Trying to keep up – Denmark – August 2023

[Hixee]

Once gets to the point where you feel like you’re only trying to keep up with the amount of stuff opening, crossed of course with the stuff you haven’t already done, crossed with everything else going on in life, sometimes you’ve just got to try to squeeze them in. This is one of those trips – a now or never not for a very long time type thing.

So as ever, mostly and excuse to post the photos, but hopefully some useful musings along the way.

Day 0 & 1 – Something simple to start – Arrival and Djurs Sommerland

Getting to Copenhagen was smooth enough, and after picking up the hire car I relaxed into a long drive to my Airbnb. All very plain sailing to be honest.

Next day was a leisurely start, Djurs wasn’t more than 45 minutes drive, so pottered along to the park for opening on a beautiful sunny morning.

The crowds looked pretty manageable as I entered the park, so made the right turn towards Piraten to start – the excitement of the mega-lite drew me in!

I rode another one of these back in 2018 in China and really enjoyed it at the time – as for it’s Danish cousin? Wonderful! It has just as fun of a layout as I remember. Nowadays it is noticeably ‘old fashioned’, but it’s still a brilliantly dynamic coaster for something so compact.

Took a couple of laps while there was no queue, then headed round the corner to the water coaster.

I’m not really a fan of the other one of these I’ve done (Europa Park), I find the seat and track shaping really janky, so I went into this one with low expectations. Mercifully it was actually really quite good. It was smooth with a decent airtime pop on the drop, and lacked some of the awkward jerkiness of Poseidon. Wouldn’t go back for another lap, but still respectable.

Hopped quickly on the family coaster as I was going by, but was then on to Juvelen.

This coaster has a great reputation, so I was looking forward to finally get on it. Was fairly impressed with the queue and station, and whilst the cars were a little awkward to board, they also left a very unique feeling of exposure. First launch was decent – punchier than I expected, and the following twists and turns were really enjoyable. We came into the second launch with a decent bit of speed, and man did this launch pick up from there! It was surprisingly forceful and immediately spat you into a great series of corners, hills and changes of direction. Plus, it had a really long layout. Really quality stuff.

Right next door is Thor’s Hammer – one of the older Gerst bobsleds. As I’ve said before (and most recently in my German trip report), I do think these models are some of Gerst’s best stuff. One of those ‘smiles all round’ type rides.

What felt like crossing the back of the park at this point, landed me at their newest coaster – T-Rex Family Coaster. Sadly not of the RMC variety, but a custom powered coaster with a long and quite different layout. By all accounts this was a good coaster, but I think it needed a bit more vegetation (hopefully something that will grow in) to really make it feel fleshed out. Better than the usual kiddie/family crap though, I suppose.

Nearly finished the lap at this point – the final major coaster being the invert, DrageKongen.

This coaster was a walk on, so grabbed two back-to-back laps swapping back to front rows. I assumed this was a fairly standard Intamin knock-off, so was taken by surprise when the train launched from the station. Following the nice little indoor section, you hit the lift hill and it’s all relatively familiar territory from there. I think this is the first of these Intamin ones I’ve done, and I will say that I do think it’s not got the flow and smoothness of the Vekoma versions. The slight damping in the chassis on the Vekomas makes a big difference, based on my rides.

After quickly knocking off the kiddie coaster next door, I then took a leisurely lap of the park getting rerides and taking some more photos. I really liked the vibe of Djurs, helped of course by the lovely weather, and felt very chilled just mooching around riding stuff as I went.

As well as more laps on Piraten and Juvelen, I also tried the log flume and rapids (both… alright) and rode their Gyroswing, Tigeren, which was running a great cycle and gave brilliant views.

I called it a day mid-afternoon having fully had my fill, and heading back into central Aarhus for a few beers and some downtime before calling it a day. Great start to the trip!

 

[witchfinder]

Wow, the weather was a lot nicer for you at Djurs than when we were there! I think we were at Farup that day and you did Farup the day we were at Djurs. So close!

 

[Hixee]

Wow, the weather was a lot nicer for you at Djurs than when we were there! I think we were at Farup that day and you did Farup the day we were at Djurs. So close!

Ha! I didn't realise! Must have passed on a motorway somewhere.

 

[Hixee]

Day 2 – The long day – Farup Sommerland & Tivoli Friheden

Wasn’t quite as sunny a start on the second morning, as you’ll see from the photos, but some heavy mist wasn’t going to stop me.

Really liked the park entrance at Farup Sommerland – you pay for your park ticket from the car, and there are no turnstyles or ticket checks after that point. Makes the whole part feel very open and relaxed. None of that park entrance faffery that comes with having the ticket booths and turnstyles all at the bottleneck.

I had roughly worked out that the park entrance sits in the middle of quite a wide park, and I decided to head left first towards the woodie.

Walk on first thing (and all day, to be fair), so took a front and back row lap. I wasn’t expecting a great deal from this coaster – the only thing of any note I’ve ever heard is just that it’s an S&S Woodie design by Schilke and built by Gerstlauer – and those preconceptions were right. It’s pleasant enough, but it’s quite unremarkable. It’s got a few decent hills and the helix is okay, and only one objectively bad moment (there’s a flat turn about half way through). Nice start to the day.

Right next door is Orkanen – their Vekoma SFC. It looks brilliant as you approach, with the dive under the water and big overbank.

It nocked the socks off DrageKongen from the day before – mostly because the trains were significantly better. A fantastic family coaster and really well presented.

After knocking off the kiddie coaster, I then headed back past the park entrance to the right hand side of the park. Made a beeline for Lynet next, wandering past the spinning coaster. Unfortunately, as I got to the entrance of Lynet it was very definitely closed. A ride-op outside said they were working on it, so I decided I’d come back later.

Headed back towards their Vekoma Family Boomerang, which looked great as it dances through some natural ditches. I don’t usually like these coasters very much (just generally not really a fan of the backwards sections), but this one was rather good.

Quickly ticked off the mine train and spinning coaster (both entirely standard), before heading round, finally, to the main event.

The coaster looks fantastic – the colours and setting work really well, and the flow of track is very pleasing too. I wandered into the station and was happily greeted by a lot of empty rows. I jumped straight on and within no time we were off. Top work by the crew running the ride very well given it was such a quiet day in the park.

As for the coaster itself – wow. The first drop was lovely with a great pop of floater all the way down. Followed by the brilliant stall-loop-thing which managed to balance the forces really well. From there there’s some strong airtime moments mixed in with some great twists and turns. It’s glass smooth, shaped perfectly, great length – loved it.

Over the course of the afternoon I racked up quite a few laps in the front and back, and I will say I think for me it was a back row ride. It is definitely better than Abyssus, which suffers from being too long with weak launches, and for me it was good enough to knock Ride To Happiness out of the Top 20. The repeatability of the quality was top notch.

Between rides on Fonix (sorry, Fønix), I did stroll around the rest of the park reriding a few bits and bobs as I went. Also stopped by Lynet again and the ride op then said they’d decided they wouldn’t be opening the coaster for the rest of the day. They couldn’t get it to run more than a few cycles before it threw up some error again, so they’d decided to stop trying and just focus on getting it fixed. I respected the honesty, at the very least.

By this point I was feeling satisfied by Farup, and thought it about time to make the drive back down to Aarhus and head into Tivoli for the evening. I don’t have any pictures of any of this worth sharing, but suffice to say Tivoli Friheden was not the coaster highlight of the trip. The day had turned into a lovely evening, so after ticking of the three ghastly coasters, I actually enjoyed the rest of the park a lot more. Wandering through the gardens, listening to the live music, enjoying the hustle and bustle, etc. It was really very nice.

I stayed for a couple of hours, then decided to walk back to the Airbnb for an early night – I was pooped!

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Also stopped by Lynet again and the ride op then said they’d decided they wouldn’t be opening the coaster for the rest of the day. They couldn’t get it to run more than a few cycles before it threw up some error again, so they’d decided to stop trying and just focus on getting it fixed. I respected the honesty, at the very least.

Wish more parks were like this. Lost count of the times I've just wanted a straight answer about a ride closure so that I can make an informed decision and get on with my day.

Also Fønix <3

 

[JoshC.]

It's nice to see that Djurs is pretty consistent; your experience sounds almost exactly like mine from a couple of months back. Juvelen is an absolutely jewel of a ride too.

I'm popping to Farup next month too, so good to hear that staff are very open and friendly - not that I'd expect any less from a Danish park!

Also, awesome pics as always!

 

[Hixee]

Day 3 – Tapping into the childhood – Legoland Billund

I woke up, checked out of my Airbnb and made the short drive to Billund. The rain was coming in waves on the drive – never anything too heavy, but definitely not something that was going to blow over. I opted for the waterproofed jacket and headed into the park.

Mercifully, being Legoland, there were lots of slow moving families at the park entrance so even at a leisurely pace I got ahead of the masses. I headed straight to the back of the park towards Polar X-plorer.

Not the most inspiring looking coaster, I have to admit. The weather probably didn’t help, but everything felt quite grey and flat and non-Lego. Queue wasn’t much better, but thankfully the coaster was a walk-on.

Gotta say – this coaster was a bit naff. The first half was okay, faster than I expected, but the drop track room was poorly themed, mostly just tons of visible machinery for the ride, and the final section of coaster was pretty lame. Not a massive fan.

Started making tracks back towards the front of the park, aiming for Dragen next. This is a smiles all round ride again. I loved the charm, the slightly goofy launch, the layout was fun and it was really quite fab.

I passed by the Wilde Maus and took a lap on that. It was fine, but relatively uninteresting, really.

Final coaster of the park then was Flying Eagle. This was closest to the front of the park, so by this point had collected the biggest queue so far (~ 30 minutes). They were running the coaster quite well though (for a one train, two lap, family coaster), and soon enough I was on board (helped a bit at the very end by an attentive ride-op asking for someone to fill an empty row allowing me to bypass a few big school/family groups.

At this point I was satisfied with the coasters, so pottered around the park riding a few odd attractions here and there. It was quite wet on-and-off, so was dodging showers a bit too – thankfully they kept everything running.

Log flume was okay for something so compact, rapids were alright with some good drops throughout and the big splashdown at the end, the ghost house was good but a very short cycle on the ride element, and they couldn’t keep the dark shooter open for more than about ten minutes without it going down, so I skipped that.

Was curious to try Ninjago, as I’d heard the name bandied around now and again, but I thought this was pants. The ride mechanic just simply didn’t work (for my ride vehicle, at least) and it all felt a bit chaotic. I was a bit disappointed really. Best part was the model outside the front of the ride, to be honest.

Finally, before leaving the park I spent a good bit of time (longer than I care to admit, probably) wandering around Miniland. It’s the best bit of the Lego parks in my opinion, and I really enjoyed it all. It’s very charming.

I left the park and drove on to my second Airbnb in Slagelse. The skies had really cleared by this point and it was a pleasant drive and nice evening in the end. After some dinner, I noticed the sunset was looking quite impressive, and had the idea to go back to the Storebælt Bridge. I’d driven across it [twice], and it’s a magnificent piece of engineering, and the sunset there was… well…

Stunning.

Sorry-not-sorry for the spam.

Some small local parks for the next day.

 

[Hixee]

Day 4 – Double whammy – Sjaelland Sommerland & Bonbon-Land

Had a super chilled start to the day, with not a huge drive to make and easy roads, and ended up arriving at Sjaelland Sommerland a little before they opened. Similar to Farup earlier in the trip, this is a park where you pay the entry and enter the ‘turnstyles’ by car. It was now that the weirdness began.

I drew a picture.

Step 1 [RED] = Queue up outside the ticket booths along the main entrance road.
Step 2 [BLUE] = Follow the instructions of an employee and loop round across a field and get parked up in a ‘staging’ queue (see pictures below).
Step 3 [GREEN] = Once all the cars from red are now queued up in blue, close the ticket booths and start directing cars into the main car park.
Step 4 [BLACK] = Enter the park.

Now – call me simple – but I can’t for the life of me fathom why the blue bit is included. It seems entirely gratuitous to me. They were so particular about us all lining up and pulling forwards in the blue bit too. Mystery.

Anyway, park entry faff dealt with, it was in. I was immediately struck by how open and varied this park was. There were huge paths, wide open spaces, lots of ‘help yourself’ type rides (trampolines, swings, interactive playground equipment, obstacle courses, etc), and overall quite a pleasant atmosphere.

Coasters here are not particularly notable, so in very quick succession had sorted out the two kiddie coasters.

Somewhat annoyingly they don’t open their biggest coaster until midday, so I had a few hours to pass in the park before I could make my way on. Thankfully the park itself was quite enjoyable and I took a relaxed walk around trying a few odds and ends as I went. The go karts were great fun, with a fully self-regulated process – grab a helmet, three laps each, over to you. Proper little petrol ones and all. They had a pretty interesting obstacle course at the back of the park which on inspection appeared to have some pretty tough obstacles – that or I’m getting old.

I kept wandering past the tiny, tiny coaster they have trying to scope out a suitable time to ride, but for the entire time I was in the park (which was only about two hours, to be fair) it was constantly mobbed by actual children. The cheek. By the time I came to leave I hadn’t had a suitable opportunity to get someone to pedal me up the lift hill – oh well.

Midday had drawn close and sure enough the coaster tested with ten minutes to go and without any delay I was on the first train of the day. It was exactly as you’d expect from one of these – janky.

Onwards.

Another relatively calm drive south now got me to BonBon-Land shortly after lunch. The forecast was not stellar later in the day, so I headed in determined to at least get all the coasters.

It’s fair to say this park is… weird. It very much feels like a bad trip gone wrong.

First up, was Hunderprutten – the “dog fart” coaster. Give me strength.

The park’s Eurofighter next. Wasn’t sure what to expect from this, but given that most Gerstlauers are turd I didn’t have high hopes. What a surprise! To be honest, the only thing I’d actually criticise this coaster for is it’s length. It had vibration to in the higher speed sections, but nothing remotely unpleasant for something this old. It had decent shaping, some good forces, I liked the turnaround thing – oh yeah! Where did Gerstlauer go wrong?!

It did need a clean, mind.

Next door was another Gerstlauer – some spinning thing. The ride-op was quite entertained that I’d ride on my own, giving me a hearty “good luck!” as the train left the station. To be fair I did get up one heck of a spin, and the layout for this coaster wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t something I care to write an awful lot more about.

Final coaster of the park was another bizarre one – their custom Tivoli. The station is highly elevated above the pathway – for no discernible reason – and the train is hilariously long. It has a really interesting first drop sequence too, with some genuinely sustained mild floater down the first drop. It then runs through a big trench in the middle of the lake, before mincing around over some grass in the bottom corner of the park. It was great, really!

Almost as if by divine intervention, the moment I got out the station for the Tivoli the heavens opened. The rain was pretty intense and persisted for a good 30 minutes or so. They kept cycling people on the two bigger coasters, but as far as I could work out they started to close almost everything else. Thankfully all the coasters were in the bag, so I chose to sit out the rain for a bit on the off-chance of a few more laps on the way out.

The rain passes, and I took a second quick lap on Vild-Svinet, and then give the two water rides a go before I left. I was already a bit damp, so why not? They were okay, but nothing hugely noteworthy. The log flume was a prime example of how awful this park’s aesthetic really is.

And that was that. I’d had enough of BonBon-Land and theme parking for the day, so jumped in the car back to the Airbnb for a quiet evening with some decent food and wine.

Last day – or so I thought – next.

 

[Hixee]

Day 5 – It had been too easy – Tivoli Gardens plus the disaster

The day started with another easy morning and cruise down the motorway back towards Copenhagen. I planned to get rid of the car early, and use the train to make my way back into the city – the faff with parking isn’t worth it in a city with such simple public transport. I arrived at the gates of Tivoli shortly before opening, and was with the early crowds making their way into the park.

I’d been to the park back in 2015, so this wasn’t going to be a particularly difficult day to get everything done before I needed to head back to the airport around 2pm. I made a beeline towards the two new (to me) coasters in the park – their custom powered coaster and some kiddie thing. Both were well themed, and the powered coaster had an extensive layout passing over the top of many different rides in the park. Very impressive, really.

The ‘main events’ in the park, mind, are the B&M and woodie. After finishing up the kiddie coaster, I went for a few walk-on laps on Deamonen. I actually quite like this coaster – yes, it’s not very big and doesn’t do a lot, but it’s very compact, quite unique and overall a very enjoyable coaster.

Next up, naturally, was Rutschebanen – the park’s ancient brakeman woodie. I had loved it back in 2015 when I last visited, and it and it was no different this time round. It’s still an absolute masterpiece. It’s smooth yet wild feeling, it’s not too intense yet has some serious pops of forces, and the overall ‘fun’ attitude of the ride crew really makes it such an enjoyable experience.

After a bite to eat, and a few more rides, it was time to say goodbye to Tivoli. It’s such a pleasant little park and such an enjoyable place to spend a few hours. Really, really, excellent.

I headed back towards the airport on the train. While flicking through emails and Twitter and the like I got the first inkling that something was going wrong with UK airspace. Initial notifications from Easyjet were spouting the usual stuff “continue to the airport as planned”. By the time I’d checked in and gone through security, there was a six hour delay posted to my flight back to Bristol. Ouch. Figured I’d grab some food and a beer and see how it played out.

Three hours later, same story. Same notifications from Easyjet (“continue to the airport as planned”), no update to the flight time. Had somewhere to charge my phone, so just carried on waiting it out.

Passing the two hours to go mark (now four hours into the delay), I took a[nother] walk round the extensive terminal in Copenhagen and on my way back to the seating area noticed the flight had gone from the departure board altogether. No update on the app, no update by email, nothing. Strange. I headed to the customer service point where the lady was able to look up some airport run database and informed me the flight had been cancelled. I was told my best bet was to leave the departures area and speak to a member of Easyjet staff at the check-in counters.

At this point the flight showed up as cancelled on the app, so I started making my way out of the departures area. On the way to the Easyjet desks I was struggling to get the app to show me anything other than an error message. Got to the check in area only to be told by a very fed up looking member of airport staff (not Easyjet) that there are no Easyjet staff in this airport and you’ll have to use the app or call the helpline. Dammit.

To cut a very, very long and somewhat stressful situation short – Easyjet’s best offer (only accessed by my family back in the UK as nothing in Copenhagen would work) was to return two days later. ****e. Okay, let’s do a quick look on Skyscanner – couple of options, nothing ideal – check against the Easyjet offer again, now four days later. Good lord. Messed around with a few other options, and eventually realised Easyjet was a no-go. Mercifully, I did then find a flight back the next day with SAS via Norway. I found a place to stay for the night, got the train back into Copenhagen and checked in.

By the end of the next day, nearly 30 hours late, I was back home. £500 lighter and a fair few grey hairs more.

Looking back it was a pretty difficult 24 hours. For some reasons I don’t particularly care to go in to in public related to a family bereavement, I could really have done with being on that original flight. Looking at the positives though – at least I did get home the next day (not four days later as Easyjet were saying), Easyjet have now given me the full amount I had to spend back in compensation, and I was travelling alone (I despair to think of some of the families with two small children who got shafted by this).

I spent the last 30 hours or so wishing I’d never bothered with this trip, and although I look back at the trip overall fondly and I hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures and my musings along the way, I can’t help but still feel the aftershocks of the waves of dread I was feeling when I realised I wasn’t going to be home that Monday night (again – personal reasons for this, in any other eventuality I’d have just rolled with it, but this time it was a bit different).

So there you have it…

Summary post next.

 

[Hixee]

Summary

New creds: 30
Total creds: 58
New parks: 6
Total parks: 7

Milestones: None this time.

Best Park: As an overall park, probably Farup Sommerland, but in terms of the day I had there, I’d give it Djurs Sommerland. I really enjoyed the place.

Best Cred: Fønix, by a good margin, though notable shoutout to Piraten and Rutschebanen.

And the route (as planned before the end!) – though note I didn’t take any ferries. Quirk of how I plot these with just straight lines!

Green = Transportation, Blue = Nights, Red = Parks

Cheers for reading and looking at the pictures. That's probably it from me this year now.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

I kept wandering past the tiny, tiny coaster they have trying to scope out a suitable time to ride, but for the entire time I was in the park (which was only about two hours, to be fair) it was constantly mobbed by actual children. The cheek. By the time I came to leave I hadn’t had a suitable opportunity to get someone to pedal me up the lift hill – oh well.

Do you reckon you would have gotten on it/was there anything to stop you? They've usually got a 40kg weight limit from what I've seen.
Also weird that they had two of those and the other has disappeared already.

Got to the check in area only to be told by a very fed up looking member of airport staff (not Easyjet) that there are no Easyjet staff in this airport and you’ll have to use the app or call the helpline. Dammit.

This is such a huge problem when things go wrong and the airline doesn't even have a presence at the airport and it's a horrible leap to take it on blind faith that they'll reimburse you after taking things into your own hands, I feel for you there.

Sorry to hear about the shambles and the family stuff. Looked like a very pleasant trip otherwise though, thanks for sharing!

 

[ECG]

So sorry to hear about your return trip troubles. Shame to ruin an otherwise great trip.

 

[Hixee]

Do you reckon you would have gotten on it/was there anything to stop you? They've usually got a 40kg weight limit from what I've seen.

I suspect nothing would have stopped me - god knows if the chain mechanism/bike gearing could have handled someone over double the usual capacity limit. There were no staff or signs anywhere around indicating the limit though, unlike the ones I saw in the parks around Berlin a few week prior that were all manned and signed.

I bumped in to someone else earlier in the trip who claimed to have ridden it aided by some boisterous teenagers who were willing to help.

This is such a huge problem when things go wrong and the airline doesn't even have a presence at the airport and it's a horrible leap to take it on blind faith that they'll reimburse you after taking things into your own hands, I feel for you there.

Yeah, it was pretty grim. As I said, really in the end I was just thankful it was only myself I had to deal with. No children, no elderly family, no medication, etc, etc.

So sorry to hear about your return trip troubles. Shame to ruin an otherwise great trip.

I do try to be positive about it overall, but yeah, that sour feeling at the end is always a shame!

 

[witchfinder]

Sorry to read about the end of your trip - very annoying. The rest of it sounded strangely familiar for the most part though, aside from a few differences of opinon on some of the creds. If we hadn't been writing some of it at the same time there might be some claims of plagiarism