August 14, 2024 at 1:03 PM This is the first in a series of posts detailing our recent road trip through Central Europe. To give a little background, the main purpose of this trip was to pick up a new car that we arranged through Volvo's international delivery program. We did a similar trip in December 2011, but because it was winter, we only went from Gothenburg, Sweden to Copenhagen, Denmark and back (including a visit to Tivoli Gardens). Our son wasn't even two years old on our last trip, so he didn't accompany my wife and I at the time, but now that he's 14, he was heavily involved in planning this trip. We also built in plenty of time into the itinerary to drive through five countries and visit some of Europe's most popular theme parks.
Volvo's European distribution center is in Gothenburg, Sweden, so our trip started there and the first theme park we visited was Liseberg. Like Tivoli and smaller theme parks in Europe, Liseberg is located near the city center and is run like an urban park. There is a small admission fee to Liseberg and you can enjoy the beauty of the park, the restaurants and the entertainment, but you will need to purchase a wristband (or individual tickets) for an additional fee to access the rides and attractions.
The theme park first opened in 1923, but over the past two decades it has added numerous eye-catching attractions and thrilling rides to rival some of the largest and most popular theme parks in Europe.
One of the unique things about Liseberg Park is the layout of the park, with the main walkway dividing it in two, with a flat area on the east side and a large hill on the west side. Because the west side of the park is hilly, the designers installed a series of escalators to allow guests easy access to the rides and attractions at the top of the hill. It's a very similar setup to Universal Studios Hollywood, but instead of a seemingly endless flight of stairs parallel to the escalators, there are several winding walkways that crisscross the side of the hill (and are wheelchair accessible). However, the escalators are by far the quickest and most efficient way to get to the rides at the top of the hill. There are also plenty of historical photos and explanations of the park along the walkway, giving you something to see during the 2-3 minute journey to the top.
At the top of the hill is the park's number one attraction, Helix. This Mack multi-launch coaster opened in 2014, but it was definitely ahead of its time and has a better layout than many of the other launch coasters I've ridden in the US. The ride starts off with a slow corkscrew right out of the station (like another Mack creation, Carowinds' Copperhead Strike, which opened in 2019), then kicks into gear with an LSM launch and a high-speed corkscrew. Next up is a “Norwegian Roll” that inverts twice, followed by a zero-G roll. After the second LSM launch, the train goes through an internal top hat element and ends with a slow corkscrew. The best thing about Helix is that the track uses the terrain at the top of the hill to snake around so many times that you never know which way is up, as you go over, over, over and over again. Helix is a great coaster, and it's this coaster alone that has brought Liseberg to the attention of coaster enthusiasts.
But Liseberg has other coasters that are worthy of top-tier status. Valkyria is a Nordic-themed dive ride from B&M. The station is designed to look like a wooden church, and the coaster's 164-foot drop goes through an underground tunnel. Valkyria's first drop is great, but the most dynamic and unique is the final corkscrew, which glides over the city's main canal. While it's not the best of B&M's dive rides, it has a good layout and a great combination of inversions (Immerman, Zero G Roll, and the aforementioned corkscrew). The only downside to Valkyria, the only major attraction we encountered during our trip, required guests to put all their bags (including waist packs) in paid lockers. Locker fees were reasonable at about $0.50 for 2 hours of storage, but it would have been pretty frustrating to visit Liseberg at the end of our trip after visiting several other parks where we found ways to store our bags and clutter without relying on paid lockers.
Next to Valkyria is another Nordic-themed coaster, Baldar. El Toro is my favorite wooden coaster, so I was pretty excited about this Intamin wooden coaster. I was hoping for a similar experience with Baldar, but as they say, “size matters” and Baldar's smaller 118-foot hill (compared to El Toro's 181 feet) makes a big difference. The ride in the back row of Baldar is definitely more intense, but nowhere near the intensity of El Toro. If you like a more subdued version of El Toro, Baldar will do the trick, but Liseberg's wooden coaster was a bit of a disappointment for me.
Liseberg's newest coaster follows a recent trend of parks adding more family-friendly coasters. Luna is Vekoma's family boomerang with a Victorian-era stargazing-themed station. The ride starts by pulling the train backwards up an incline, then releases the train to go through the station, around a few curves, then climbs spikes and reverses course back to the station. As a family coaster it's fine, but for me it's a one-and-done ride, with a lot of these kind of coasters currently being built in the US, like Good Gravy and Snoopy's Soapbox Racers.
The other big roller coaster is Lisebergvanen, the park's oldest, which opened in 1987. This steel coaster looks like a runaway mine train, but it takes some serious G-forces as it hurtles through three fiery loops on the side of the park's hills. I was pretty surprised that Lisebergvanen was so good, despite having no inversions. It was designed by Schwarzkopf, so I guess that's not all that surprising, but considering that it has a locomotive-themed junk car at the front of the train and is marketed as a family coaster, the experience was like a supercharged version of Big Thunder Mountain, minus the Wild West theme.
Since we only had one day at the park, we skipped out on the smaller kiddie coasters and flat rides found in other parks like the Roke (a spinning pendulum), Hangi (a disc-o) and Jukebox (a classic car themed scrambler).
And the Uppswinget (Screamin' Swing, but at the end of the hill). We also didn't ride the Kallerado (raft ride) because we didn't want to get soaked, but we did ride the park's Flume Ride, which, while not very themed, was a fun ride that made use of the park's terrain and ended with a double drop.
Other notable attractions we experienced were:
Aerospin – A rotating flat ride similar to Shell Shock from Nickelodeon Universe (also featured on Isle of Berk in Universal Epic Universe), but due to its design having only one vertical tower, the ride could not be turned completely upside down.
AtmosFear is the tallest Intamin drop tower in the world at 300 feet (slightly shorter than Falcon's Fury) and is located at the very top of the park's hill (near Helix) to emphasize the height of the ride. This was a really nice drop tower with some great views of Gothenburg and a decent industrial theme, but at the end of the day, it's just a big drop ride.
Crystal Salon – This was a classic mirror maze like you’d find at a carnival or seaside amusement park and was a fun change of pace.
Turbo – A standard Zamperla rotating flat ride, but one unlike anything we’ve seen before, with a motorcycle and sidecar-themed seat that rises and falls when you turn the handlebars.
Underlanded – A dark ride for children that visits rabbits in their underground burrow, complete with an elevator showroom similar to Gringotts. The ride itself is very cute, packed with clever effects and animatronics. The surrounding areas of the attraction are also themed, with character appearances, small flat rides and fun climbing structures and play areas for children.
Spockhotellet Gasten – A year-round haunted maze that opens in the late afternoon and is not recommended for small children. This is a really well-made haunted house attraction with many special effects like those found in the HHN maze, but has a very low capacity due to the way it is operated. Crew members direct groups of 8-10 guests and they have to walk through the maze as a group (literally in a conga line). There were at least 5 actors in this attraction, some of whom had double roles on corners and switchbacks. There are also a lot of live effects, which is always appreciated in a haunted house attraction. After opening, this attraction was notorious for having the longest wait times in the entire park, with guests seen lining up at least 30 minutes before the scheduled opening time.
Speaking of queues and crowds, Liseberg was pretty busy the day we visited, probably because the weather was so nice (though I think the day before we arrived it was cool and rainy). During the day, many of the popular attractions (Helix, Valkyrie, Luna) had wait times of over 30 minutes. However, the park has a virtual queue system through its app that allows you to skip some of the lines. The virtual queue system is very easy to use, and since the park identifies guests with wristbands that allow unlimited access to the rides, each guest in your group can reserve a place in the virtual queue for everyone in the group. We were able to queue in up to three virtual queues at a time, but as the day went on, the spots for Helix, Valkyrie, and Balder stopped appearing, and even when they did appear, they were already reserved by other guests by the time we clicked on the app. Wi-Fi was a bit spotty in some areas of the park, so if you don't have a European SIM card, it may be difficult to access the virtual queue system outside the main walkway.
Another thing I noticed about Liseberg that was different from other theme parks I had been to was the number of games. There were at least two dozen or more game locations where guests could play the “Wheel of Fortune.” The prizes for all of these games were giant boxes (or bags) filled with candy, chocolate, and snacks. Guests who won the games were walking posters for the games because they wanted to walk around with these giant branded boxes and try their luck at winning. By late afternoon, I saw hundreds of guests walking around with their prizes. So you can imagine how much revenue these games generate in a day (I estimate a 5% win rate of $3). Zach played a few times but had no luck, and I saw many spins of the wheel where no one hit the winning number. So I wouldn't be surprised if the park generates as much revenue from these games as it does from ride tickets and wristbands. I expected to see more of these wheels in other parks on this trip, but Liseberg was the only one I could see.
Overall I was pretty impressed with Liseberg. It has a good collection of coasters and other attractions, and is well themed. Helix is an excellent launch coaster and Valkyria is a very good dive machine with a great theme. Liseberg was a fun day out, and while it pales in comparison to the other theme parks we visited on this trip, I think it's far better than some of the traditional Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks in the US. If you're traveling to Scandinavia, Gothenburg has a theme park worth visiting.
Next up: Legoland Billund
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