Helix (4 times)
Such a great coaster this is. Was early to queue to enter the park and went straight to it in order to get a front row seat.
A bunch of cool inversions. Really smooth throughout. Every element is given some breathing room to stand on its own.
The roll at the end feels a bit tacked-on and is something I could do without when riding it at the end of the day when my shoulders and thighs are bruised up by all the prior rides.
Long queue times, so make use of the virtual queue app thing during the day and just accept that you likely will not get to ride it that many times unless you visit on a day with less crowding.
Valkyria (9 times)
It was a period during the mid day where the single rider queue was basically empty. So I could just ride it over and over. You don’t get to choose which car to go in (and it does not make that much difference), and you always end up on the rightmost seat (which might have a bigger impact (?)) but it’s no big deal.
Fun, but if it is something you queue like 30 min or more for you always end up asking yourself if it was worth the wait. Again with the tacked-on roll at the end.
Balder (3 times)
First drop is fun as hell. It never seems to stop getting steeper. Also every hill is designed to go hard, even towards the end you are served airtime after airtime.
Kind of rough, and always scary to ride as a tall person (I always instinctively tilt my head sideways away from the wooden boards during the banked turns).
Lisebergbanan (1 time)
Classic. It is just so good the way it hugs the terrain. Very scenic. Kind of rattly and rough compared to the newer coasters. No visit to Liseberg is complete without at least one ride on it.
Kraftverket (2 times)
New for this year. It had a bunch of technical issues where they could not get it to start. Something about the restraints not cooperating. Throughput on this one will be abysmal unless they solve all the teething issues.
Had a huge scare as I got into the gondola and found that I had to contort my legs (again, I am tall), to be able to get the restraint down. This resulting in me being restrained in a way that I immediately felt would cause my hip to cramp up. Luckily I was able to finagle my legs into a reasonable position that did not hurt that badly. Good thing, because dang, this is a really intense ride.
The gondola felt like it had a tendency to get stuck in a cycle where it would not align itself in a way that would cause it to generate spin, but the times it would happen was fun as hell. When it finally slows down it really feels like a good time to stop because you are so exhausted.
Not the best video, but it captures the chaotic nature of it and how intensely it can spin when it manages to.
Why log this?
I’m getting ready for my first European Coaster Club trip coming up next week! I’ve already received a couple of issues of their First Drop magazine, which at the beginning features members celebrating milestones in number of unique coasters ridden (they do it every 100 coasters, the highest number I’ve seen so far is 2800!). So keeping track of what you’ve ridden seems key. Though it will be a while until I reach any milestones with my modest 12 coasters that I can recall ever riding.