I went to Tusenfryd just south of Oslo two weeks ago in order to try out their roller coasters, none of which I had ridden before. The day after I created the file for writing about my trip in Emacs, then promptly forgot to actually start writing it.

Like the time I went to Kolmården in order to ride Wildfire, I got up early on the Saturday in order to make it to the park around noon. The journey was not as long this time and was by train, so it was a much more comfortable experience.

Here is a short review of each (notable) coaster I rode:

Speed Monster

You don’t hear Norwegian-jokes nowadays. That is something I remember from my childhood. Basically template jokes like How do you recognize a Norwegian plane in a snowstorm? It has chains around the propellers or Why did the Norwegian put his dick in his ear? He wanted to listen to Kiss. (Sorry, that one doesn’t really make sense when translated.) My dad used to work a lot in Norway and once brought home a book of Swede-jokes. They were exactly the some ones but the nationality swapped. Anyways, good riddance to those kinds of jokes.

There is a roller coaster inversion called a Norwegian Loop which is basically a loop that is upside-down. The first time I heard about it it made me think it was the punchline to a Norwegian-joke. However, the reason for that name is because of this coaster which was the first one in the world to feature that kind of inversion. And it is located in Norway, to be clear.

I like a nice launch section and this one scratched that itch nicely. And to be honest, that is as far as it goes for this coaster. The Norwegian loop is nice and all, but it kind of loses its spirit after that. It does a long turn to wrap back (this part is nice, with all the trees surrounding you as you descend along the hillside), then it does these little awkward banked hops to fill the time as you make it back to the station.

Lichen are a sign of a healthy ecosystem.

It opened in 2006 and I think it shows its age. Or rather sounds its age. Take a moment to watch the video above and bask in the wonderful soundscape of the upstop wheels’ rubbery squeaks as they engage during the low-g sections. I took some off-ride video footage of it from the top of the escalator (situated in the middle of the Norwegian loop) and the squeaks can be heard from afar.

Loopen

I felt some apprehension about seating myself far back in the train on this 80’s Vekoma, expecting a rough ride. Going through the loop in particular. I must say, I did not think the loop was too bad, it was more the laterals as you are being accelerated into the turns that made it kind of uncomfortable. The shoulder restraints are not very forgiving to tall people also.

All in all, not too bad but not something I would ride again unless someone wanted me to accompany them on it.

Storm

This one I was the most excited about. I had seen videos of it around the time it opened and it was what alerted me to the fact that there is a large-ish theme park not too far away from here, just in another country.

Storm was a fun ride! The first forward acceleration feels surprisingly strong, the backwards acceleration kicks in a bit late when you are not expecting it. The ones seated towards the back of the train are treated to being held upside-down for quite a while as the train stalls and rolls back into the station for the final push into the layout.

The layout itself is basically just dive-loop inversions with a little airtime hill in the middle. I managed to get a front seat ride and the transition into the first inversion was pretty dang intense. I recall seeing videos where you are treated to two laps, however they just seem to run it in one-lap-mode these days.

This was the only roller coaster I rode multiple times this day (my time in the park was very limited and I was not keen on spending much of that time retreading the same paths and hills to re-ride stuff).

While the dragon theme on the coaster is nice, the theming and scenery around the track was very barren. Just bringing in some tall trees closer to the track would help make it a more exciting experience I think.

Thunder Coaster

(Warning: The video below rapidly cuts to loud music shortly after the train has reached the brake run)

You see bits and pieces of the track between the trees from everywhere in the park. You can tell that what you can see it a small part of a big, ambitious layout. But most of all, you can hear it.

My first thought after the train had arrived at the brake run: WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT.

This coaster felt like an assault already from the lift hill with its hearing damage inducing anti-rollback. The rest of the ride felt just as loud save for the sudden tunnel section where all the sound is reflected back at you. I rode the entire thing with my fingers in my ears.

I have read impressions of it dating back to when it was new, all stating that it is an all-time great wooden roller coaster. I felt nothing similar. I just sat there being jostled around by the rough track waiting for it to be over. Probably another coaster in this park showing its age?

The park itself

Tusenfryd is pretty, nestled on the big hill with all the surrounding trees. It is also pretty run-down. If this was Roller Coaster Tycoon and you were looking at a history of my thoughts shortly after I had arrived at the park you would read something to the tune of:

• Where on earth are the bathrooms.

• The lock on this bathroom stall needs repairing.

• There is a staggering amount of trash below the elevated queue-line to Speed Demon.

The newer section of the park, the creatively-named Dragon Ville, is in a better shape. However, the 45 minutes it took for my vegetarian hamburger order damped my impression of the area a fair bit. Due to the way my train home was scheduled I had a pretty limited amount of time to spend. Standing around, waiting for food, being painfully aware of the time I had left to collect any unclaimed coaster credits was not fun. Burger was good though.

Overall, I’m glad I went there but it feels unlikely I will go back as there was nothing that stood out hugely. I also got my 50th credit from riding the Vekoma kiddy coaster, go me!