded by woodland and lakes giving a great view when coming into landing. The airport also had a much more chilled out atmosphere compared to most airports which puts you at ease.
The bus is very easy to catch as it is straight outside the door and (as I write this) the first stop you come to in Gothenburg has you pretty much outside the main entrance of the park making it a very nice park to visit as you don't have to deal with too much public transport if your not good at that kind of thing or the cost of renting a car.
The parks main enterance looks very impressive with an old design although we never used this enterance as we only walked by it on our way to our B and B. We stayed at Villa Balder which I can highly recommend, especially if your going in a pair (like we were) or pairs as the rooms look to only have two beds each but is a good price from what I saw when looking at hotels and is in an idea location just minutes away from the smaller enterance meaning we could pop back in the middle of the day if needed and was overall everything we needed for our trip.
The park is very picturesque especially as an amusement park normally don't have much in the way of themeing with large amounts of greenary, a river that runs through it and rides that seemed to be built into the landscape especially across the hillside. The park is far from massive but with there being a main strip that goes from one end of the park to the other with numerous attractions and stalls along it with various branch paths from it, the main ones being the pathway to Balders area and the elevators up the hill to Helix and Atmosfear. The park works on a token/ticket system, with us paying for a ticket that gave us a wrist band that lasted two days which you would show to a member of staff when you were near the end of the rides queue or about to get on the ride.
Speaking of Atmosphere the park had one of the happiest atmosphere's I have seen in a park with everyone really cheery and just out to have a good time. The staff were also great espeically those in the food outlets, we tried with our very limited Swedish but faired epicly but they all spoke great English, we had several comments on how polite we were which I explained we felt rode that our Swedish was not up to standard so the least we could do is be very polite in English.
The park has two of europes most highly regarded coasters in Europe with Helix the mack launch coaster and Balder the intamin wooden coaste along with Lisebergbanan (we kept refering to it as Liseburger van which in hindsight is a terrorable joke but for some reason we couldn't remember the real name when we needed to) which is a Schwarzkopf classic, Kanonen an intamin launch coaster along with a solid line up of flats that is apar if not better than Thopes flats lineup and has a traditional log flume and rapids.
Here is my feed back on the larger attractions:
Balder
Balder was our first ride of the trip as it was near the end of the park we had entered and we had walked past it outside the park and had both agreed to ride it first. The queueline has as you look to your right a number of pictures of different coasters across the world including the top of the strasophere in Vegas, Megaphobia, Grand National, Nemsis and Top Thrill Dragster to name a few which I though was really neat. As you queue play a video showing about loose objects which has really chilled out background music which I enjoyed but didn't seem like it related to a wooden coaster much.
The queueline goes underneath the ride which is awesome as at somepoints the ride raws right above your head which builds great tension and shakes the ground around you. They also had a number of water fountains in the queue which we seemed to be the only ones using but we wern't complaining as Swedens tap water is top notch and I can always do with a rehydration when at a park.
The Stations for all the coasters are somewhat a bit of a free for all after your wrist band or ticket have been handed in however there wasn't any shoving and push you just had free choice of what section of the ride you wanted to queue for. Because we were a two and weren't waiting to ride with anyone else we were very lucky with loads of people letting us get on infront of them so they could ride the following train it must of saved us a good chunk of time the number of times it happened which was great and happened on Balder at least a couple of times. The seats and restraints were good and did the job well, although I do prefer the design of GCI's millennium flyers especially with the side padding, not something a ride like Balder needs.
The ride itself is alot of fun with a ton of air time, so so much air time, infact over than the first drop which is somewhat intense that is the ride, with the corners not feeling intense at all but leading you into the next line of humps, which is in no way a bad thing as many a ride have got by on less elements like Stealth and Oblivion and what it does, it does very well. With seats to the back offering what felt like slightly less airtime but whipping you down the drops. The ride also feels very close like your always about to smake your hands (which are in the air throughout the entire ride to get the best feeling of floatyness). The tunnels look quite obvious but once on the ride seem to be over with very quickly but probably do do their job of containing some screams. Very enjoyable woodie and although I prefer the GCI's like Troy and Wodan it is very close to my ranking to Joris en de Drakk which probably narrowly edges it for now due to its dueling/ racing element.
We did a few night time rides which were even better as you don't see the dips as well as in the day and is a must do if you can stay late.
Our longest queue for balder was the first time we rode it which was still only 21 - 30 minutes as their queue time boards read which is nothing really. A really great coaster that made a great first impression and one we could'nt wait to work our way back round and onto.
Kanonen
With these two rides so close together it only made sense to go do Kanonen next. The ride looked to have a very unique looking layout compared to other intamin lauch coasters I have done, with a smaller launch followed by a small top hat, a loop, a heartline roll along with a good few twists mixed in. Similarly to Balder you queue underneath the ride however the queueline is not so flattering with it being just large kattle pens. Luckily we really only had the queue half of the end section of these kattle pens on our longest queue of the ride which was a relief as the sun always seemed to be beating down whenever we were in the queue for this ride.
The restraints were interesting as instead of Stealth and Ritas riggid cage like OTSR, these were looser straps which tightened once your were in position and the ride was ready to launch. Although not as good as having no shoulder restraints these were an improvement over Stealths and Ritas especially as someone who really does not get on with shoulder restraints theirs were a relief.
The rides launch section is short and although not as intense as other intamin launch has a hice kick to it. It then crawls across the top of the top hat before racing into the rest of the layout with the loop being a highlight along with the large banked turns. A decent smaller coaster that I at other smaller parks could be the star attraction it main draws from it that it has over helix would be its compressed layout and its more forceful launch, other than that it is rather over shadowed due to Helix, still far from a bad ride and I slightly prefer it to Rita. Not the star attraction but a nice side show that I am sure pre-Helix would of had a more starring role.
Lisebergbanan
The oldest coaster on park, Lisebergbanan must of been a thing of wonder when first built in 1987 as it has a real decent length to it, eats crowds alive and is the very definiton of a terrain coaster. In terms of themeing the station of Lisebergbanan compares favourably with Kanonen and Balder with a nicely decorated building with a train stop vibe. Funny thing was when we first went into the station going up the stairs as you look left you see the track and a mirror beyond it, it took me a couple of minutes to work out that it was a mirror as I was looking ahead trying to workout where the point was where you would cross over to teach that side of the queue, felt like quite an idiot when I realised
.
The number of trains going round and the number of people each train can take means queues move very quickly and don't last long which is great, the operations were also very snappy on this ride which helps make it work at its true people eating capability.
As you turn left out of the station you are greeted with a whooper of lift hill, interested to know just how big the lift hill is if anyone knows? It is decorated with flags and at night is truely stunning with all its lights illuminating it and in the day offers a great view over to the Ullevi Stadium. The ride has no one massive drop but lots of smaller drop turns, into large helix elements which in spots can catch some speed and pack a punch. Due to it being closer to the ground it also feels probably quickier than it is and makes the turns and twists more noticeable.
A highlight of the ride would have to be the way it interacts with the other rides on the hillside with old especially the first drop going around Uppswinget. You do need to be ready when it brakes as although not the harshest ever, if you arn't paying attention they will catch you off guard, even when in the station!
One of the best family coaster I've been on with a good mixture of elements with some good thrill to it and a true jem of Liseberg with the ride probably being the best representation of the park rolled into one ride!
Part 2 will follow soon as I write my views of their flat rides, water rides and HELIX!
The bus is very easy to catch as it is straight outside the door and (as I write this) the first stop you come to in Gothenburg has you pretty much outside the main entrance of the park making it a very nice park to visit as you don't have to deal with too much public transport if your not good at that kind of thing or the cost of renting a car.
The parks main enterance looks very impressive with an old design although we never used this enterance as we only walked by it on our way to our B and B. We stayed at Villa Balder which I can highly recommend, especially if your going in a pair (like we were) or pairs as the rooms look to only have two beds each but is a good price from what I saw when looking at hotels and is in an idea location just minutes away from the smaller enterance meaning we could pop back in the middle of the day if needed and was overall everything we needed for our trip.
The park is very picturesque especially as an amusement park normally don't have much in the way of themeing with large amounts of greenary, a river that runs through it and rides that seemed to be built into the landscape especially across the hillside. The park is far from massive but with there being a main strip that goes from one end of the park to the other with numerous attractions and stalls along it with various branch paths from it, the main ones being the pathway to Balders area and the elevators up the hill to Helix and Atmosfear. The park works on a token/ticket system, with us paying for a ticket that gave us a wrist band that lasted two days which you would show to a member of staff when you were near the end of the rides queue or about to get on the ride.
Speaking of Atmosphere the park had one of the happiest atmosphere's I have seen in a park with everyone really cheery and just out to have a good time. The staff were also great espeically those in the food outlets, we tried with our very limited Swedish but faired epicly but they all spoke great English, we had several comments on how polite we were which I explained we felt rode that our Swedish was not up to standard so the least we could do is be very polite in English.
The park has two of europes most highly regarded coasters in Europe with Helix the mack launch coaster and Balder the intamin wooden coaste along with Lisebergbanan (we kept refering to it as Liseburger van which in hindsight is a terrorable joke but for some reason we couldn't remember the real name when we needed to) which is a Schwarzkopf classic, Kanonen an intamin launch coaster along with a solid line up of flats that is apar if not better than Thopes flats lineup and has a traditional log flume and rapids.
Here is my feed back on the larger attractions:
Balder
Balder was our first ride of the trip as it was near the end of the park we had entered and we had walked past it outside the park and had both agreed to ride it first. The queueline has as you look to your right a number of pictures of different coasters across the world including the top of the strasophere in Vegas, Megaphobia, Grand National, Nemsis and Top Thrill Dragster to name a few which I though was really neat. As you queue play a video showing about loose objects which has really chilled out background music which I enjoyed but didn't seem like it related to a wooden coaster much.
The queueline goes underneath the ride which is awesome as at somepoints the ride raws right above your head which builds great tension and shakes the ground around you. They also had a number of water fountains in the queue which we seemed to be the only ones using but we wern't complaining as Swedens tap water is top notch and I can always do with a rehydration when at a park.
The Stations for all the coasters are somewhat a bit of a free for all after your wrist band or ticket have been handed in however there wasn't any shoving and push you just had free choice of what section of the ride you wanted to queue for. Because we were a two and weren't waiting to ride with anyone else we were very lucky with loads of people letting us get on infront of them so they could ride the following train it must of saved us a good chunk of time the number of times it happened which was great and happened on Balder at least a couple of times. The seats and restraints were good and did the job well, although I do prefer the design of GCI's millennium flyers especially with the side padding, not something a ride like Balder needs.
The ride itself is alot of fun with a ton of air time, so so much air time, infact over than the first drop which is somewhat intense that is the ride, with the corners not feeling intense at all but leading you into the next line of humps, which is in no way a bad thing as many a ride have got by on less elements like Stealth and Oblivion and what it does, it does very well. With seats to the back offering what felt like slightly less airtime but whipping you down the drops. The ride also feels very close like your always about to smake your hands (which are in the air throughout the entire ride to get the best feeling of floatyness). The tunnels look quite obvious but once on the ride seem to be over with very quickly but probably do do their job of containing some screams. Very enjoyable woodie and although I prefer the GCI's like Troy and Wodan it is very close to my ranking to Joris en de Drakk which probably narrowly edges it for now due to its dueling/ racing element.
We did a few night time rides which were even better as you don't see the dips as well as in the day and is a must do if you can stay late.
Our longest queue for balder was the first time we rode it which was still only 21 - 30 minutes as their queue time boards read which is nothing really. A really great coaster that made a great first impression and one we could'nt wait to work our way back round and onto.
Kanonen
With these two rides so close together it only made sense to go do Kanonen next. The ride looked to have a very unique looking layout compared to other intamin lauch coasters I have done, with a smaller launch followed by a small top hat, a loop, a heartline roll along with a good few twists mixed in. Similarly to Balder you queue underneath the ride however the queueline is not so flattering with it being just large kattle pens. Luckily we really only had the queue half of the end section of these kattle pens on our longest queue of the ride which was a relief as the sun always seemed to be beating down whenever we were in the queue for this ride.
The restraints were interesting as instead of Stealth and Ritas riggid cage like OTSR, these were looser straps which tightened once your were in position and the ride was ready to launch. Although not as good as having no shoulder restraints these were an improvement over Stealths and Ritas especially as someone who really does not get on with shoulder restraints theirs were a relief.
The rides launch section is short and although not as intense as other intamin launch has a hice kick to it. It then crawls across the top of the top hat before racing into the rest of the layout with the loop being a highlight along with the large banked turns. A decent smaller coaster that I at other smaller parks could be the star attraction it main draws from it that it has over helix would be its compressed layout and its more forceful launch, other than that it is rather over shadowed due to Helix, still far from a bad ride and I slightly prefer it to Rita. Not the star attraction but a nice side show that I am sure pre-Helix would of had a more starring role.
Lisebergbanan
The oldest coaster on park, Lisebergbanan must of been a thing of wonder when first built in 1987 as it has a real decent length to it, eats crowds alive and is the very definiton of a terrain coaster. In terms of themeing the station of Lisebergbanan compares favourably with Kanonen and Balder with a nicely decorated building with a train stop vibe. Funny thing was when we first went into the station going up the stairs as you look left you see the track and a mirror beyond it, it took me a couple of minutes to work out that it was a mirror as I was looking ahead trying to workout where the point was where you would cross over to teach that side of the queue, felt like quite an idiot when I realised
. The number of trains going round and the number of people each train can take means queues move very quickly and don't last long which is great, the operations were also very snappy on this ride which helps make it work at its true people eating capability.
As you turn left out of the station you are greeted with a whooper of lift hill, interested to know just how big the lift hill is if anyone knows? It is decorated with flags and at night is truely stunning with all its lights illuminating it and in the day offers a great view over to the Ullevi Stadium. The ride has no one massive drop but lots of smaller drop turns, into large helix elements which in spots can catch some speed and pack a punch. Due to it being closer to the ground it also feels probably quickier than it is and makes the turns and twists more noticeable.
A highlight of the ride would have to be the way it interacts with the other rides on the hillside with old especially the first drop going around Uppswinget. You do need to be ready when it brakes as although not the harshest ever, if you arn't paying attention they will catch you off guard, even when in the station!
One of the best family coaster I've been on with a good mixture of elements with some good thrill to it and a true jem of Liseberg with the ride probably being the best representation of the park rolled into one ride!
Part 2 will follow soon as I write my views of their flat rides, water rides and HELIX!