JoshC.
Strata Poster
I've got a few little / quick trips lined up over the coming weeks and months. I'll be shoving trips reports for them in this thread...starting off with this one!
For those unaware, I recently started working in a school. Great fun and loving it. But between working the usual Monday-Friday routine and being busy on the weekends, it has meant I've just had less free time than usual. Last month, I had some rare downtime and was bored. So, as one does, I idly searched through the likes of coast2coaster, Skyscanner and Google Flights to look at potential future trips. From this came up a surprising realisation that Djurs Sommerland is very close to Aarhus airport. And Tivoli Friheden isn't much further away. On top of that, Farup Sommerland isn't a much longer drive away either.
And so I looked into things. £30 return flights for that weekend. Oooh, tempting. The downside was that it was a Saturday morning flight out and Sunday morning return flights, meaning getting all 3 parks was unlikely. A quick check and Djurs and Friheden were both doable on the Saturday. Car hire was reasonable enough, and there was a cheap hotel close to the airport too. The stars aligned, and so I thought 'sod it', and the trip was booked. With 4 days notice, it's my most "last minute" abroad trip I've booked.
No delays on the outward flight, and I had an entire plane row to myself. Aarhus airport is nice and small, and I was able to get through security quickly with no problems. Now onto car hire. This was, in fact, the first time I was hiring a car since my America trip, where I had some confidence issues with driving abroad put a bit of a damper on the trip. I tried to not let it phase or worry me, especially since this trip had the extra layer of driving a manual. However, I can report I was totally fine, with the little Corsa with only 3km on the clock being a lovely car to drive.
Aarhus airport is undergoing renovations, and is a small airport anyway. This meant the gate for arrivals and departures was in a semi-permanent marque. Novel if nothing else.
Djurs Sommerland
The drive from the airport to Djurs is about 20 minutes. And the roads are very quiet. Eerily quiet. Certainly helped calm the inhibitions I had anyway. I pulled up at the park just after the 10am opening time. The staff members in the car park were a joy; one miming that they were pulling my car forward which made me chuckle. What surprised me more, given it was a warm Saturday in June, is that the car park seemed very quiet. I noted before visiting that the park had just introduced their (more expensive) summer pricing a few days prior, so I wonder if that had something to do with it.
The app gave queue times, and nothing was advertised beyond a 10 minute queue at this point. I didn't really have a plan of approach for the day, so I figured I'd just go with what was closest and make my way round. That meant I started my day off with DrageKongen, the park's more recent thrill coaster. One of only 2 Intamin family suspended coasters in the world, I'd heard mixed-to-positive things about it.
The queue line (especially indoor section) is really nice. I had forgotten prior to getting to the station that the ride started with a launch...so that was a nice surprise. The dispatch sequence is also very neat. The ride itself is okay, but largely forgettable and quite rattly. I don't see how Intamin basically made a larger version of what Vekoma offer and screwed it up. It's a shame really. Ultimately I ended up choosing not to re-ride, because, well, meh.
Reckoning that the park would be quiet all day, I decided to tick off the nearby +1, a Zierer Force Zero by the name of Jungle Rally, and move over to the park's pirate land.
It was now when I realised that Djurs as a park had a real big charm to it. This was a 'complete' park, with a good variety of rides and solid theming. Themed audio too, which is always a bonus. None of it seemed tacky or cheap, and the park felt well looked after. I hadn't been in the park long, but I already had a really good feeling about it.
With the weather being nice, I opted to tick off the park's water coaster, Skatteøen, next. Another short queue, with efficient operations followed, and I was on. The only other Mack water coasters I've ridden are Pulsar (different kettle of fish) and Supersplash at Plopsa (yes, it's a cred), so this was a pretty new experience for me. Overall, it was fine, but not as good as the Intamin cousin. The staff were great though; slightly dressed up to match the theme, and interacting as if they were pirates. Great to see.
3 creds out of 8 in, and nothing to write home about. But again, the park still gave off very pleasant vibes which didn't make me feel disheartened. And it was time for something more exciting...Piraten. This was a walk on, and staff were again dressed up and playing pirates. Pretty certain on dispatch the operator was saying 'goodbye scallywags' or similar (well, it was a Danish word that sounded like scallywags, anyways). This was my first Mega Lite, so I didn't know what to expect. But in any case, I took my seat in the back row, and was whisked away on the lift hill.
And damn. This ride is good. I greyed out on the helix at the bottom. I'm less and less a fan of high g forces, but this was just right for me. Then bam, airtime. And again, airtime. Element after element just chucked you out of your seat, with just enough respite to recover, whilst not leaving you bored. The ride is a solid length and flows really well. Fantastic ride. Really really good.
The ride was running on 2 trains and not stacking (which was very nice given the quiet crowds...they definitely could have gotten away with 1 train). So I went straight round again, this time for a front row ride. I much preferred this to the back, in part because it was slightly less intense (no greying out on the helix), and in part because it was just really nice to get the flow of elements at the front. I squeezed in 2 more rides before deciding to go in hunt of the other creds. But I knew I'd be back over here anyways.
The next point of call was the other highly anticipated cred at Djurs...Juvelen. The straddled seating, multi-launch family coaster, which also happens to be the longest in Denmark. I'd heard loads of good things about this, with many dubbing the ride Joyvelen. I had a 20 minute wait - in the really neat indoor themed queue! - to find out.
I didn't know there was a little on-ride pre-show before the first launch, so that was a nice surprise. Even better was that the quality of it was decent. Then boom, first launch. Not too powerful, but with a good bit of oomph. The layout is well-paced and varied, with some nice lil pops of airtime and good turns. The second launch is surprisingly punchy, especially given the seating configuration. And then the ride carries on, again well-paced, varied and just generally being a ton of fun. It's long, but doesn't overstay its welcome.
Juvelen is indeed full of joy!
Now I hesitate to say this, because I don't like using this word. But I think Juvelen is, pretty much, the perfect family coaster. This is the very definition of family-thrill in terms of what it offers. It has enough to satisfy the "thrill seekers", whilst also being accessible to those who just hit 1.2m and are riding their first 'thrill' ride. It sets the bar high for younger riders. It has a nice theme, nice theming and good surroundings. The launches aren't intimidating, but they pack a punch. The seats are comfortable yet freeing. As I say, I don't like using the word, but I think Juvelen is the perfect family coaster.
Juvelen's queue remained a consistent 20 minutes throughout the day, so I left it in hunt of the other creds. Next up was Thor's Hammer, an extended version of Paulton's Cobra (well, Cobra is a shorter version of Thor, but you know what I mean). I really like Cobra. And I do like this a lot too, but I think the extra helices before the station are unnecessary and hamper the ending of the ride a bit.
Having been up for several hours, a spot of lunch was the next port of call. One thing which threw me a bit at Djurs was there didn't seem to be many "grab n go" places for lunch. They had lots of snack stands, and quite a few sit-down restaurants / buffets (which were rather expensive). But there were few mid-range places. I found one, a kebab stand, which was very busy, and took almost 20 minutes from ordering to getting my food. Not a big issue, but a tad annoying all the same.
It might have been almost the longest queue of the day, but at least it was tasty and fresh (and yes, I still take photos of food - sue me!)
After lunch, I ticked off the rapids, which were fun, before heading to the park's newest coaster, the Mack powered T-Rex Family Coaster. This ended up having a couple of technical difficulties throughout my wait, but nothing major. The layout is pretty fun, and passes a lot of dinosaurs. The area is a bit barren, possibly by design, but feels like some more grown vegetation wouldn't go amiss. So maybe that just needs more time to grow and bed in.
roar
I then ticked off the final cred, Vilde Hønsejagt, which meant I'd ticked off the +8 the park had to offer in a little over 3 hours. This meant plenty of time for re-rides, to tick off the flat/water rides of interest and soak up the park. A tiny part of me considered whether it was worth making the near 2 hour drive to Farup to try and squeeze in the creds there, given that Tivoli was open till late, but I felt that Djurs was a park I didn't just want to cred run.
Plenty of rides were had on Juvelen and Piraten (5 and 7 in total respectively). Juvelen remained a joy, and it solidified itself in my "Top 10%". Piraten just misses out; despite what the numbers suggest, it's not as re-rideable as I'd like. It warms up very nicely, but that in turn means it does become a bit more intense and erring on the side of "a bit much" for me. Definitely a morning ride!
The park remained quiet all day (Juvelen's 20 minute queue was the peak), but it was slowly getting busier. Sometime between 3-4pm I called it a day at the park, ensuring I had plenty of time to get to Tivoli and explore all it had to offer.
Final Djurs thoughts: Don't let the "leaving a couple of hours before park close" fool you, I loved Djurs. As I said, it is a complete park, giving a great variety of rides, amazing staff and great atmosphere. It's an utter joy to be in, and it has gone in as one of my favourite parks. I'd love to see them invest in a large scale dark ride, and maybe an inverting coaster, in the next decade; both would be significant and worthwhile additions to the park.
On a more philosophical note. I'm sure as goons we've all had, at one point or another, someone raise an eyebrow at the hobby. Someone who can't 'get' the idea of travelling hundreds/thousands of miles for a theme park. Djurs is one of the few parks I feel like I could take that sort of person to, and then they'd 'get' it. It's just that damn good.
Coming soon: Aarhus Pt1.5, Tivoli Friheden!
And then a jaunt to Asterix.
Hopefully I'll get those written up before my next lil trip, which is in...3 and a half weeks!
For those unaware, I recently started working in a school. Great fun and loving it. But between working the usual Monday-Friday routine and being busy on the weekends, it has meant I've just had less free time than usual. Last month, I had some rare downtime and was bored. So, as one does, I idly searched through the likes of coast2coaster, Skyscanner and Google Flights to look at potential future trips. From this came up a surprising realisation that Djurs Sommerland is very close to Aarhus airport. And Tivoli Friheden isn't much further away. On top of that, Farup Sommerland isn't a much longer drive away either.
And so I looked into things. £30 return flights for that weekend. Oooh, tempting. The downside was that it was a Saturday morning flight out and Sunday morning return flights, meaning getting all 3 parks was unlikely. A quick check and Djurs and Friheden were both doable on the Saturday. Car hire was reasonable enough, and there was a cheap hotel close to the airport too. The stars aligned, and so I thought 'sod it', and the trip was booked. With 4 days notice, it's my most "last minute" abroad trip I've booked.
No delays on the outward flight, and I had an entire plane row to myself. Aarhus airport is nice and small, and I was able to get through security quickly with no problems. Now onto car hire. This was, in fact, the first time I was hiring a car since my America trip, where I had some confidence issues with driving abroad put a bit of a damper on the trip. I tried to not let it phase or worry me, especially since this trip had the extra layer of driving a manual. However, I can report I was totally fine, with the little Corsa with only 3km on the clock being a lovely car to drive.
Aarhus airport is undergoing renovations, and is a small airport anyway. This meant the gate for arrivals and departures was in a semi-permanent marque. Novel if nothing else.
Djurs Sommerland
The drive from the airport to Djurs is about 20 minutes. And the roads are very quiet. Eerily quiet. Certainly helped calm the inhibitions I had anyway. I pulled up at the park just after the 10am opening time. The staff members in the car park were a joy; one miming that they were pulling my car forward which made me chuckle. What surprised me more, given it was a warm Saturday in June, is that the car park seemed very quiet. I noted before visiting that the park had just introduced their (more expensive) summer pricing a few days prior, so I wonder if that had something to do with it.
The app gave queue times, and nothing was advertised beyond a 10 minute queue at this point. I didn't really have a plan of approach for the day, so I figured I'd just go with what was closest and make my way round. That meant I started my day off with DrageKongen, the park's more recent thrill coaster. One of only 2 Intamin family suspended coasters in the world, I'd heard mixed-to-positive things about it.
The queue line (especially indoor section) is really nice. I had forgotten prior to getting to the station that the ride started with a launch...so that was a nice surprise. The dispatch sequence is also very neat. The ride itself is okay, but largely forgettable and quite rattly. I don't see how Intamin basically made a larger version of what Vekoma offer and screwed it up. It's a shame really. Ultimately I ended up choosing not to re-ride, because, well, meh.
Reckoning that the park would be quiet all day, I decided to tick off the nearby +1, a Zierer Force Zero by the name of Jungle Rally, and move over to the park's pirate land.
It was now when I realised that Djurs as a park had a real big charm to it. This was a 'complete' park, with a good variety of rides and solid theming. Themed audio too, which is always a bonus. None of it seemed tacky or cheap, and the park felt well looked after. I hadn't been in the park long, but I already had a really good feeling about it.
With the weather being nice, I opted to tick off the park's water coaster, Skatteøen, next. Another short queue, with efficient operations followed, and I was on. The only other Mack water coasters I've ridden are Pulsar (different kettle of fish) and Supersplash at Plopsa (yes, it's a cred), so this was a pretty new experience for me. Overall, it was fine, but not as good as the Intamin cousin. The staff were great though; slightly dressed up to match the theme, and interacting as if they were pirates. Great to see.
3 creds out of 8 in, and nothing to write home about. But again, the park still gave off very pleasant vibes which didn't make me feel disheartened. And it was time for something more exciting...Piraten. This was a walk on, and staff were again dressed up and playing pirates. Pretty certain on dispatch the operator was saying 'goodbye scallywags' or similar (well, it was a Danish word that sounded like scallywags, anyways). This was my first Mega Lite, so I didn't know what to expect. But in any case, I took my seat in the back row, and was whisked away on the lift hill.
And damn. This ride is good. I greyed out on the helix at the bottom. I'm less and less a fan of high g forces, but this was just right for me. Then bam, airtime. And again, airtime. Element after element just chucked you out of your seat, with just enough respite to recover, whilst not leaving you bored. The ride is a solid length and flows really well. Fantastic ride. Really really good.
The ride was running on 2 trains and not stacking (which was very nice given the quiet crowds...they definitely could have gotten away with 1 train). So I went straight round again, this time for a front row ride. I much preferred this to the back, in part because it was slightly less intense (no greying out on the helix), and in part because it was just really nice to get the flow of elements at the front. I squeezed in 2 more rides before deciding to go in hunt of the other creds. But I knew I'd be back over here anyways.
The next point of call was the other highly anticipated cred at Djurs...Juvelen. The straddled seating, multi-launch family coaster, which also happens to be the longest in Denmark. I'd heard loads of good things about this, with many dubbing the ride Joyvelen. I had a 20 minute wait - in the really neat indoor themed queue! - to find out.
I didn't know there was a little on-ride pre-show before the first launch, so that was a nice surprise. Even better was that the quality of it was decent. Then boom, first launch. Not too powerful, but with a good bit of oomph. The layout is well-paced and varied, with some nice lil pops of airtime and good turns. The second launch is surprisingly punchy, especially given the seating configuration. And then the ride carries on, again well-paced, varied and just generally being a ton of fun. It's long, but doesn't overstay its welcome.
Juvelen is indeed full of joy!
Now I hesitate to say this, because I don't like using this word. But I think Juvelen is, pretty much, the perfect family coaster. This is the very definition of family-thrill in terms of what it offers. It has enough to satisfy the "thrill seekers", whilst also being accessible to those who just hit 1.2m and are riding their first 'thrill' ride. It sets the bar high for younger riders. It has a nice theme, nice theming and good surroundings. The launches aren't intimidating, but they pack a punch. The seats are comfortable yet freeing. As I say, I don't like using the word, but I think Juvelen is the perfect family coaster.
Juvelen's queue remained a consistent 20 minutes throughout the day, so I left it in hunt of the other creds. Next up was Thor's Hammer, an extended version of Paulton's Cobra (well, Cobra is a shorter version of Thor, but you know what I mean). I really like Cobra. And I do like this a lot too, but I think the extra helices before the station are unnecessary and hamper the ending of the ride a bit.
Having been up for several hours, a spot of lunch was the next port of call. One thing which threw me a bit at Djurs was there didn't seem to be many "grab n go" places for lunch. They had lots of snack stands, and quite a few sit-down restaurants / buffets (which were rather expensive). But there were few mid-range places. I found one, a kebab stand, which was very busy, and took almost 20 minutes from ordering to getting my food. Not a big issue, but a tad annoying all the same.
It might have been almost the longest queue of the day, but at least it was tasty and fresh (and yes, I still take photos of food - sue me!)
After lunch, I ticked off the rapids, which were fun, before heading to the park's newest coaster, the Mack powered T-Rex Family Coaster. This ended up having a couple of technical difficulties throughout my wait, but nothing major. The layout is pretty fun, and passes a lot of dinosaurs. The area is a bit barren, possibly by design, but feels like some more grown vegetation wouldn't go amiss. So maybe that just needs more time to grow and bed in.
roar
I then ticked off the final cred, Vilde Hønsejagt, which meant I'd ticked off the +8 the park had to offer in a little over 3 hours. This meant plenty of time for re-rides, to tick off the flat/water rides of interest and soak up the park. A tiny part of me considered whether it was worth making the near 2 hour drive to Farup to try and squeeze in the creds there, given that Tivoli was open till late, but I felt that Djurs was a park I didn't just want to cred run.
Plenty of rides were had on Juvelen and Piraten (5 and 7 in total respectively). Juvelen remained a joy, and it solidified itself in my "Top 10%". Piraten just misses out; despite what the numbers suggest, it's not as re-rideable as I'd like. It warms up very nicely, but that in turn means it does become a bit more intense and erring on the side of "a bit much" for me. Definitely a morning ride!
The park remained quiet all day (Juvelen's 20 minute queue was the peak), but it was slowly getting busier. Sometime between 3-4pm I called it a day at the park, ensuring I had plenty of time to get to Tivoli and explore all it had to offer.
Final Djurs thoughts: Don't let the "leaving a couple of hours before park close" fool you, I loved Djurs. As I said, it is a complete park, giving a great variety of rides, amazing staff and great atmosphere. It's an utter joy to be in, and it has gone in as one of my favourite parks. I'd love to see them invest in a large scale dark ride, and maybe an inverting coaster, in the next decade; both would be significant and worthwhile additions to the park.
On a more philosophical note. I'm sure as goons we've all had, at one point or another, someone raise an eyebrow at the hobby. Someone who can't 'get' the idea of travelling hundreds/thousands of miles for a theme park. Djurs is one of the few parks I feel like I could take that sort of person to, and then they'd 'get' it. It's just that damn good.
Coming soon: Aarhus Pt1.5, Tivoli Friheden!
And then a jaunt to Asterix.
Hopefully I'll get those written up before my next lil trip, which is in...3 and a half weeks!
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