Just wanted to give a short review on this.
I attended the press event for DrageKongen over a month ago (May 4th, it opened to the public on the 6th) but I haven't gotten around to actually post my thoughts on it here, due to personal stuff. - Anyways, here's a short report from that day for those of you who still care:
Bear in mind that while the coaster was finished and ready for riders, there were still a few tweaks to be done here and there, including the surrounding area, so the finished product is a bit more polished, but more on that later.
Some fellow danish enthusiast and I arrived at the park a little earlier than the rest of the "test-pilots" as we had agreed to be in a video for the parks social media platforms. They interviewed 2 of us, including myself and then they filmed our reactions after our first rides. Always a bit nerve-wrecking getting a camera in your face like that, but fun nonetheless.
The video is in danish, but I'll just leave it here for good measure:
Anyways, enough of me being a media whore.
Djurs has yet again surpassed their own standards for storytelling and theming with this new area and coaster. It looks great and the detail is like nothing we've seen in Denmark before and definitely some of the best in Northern Europe. The entrance to the queue as well as the queue itself is a highlight, with path going right past the shiny red coaster tracks with the huge green bamboo to contrast. As you can see on the photos, there's still big green areas within the expansion, in spirit with the classic 'Djurs' feel - although the grassy area right by the coaster is going to be the location of next years 2 (!) new attractions.
Here's a couple of pictures of the detailed theming around the queue and ride:
Btw. the big "blue box" - which some people have called the building housing the station and pre-lift section - is indeed a quite jarring shade of blue, but it is the plan to make it look a lot more "worn out", maybe they already have?
Now on to the ride itself.
*Spoiler Alert*
You start by getting a little launch out of the station accompanied by sound a light effects, you then go through a little helix inside the "dragons cave" and proceed to the lifthill.
This part works surprisingly well and will take most visitors by surprise.
*Spoiler End*
After the 30 meter climb you go down the swooping first drop and through the many twists and turns along the unique layout.
One of this coasters strengths is the very varied and interesting layout, with a lot of nice elements thrown in along the way. It all feels very fresh, which is good.
But while it's definitely a world-class family coaster it's still not as good as, say, Juvelen for me. I do have a few problems with it, but they might also be solved by the time I ride it next. - The thing is, it's quite rough for a brand new coaster and it also loses a lot of speed towards the end. The roughness is my biggest issue though, since I feel like it takes a bit away from the overall experience. But I've talked to both the CEO and the designer himself from Intamin, whom both assured me, that they are aware of this and are working on improving it.
Overall I think the new area and coaster is gonna do really good for the park and I can't wait to see the next steps of Djurs Sommerland's amazing investment plans.
Thanks for reading.
Photo source:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/CoasterClubDenmark/photos/?tab=album&album_id=940273292742385
