James F
Hyper Poster
I had one hour.
60 minutes to connect at one of Scandinavia's largest airports. For a well seasoned traveller connecting flights is all par for the course, but for me this time constraint pounded in my head like the sound of a pneumatic drill. I have gathered a fair bit of travel experience within these past 3 years having done most of the major European parks, but unlike those trips this excursion will involve me taking connecting flights.
This wasn't something that I was eager to do, but given the cost of flying direct for Manchester with Finnair was astronomically expensive (£350 - £400) and given I was too far away to use the London airports, the connecting flights with SAS at £110 return became all the more alluring.
Taiga seems to have a somewhat unattainable quality, yes it's within Europe, but it's tucked up to the east, way outside of any other parks. Finland isn't exactly a hotspot for British tourists either, if your outside of London it's incredibly difficult to find a direct flight to Helsinki that doesn't cost near the same as a transatlantic flight, that's if you even find a direct flight.
While at the time of booking I felt like I had beat the system and was feeling quite pleased with my little self as the time drew closer that cloud of anxiety grew. What if it was all in vain? If I somehow manage to get through customs and make my next flight, what if I get to Linnanmäki to find Taiga closed? While it looks like a charming park and all, it's coaster collection thins out quickly. The things we do.
-
The day had arrived and it was time to see if that one hour connection was possible. The flight from Manchester to Stockholm was nice enough, it was on time, there was free tea & coffee and the seats were fairly comfortable. Makes a difference from my usual Ryanair & Easyjet flights.
Now was game time. When you are in a rush everything feels x10 slower. The 5 minute dissamarkment felt like an hour volumed by that awkward shuffle everyone does as they trudged to make their way out of the narrow body aircraft.
With now 45 minutes remaining, I was greeted by a switchback queue at passport control. While I had 50 minutes until the flight was due to leave, The boarding closed 20 minutes before then, so effectively I had half an hour. It was becoming all too real. Fortunately the queue at customs was quick and they had all the lanes open, last time I was at Arlanda airport it took me almost 30 minutes to get through, thankfully this wasn't the case this time.
A downside with most large airports like Arlanda is how huge the terminals are, even speed walking to the gate took almost 5 minutes, but with luck on my side I had made it with 15 minutes to spare. In the words of Patrick Bateman "The relief washes over me in an awesome wave".
Now I can relax the excitement begins, I am actually going to ride one of my top bucket list coasters.
But first ... Tchaikovsky.
--
I am not going to sit here and pretend I know classical music. I don't. I only know what a quaver is because of the crisps.
I do enjoy classical music though and Tchaikovsky is one of my favourites. Unfortunately he is a little too dead at the moment to perform, but getting to hear the music in a live setting was an incredible experience with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
The tickets were pretty cheap as well as 15 euros, granted I was sat up in the gods, but the view wasn't obscured.
-
The next day had arrived and as the Linnanmäki didn't open until 12:30 I decided on doing some sightseeing. I arrived at the southern gate at the park just before opening and to my surprise not a single soul was there. The staff opened the gates bang on 12:30 with only 3 people waiting, it was the most relaxed park opening I have ever seen.
-
I decided to start my day with the park's Maurer spinning coaster Salama. I felt it was best to ride all the low capacity coasters before they gained queues that I am not willing to wait in for +1's, plus if I rode all the coasters before Taiga, the Intimin blitz would be my #250. How was the spinning coaster? it was fine. It's one of the smoothest Maurer spinners I have done, but the drawback is that it's the least intense, I liked the interaction with the Rapids and surrounding trees though.
-
Next up was Tulireki, a rare Mack E-motion coaster which can join Movie Park's Bandit in the list of "so bad, it's funny" coasters. It started out decent, the hairpin turns were really effective and genuinely made me hold on to the lapbar. The rest of the ride is a cluster, every valley feels like your riding a faulty shopping trolley. I didn't find it painful, but absurdly amusing, would I ride it again? no, but I found it entertaining at least. If I had to queue for it then I would probably be more harsh.
-
Pikajuna was the next coaster. It's a mack powered coaster, it does it's job, not as interesting as Runway Mine Train at Alton Towers or themed like Alpenexpress at Europa Park, but it does offer scenic views of Helsinki and of the other rides so it's decent enough.
-
After riding Insane at Grona Lund and not finding many redeeming qualities, I wasn't excited about riding another Intamin Zacspin, but thankfully Kirnu is shorter in length so the discomfort was over within a few seconds. I get why people like these, if you enjoy riding Topspins then this is probably your cup of tea, but I personally hate the rocking back and forth motion, especially as I have gotten older.
-
Next up was the indoor Zierer coaster Linnunrata eXtra. For those who don't know this family coaster is built inside a disused water tower. The ride has some cutesy but dated space theming in the indoor queue line. The ride itself had some light theming here and there, there was a moment where you crash through asteroid and from what I remember there is some UV lighting. It reminded me of the defunct Space Invader at Blackpool, minus the single seating position.
-
The next coaster on the list was the parks wooden coaster Vuoristorata. This is the first coaster I have done which has a brake operator ride with you. It has a novelty factor, but after banging my knee pretty harshly on the first drop it did ruin the experience a bit. I sat near the back so there were a couple of mild airtime moments, but other than the bizarre nature of having someone stood behind you and the weird mid-course elevated transfer track there isn't much to write home about.
-
Ukko was the final "+1 and done" coaster to do and to be fair, this one became my second favourite coaster in the park. The only Mauer X-car coaster I had done was G-Force at Drayton Manor which I was lukewarm about. Ukko was more fun than I was expecting. There is some great hangtime and the whip I got over the top of the barrel roll drop left me grinning. Shame about the short length and the over abrasive stop on the chain lift, but I did enjoy it overall.
-
Finally it was time to ride the anticipated Taiga! I think it was an effective strategy to hit up all the leftovers first as the park grew busier as the day went on. This left the rest of the day for me to experience Taiga or any other ride without worrying about getting all the creds. At this point it was about an hour into the park day, which meant that it had warmed up a little since opening. There was only a 5 minute wait or so for my first ride and it was currently on a one train service so at this point the park was dead, but it would not stay that way. My first ride was in the back row. On first impressions alone I knew it was already a top 10 contender. Every element just hit, even some elements I wasn't expecting much from surprised me.
-
Let's start with the first element, the "Zero-G Winder" I had heard many things going in, but damn. Nothing prepared me for the insanity that ensued, as much as I love Hyperia's outerbank stall, it doesn't have the aggression that this upside down airtime moment has. The next element transitions seamlessly into a curved drop down the valley where the train picks up more speed delivering some fairly intense positive G's. After some twisted and turning you are launched into the tophat which delivered some solid airtime, which was surprising after hearing it was the dead spot of the ride.
-
The stall was glorious, from the force of the floater airtime, views of the coasters below and the breakneck pacing. I think it might be the best stall I have done. The small airtime hill was next and it was yet another moment which out-shined any other coaster I have done which has this element.
-
The Immelmann was next and while it doesn't provide any airtime or unique forces, there was a smidge of hangtime at the apex. The rest of the ride felt Taron-esc except the intensity was turned up. The twists launched me out of my seat as did the second drop down the valley, the final barrel roll some awesome floater hangtime just before the train hops into the brakes. Wow.
Of course I had to immediately ride it again, this time in the front and it was even better.
After two rides I decided to have lunch as the park was getting busier. Despite this I managed to get onto a couple of the main flat rides in quick succession.
-
The first of which was Swingi which is the parks newest ride. These newer Intamin Gyro Swings are always worth riding when you see them. There is plenty of awesome floater airtime on the max swings thanks to the more open and freeing restraints.
-
Kingi is the parks Mauer drop tower ride. In contrast to Swingi the restraints are horrible, but that didn't prevent me from getting awesome views of Helsinki. The drop itself was decently forceful, but it doesn't have much on the Intamin versions.
-
The final ride of note is Taikasirkus. The clown themed dark ride. I was shocked to learn that this opened in 2005 as it looks like a relic of the 70s. It was slow, clunky and awkward, but it was an experience I guess.
-
After going on the parks observation rides to get some pictures I made my way back to Taiga for a re-ride session. As mentioned earlier the park got noticeably busier, especially after 6pm as the park was holding the "carnival of light" in which the whole park was lit up with LED lights and was open until 10pm. I waited for 30 minutes for Taiga which was still running one train so the queue crawled a bit despite the ride crew working diligently to dispatch the train. Fortunately by my next ride they put on the second train which helped, although the queue stayed at about 30 minutes for the rest of the day as the park was still busy.
-
As the evening went on Taiga warmed up even more and was hauling! Every element was even more crazy than it was this afternoon, after getting these rides I could feel it leaping into my top 5.
I managed to get 9 rides in total. I got 4 in the front and the remaining 5 in the back. I left the park at 9pm, I could of stayed longer, but I was hungry and tired at this point so I figured it was best to leave it on a high.
-
One hour.
That one hour of stress at Arlanda airport was easily worth it for the weekend's worth of powerful music, beautiful sights and one phenomenal coaster.
60 minutes to connect at one of Scandinavia's largest airports. For a well seasoned traveller connecting flights is all par for the course, but for me this time constraint pounded in my head like the sound of a pneumatic drill. I have gathered a fair bit of travel experience within these past 3 years having done most of the major European parks, but unlike those trips this excursion will involve me taking connecting flights.
This wasn't something that I was eager to do, but given the cost of flying direct for Manchester with Finnair was astronomically expensive (£350 - £400) and given I was too far away to use the London airports, the connecting flights with SAS at £110 return became all the more alluring.
Taiga seems to have a somewhat unattainable quality, yes it's within Europe, but it's tucked up to the east, way outside of any other parks. Finland isn't exactly a hotspot for British tourists either, if your outside of London it's incredibly difficult to find a direct flight to Helsinki that doesn't cost near the same as a transatlantic flight, that's if you even find a direct flight.
While at the time of booking I felt like I had beat the system and was feeling quite pleased with my little self as the time drew closer that cloud of anxiety grew. What if it was all in vain? If I somehow manage to get through customs and make my next flight, what if I get to Linnanmäki to find Taiga closed? While it looks like a charming park and all, it's coaster collection thins out quickly. The things we do.
-
The day had arrived and it was time to see if that one hour connection was possible. The flight from Manchester to Stockholm was nice enough, it was on time, there was free tea & coffee and the seats were fairly comfortable. Makes a difference from my usual Ryanair & Easyjet flights.
Now was game time. When you are in a rush everything feels x10 slower. The 5 minute dissamarkment felt like an hour volumed by that awkward shuffle everyone does as they trudged to make their way out of the narrow body aircraft.
With now 45 minutes remaining, I was greeted by a switchback queue at passport control. While I had 50 minutes until the flight was due to leave, The boarding closed 20 minutes before then, so effectively I had half an hour. It was becoming all too real. Fortunately the queue at customs was quick and they had all the lanes open, last time I was at Arlanda airport it took me almost 30 minutes to get through, thankfully this wasn't the case this time.
A downside with most large airports like Arlanda is how huge the terminals are, even speed walking to the gate took almost 5 minutes, but with luck on my side I had made it with 15 minutes to spare. In the words of Patrick Bateman "The relief washes over me in an awesome wave".
Now I can relax the excitement begins, I am actually going to ride one of my top bucket list coasters.
But first ... Tchaikovsky.
--
I am not going to sit here and pretend I know classical music. I don't. I only know what a quaver is because of the crisps.
I do enjoy classical music though and Tchaikovsky is one of my favourites. Unfortunately he is a little too dead at the moment to perform, but getting to hear the music in a live setting was an incredible experience with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
The tickets were pretty cheap as well as 15 euros, granted I was sat up in the gods, but the view wasn't obscured.
-
The next day had arrived and as the Linnanmäki didn't open until 12:30 I decided on doing some sightseeing. I arrived at the southern gate at the park just before opening and to my surprise not a single soul was there. The staff opened the gates bang on 12:30 with only 3 people waiting, it was the most relaxed park opening I have ever seen.
-
I decided to start my day with the park's Maurer spinning coaster Salama. I felt it was best to ride all the low capacity coasters before they gained queues that I am not willing to wait in for +1's, plus if I rode all the coasters before Taiga, the Intimin blitz would be my #250. How was the spinning coaster? it was fine. It's one of the smoothest Maurer spinners I have done, but the drawback is that it's the least intense, I liked the interaction with the Rapids and surrounding trees though.
-
Next up was Tulireki, a rare Mack E-motion coaster which can join Movie Park's Bandit in the list of "so bad, it's funny" coasters. It started out decent, the hairpin turns were really effective and genuinely made me hold on to the lapbar. The rest of the ride is a cluster, every valley feels like your riding a faulty shopping trolley. I didn't find it painful, but absurdly amusing, would I ride it again? no, but I found it entertaining at least. If I had to queue for it then I would probably be more harsh.
-
Pikajuna was the next coaster. It's a mack powered coaster, it does it's job, not as interesting as Runway Mine Train at Alton Towers or themed like Alpenexpress at Europa Park, but it does offer scenic views of Helsinki and of the other rides so it's decent enough.
-
After riding Insane at Grona Lund and not finding many redeeming qualities, I wasn't excited about riding another Intamin Zacspin, but thankfully Kirnu is shorter in length so the discomfort was over within a few seconds. I get why people like these, if you enjoy riding Topspins then this is probably your cup of tea, but I personally hate the rocking back and forth motion, especially as I have gotten older.
-
Next up was the indoor Zierer coaster Linnunrata eXtra. For those who don't know this family coaster is built inside a disused water tower. The ride has some cutesy but dated space theming in the indoor queue line. The ride itself had some light theming here and there, there was a moment where you crash through asteroid and from what I remember there is some UV lighting. It reminded me of the defunct Space Invader at Blackpool, minus the single seating position.
-
The next coaster on the list was the parks wooden coaster Vuoristorata. This is the first coaster I have done which has a brake operator ride with you. It has a novelty factor, but after banging my knee pretty harshly on the first drop it did ruin the experience a bit. I sat near the back so there were a couple of mild airtime moments, but other than the bizarre nature of having someone stood behind you and the weird mid-course elevated transfer track there isn't much to write home about.
-
Ukko was the final "+1 and done" coaster to do and to be fair, this one became my second favourite coaster in the park. The only Mauer X-car coaster I had done was G-Force at Drayton Manor which I was lukewarm about. Ukko was more fun than I was expecting. There is some great hangtime and the whip I got over the top of the barrel roll drop left me grinning. Shame about the short length and the over abrasive stop on the chain lift, but I did enjoy it overall.
-
Finally it was time to ride the anticipated Taiga! I think it was an effective strategy to hit up all the leftovers first as the park grew busier as the day went on. This left the rest of the day for me to experience Taiga or any other ride without worrying about getting all the creds. At this point it was about an hour into the park day, which meant that it had warmed up a little since opening. There was only a 5 minute wait or so for my first ride and it was currently on a one train service so at this point the park was dead, but it would not stay that way. My first ride was in the back row. On first impressions alone I knew it was already a top 10 contender. Every element just hit, even some elements I wasn't expecting much from surprised me.
-
Let's start with the first element, the "Zero-G Winder" I had heard many things going in, but damn. Nothing prepared me for the insanity that ensued, as much as I love Hyperia's outerbank stall, it doesn't have the aggression that this upside down airtime moment has. The next element transitions seamlessly into a curved drop down the valley where the train picks up more speed delivering some fairly intense positive G's. After some twisted and turning you are launched into the tophat which delivered some solid airtime, which was surprising after hearing it was the dead spot of the ride.
-
The stall was glorious, from the force of the floater airtime, views of the coasters below and the breakneck pacing. I think it might be the best stall I have done. The small airtime hill was next and it was yet another moment which out-shined any other coaster I have done which has this element.
-
The Immelmann was next and while it doesn't provide any airtime or unique forces, there was a smidge of hangtime at the apex. The rest of the ride felt Taron-esc except the intensity was turned up. The twists launched me out of my seat as did the second drop down the valley, the final barrel roll some awesome floater hangtime just before the train hops into the brakes. Wow.
Of course I had to immediately ride it again, this time in the front and it was even better.
After two rides I decided to have lunch as the park was getting busier. Despite this I managed to get onto a couple of the main flat rides in quick succession.
-
The first of which was Swingi which is the parks newest ride. These newer Intamin Gyro Swings are always worth riding when you see them. There is plenty of awesome floater airtime on the max swings thanks to the more open and freeing restraints.
-
Kingi is the parks Mauer drop tower ride. In contrast to Swingi the restraints are horrible, but that didn't prevent me from getting awesome views of Helsinki. The drop itself was decently forceful, but it doesn't have much on the Intamin versions.
-
The final ride of note is Taikasirkus. The clown themed dark ride. I was shocked to learn that this opened in 2005 as it looks like a relic of the 70s. It was slow, clunky and awkward, but it was an experience I guess.
-
After going on the parks observation rides to get some pictures I made my way back to Taiga for a re-ride session. As mentioned earlier the park got noticeably busier, especially after 6pm as the park was holding the "carnival of light" in which the whole park was lit up with LED lights and was open until 10pm. I waited for 30 minutes for Taiga which was still running one train so the queue crawled a bit despite the ride crew working diligently to dispatch the train. Fortunately by my next ride they put on the second train which helped, although the queue stayed at about 30 minutes for the rest of the day as the park was still busy.
-
As the evening went on Taiga warmed up even more and was hauling! Every element was even more crazy than it was this afternoon, after getting these rides I could feel it leaping into my top 5.
I managed to get 9 rides in total. I got 4 in the front and the remaining 5 in the back. I left the park at 9pm, I could of stayed longer, but I was hungry and tired at this point so I figured it was best to leave it on a high.
-
One hour.
That one hour of stress at Arlanda airport was easily worth it for the weekend's worth of powerful music, beautiful sights and one phenomenal coaster.
Last edited:
