Intruduction
I just got home from my third trip with the European Coaster Club. My previous two trips have taken me to various parks in Austria and Tivoli in Copenhagen. This time around, we went to Finland with the mission of riding every single operating coaster in the country. Did I complete the mission? Pretend you did not see the title of this post and read on to find out!
Day 0: Helsinki
The tour included an extra hotel night in Helsinki the day before we depart, allowing us to arrive on the Saturday whenever it suits us. One of the participants offered us a tour of the Oodi central library of Helsinki, where he works.
I was particularly impressed by the second floor with the various workshops, letting anyone with a library card get access to a multitude of things like 3D-printers, sewing machines, musical instruments and recording studios.
After the tour, I made the way by tram to the Kaivopuisto park, where the pride festival was held. It is a really big thing in Helsinki it turns out.
I met up with a friend from the Demoscene there before I headed back to the hotel.
Day 1: Särkenniemi
The bus on which we will spend a significant amount of time on arrived to take us to Tampere and our first park, Särkenniemi.
We were let into the park before the official opening time in order for us to get an Exclusive Ride Session (ERS) to the newly opened Vekoma Family Coaster, Konect. After the ERS, we spent the rest of the day exploring the rest of the park.
The first thing I rode after Konect is Hype, a Premier Rides Sky Rocket.
I did not like it as the restraints seemed to be designed to put all pressure on your shins, not particularly fun as you travel through the slow twist at the top. What did not help was the fact that it started raining heavily at the same time our ride cycle also started. Since the ride involves being launched straight upwards, we got completely soaked.
The rain stopped shortly after we had left the ride. The ECC members riding the cycle after ours were spared and had not even noticed the rain while waiting in the indoor queue. It made for a fun anecdote if nothing else.
Rides of note
Konect
A weird feeling came over me as I sat in the second last car of the train during its voyage up the lift hill. Here I was, finally riding a roller coaster as part of an ECC trip again. I’d been waiting for this ever since the trip was announced late last year. And there I was, part of the first cohort to ride this newly built coaster during this ERS!
It made me forget that the coaster’s first drop was coming up, and the pop of airtime I got from sitting so far back in the train took me by surprise as a result.
Konect is a nice coaster. Lots of little small bounces and tight maneuvers. It even has a soundtrack playing on the train’s built-in speakers, but to be honest, I’ve never really felt that an on-ride soundtrack adds much as it always gets drowned out by the rush of the wind. They do try to have a consistent theme of nostalgia/time travel with the coaster, but the theme is not really present during the ride itself so it kind of falls flat. Still, a great addition to the park and a superb replacement for the Volare that used to be there.
(Good riddance.)
Tornado
A rare Intamin Suspended coaster. The subterranean station with its natural rock walls and lift hill taking you back above ground, surrounded by trees, is super cool. A loop, cobra loop and then you travel through the first loop! This gives a stat-boost to the excitement rating, as any RTC player knows. It then performs this uncomfortably slow roll over the station, followed by a helix and yet another slow roll.
It does have some stylish moments but it was just a bit too rough for my tastes.
Day 2: PowerPark
We arrived at PowerPark outside of Kauhava. Our plan was to have an ERS on the Gerstlauer Infinity coaster, Junker, but due to it being struck by lightning the day before, it was not running that morning.
To make up for it, we instead had an ERS on Pitts Special, also a Gerstlauer Infinity coaster. Why change a winning concept, right? Also, why change the color scheme and train design?
While we were queuing during the ERS, we did see an empty train being launched on Junker, which gave us hope that they would be able to repair the ride during the day.
We were then given a tour of the Pitts Special workshop and got to walk around the track area.
One of many photos I took of the wheel carriages to use as reference for my work on accurately modeling roller coasters in Blender.
After the ERS, we spent the day riding the rest of the coasters and other rides the park has to offer, all while paying close attention to the whatsapp group for any news on Junker reopening. We eventually received the sad news that the coaster needed a replacement part that could only be ordered from Gerstlauer. Thus, our mission to ride every coaster in Finland was a failure. Unfortunate, but there is little to be done about the weather.
Personally, I was not sad about getting every single credit Finland had to offer, but I was bummed out about not getting to ride one of the signature rides of the trip. The video of it is worth a watch to see what I missed out on.
PowerPark also features this:
I’m not sure what they were going for but there you go.
Rides of note
Pitts special
The vertical lift hill is cool, the very steep first drop is cool, the spiraling ascent followed by the spiraling descent, all cool. And then it sort of runs out of ideas of what to do with the remaining kinetic energy it still has. Sure, the airtime hills are fun but it sort of feels like it is filling time to make it back to the station.
It is a serious ride and a great addition to the park, but it gets overshadowed by the more ambitious Junker. I was also told by ECC members more familiar with Gerstlauer that it was particularly smooth for being a Gerstlauer. So there’s always that.
Thunderbird
This one starts out fast and then it just stays fast. Lots of small airtime hills close to the ground to ensure they are taken while the train is moving fast. Then it follows its initial footprint for another lap.
I found that riding front or back did not add much in terms of additional airtime so my preference was actually to ride in the center of the train so that your speed more naturally follows the height of the track and you don’t get those push/pull effects that you otherwise get while cresting the hills riding way front or back of the train.
It sure is slow after the brake run though!
Day 3: Vauhtipuisto & Suomen Tivoli
Day 3 began and we made our way to Oulu, where the fixed park Vauhtipuisto is located and not short from there, the location where the traveling fair Suomen Tivoli had been set up at the time.
We started out at Vauhtipuisto and began queuing for Mato Mainio, one of many SBF Big Apple / Wacky Worm coasters in the world. My first time going on one of those.
We then made or way to Herra Lohikäärme (Mr. Dragon (or Mr. Salmon-Snake if you are doing a literal translation)).
I got a seat in the front car. As was a common theme of this trip, I did not have particularly much in the way of legroom, but I managed to wrangle my legs into a position where the lap bar could be closed.
I was not prepared for the sudden turn right after the hill and ended up banging my knee against the fiberglass resulting in a bruise and a scrape. The dragon bit me, but crucially, the dragon let me live.
After sightseeing on the Oulu beach and having lunch, we made our way to Suomen Tivoli where they had a Pinfari roller coaster by the name of Roller Coaster. It was quite smooth for a traveling coaster, a pleasant surprise for sure.
They also had another Wacky Worm. Yay.
Rides of note
Gravitron
A message in the tour chat group stated that the fair had a classic Gravitron running. I’ve never ridden one before.
You enter the disc, lean back against the inclined wall and then it starts spinning, pinning you to the wall from the centripetal force. Gravitron answers the question of what life would be like if Earth’s gravity were 3 times stronger: We would spend a lot of time lying on the ground, barely able to move our limbs, all while struggling to breathe properly. I rode it twice.
Day 4: Santa Claus Village & Ruka Ski Resort
We stayed at the Santa Claus hotel in Rovaniemi and then went on a short bus ride to Santa Claus Village.
There isn’t much to write about it so I’ll just make a bulleted list:
- Santa charges €40 for a photo with him.
- You are spoiled for choice when it comes to souvenir shops, selling such things as Moomin-branded everythings and puzzles with AI-generated Christmas motifs.
- There is a surprising amount of bathroom stall graffiti in the Santa Claus Visitor’s center men’s room.
- The official Santa Lore includes Santa owning huskies:
It is a tourist trap and you should feel fine skipping it.
We then made it to Ruka Ski Resort, home of an alpine coaster. I rode an alpine coaster for the first time last year during the ECC Austria trip, however it was a single-rail coaster that was pretty rough. The other alpine coaster, the double-rail one, we were unable to get to due to the bus not being able to drive on the narrow roads leading to it. So this was an opportunity to ride that style of alpine coaster for the first time, nice!
Ruka also featured a zip-line, which I skipped due to being warned about the slow queue, a toboggan ride and a mountain cart track. A total 5 ECC members fell off the toboggan ride when they rode it. I was not one of them thanks to me riding it like I was fearing for my life. The mountain carts were super fun.
Rides of note
Ruka Coaster
I finally got to try a double-rail alpine coaster. A bit on the shorter side maybe and it did a pretty good job of braking by itself so riding it without applying any brakes was not that big of a deal, much unlike Fisser Flitzer from last year’s trip. It was however hard to ride on the helix without thinking how much faith you are putting in the cart’s upstop wheels to keep you from a big fall to the ski slopes far below.
Mountain carts
“I ride my bike daily on what the average Swedish traffic planner considers acceptable bike infrastructure. How bad could a gravel path with car tire chicanes thrown in every now and then be in comparison?” I thought to myself before gunning it down the hill. Would I be punished for my hubris? Nope. Would I have a good time? Yes.
You ride one of these trikes down the hill. You have one brake for each rear wheel, so you can lock one up and sort of drift-steer your way downhill. I loved it.
Day 5: Nokkakivi, Tykkimäki
The toughest day with a total of 8 hours of planned bus travel began. First stop was Nokkakivi, a small park with a collection of flat rides and an Interpark Cyclon coaster (which began its operating life at Freizeitpark Familienland, which we visited last year!).
We then make our way to Tykkimäki which also features a single coaster, the newly built Pohjolan Express. The coaster was not rough, but I did not find it to be as smooth one would expect such a newly built and gentle coaster to be.
Tykkimäki was a nice park with some fun rides. The Star Flyer gave some nice views of the beautiful Finnish landscape surrounding the park.
Rides of note
Kummitsujuna / Spook Train
We were asked to spread out and not order lunch at Nokkakivi all at the same time in order not to overwhelm their kitchen. I had my lunch early. While eating my seventh hamburger of the trip, a message appeared in the group chat:
Guys, if you want the Snow White dwarfs ruined for you for life, do the dark ride
Intrigued, I made my way there after finishing my meal.
Content warning: A lot of gory imagery and an animatronic so notable it made the news1. Twice2.
You could tell they had fun with it when they built the ride, shoving whatever scary prop they could find in there.
Day 6: Linnanmäki
The final day dawned, a day I was very excited for. We were going to visit the biggest park of the trip, Linnanmäki, a visit that included a guided tour and ERS of the scenic railway Vuistorata, and an ERS of the very highly regarded Intamin launched coaster Taiga.
I was assigned to the group that would visit Vuistorata for the first hour before swapping with the second group to visit Taiga.
The underside of one of the trains parked in the depot.
The engine powering the coaster’s lift hill.
I asked the brakeman what the different buttons did. They enable certain brake systems that are in place as an addition to the ride brakes controlled by the lever as a safety measure. They also have a horn!
The purpose of the horn is to warn the other brakemen if the train valleys (when it fails to clear an uphill section and gets stuck on the track).
We then had our final ERS on Taiga followed by a visit to its workshop and track area, which is otherwise inaccessible to the visiting public.
The park then opened to the public and we spent the rest of the day riding the other rides and collecting the final coaster credits of the trip, including Ukko, a Maurer Rides SkyLoop.
I did not like it. I think there were few of us who did.
Finally, a little detail of Pilotti, a kiddie coaster that sparked some discussions on whether it actually counted as a coaster.
I counted it as one.
Rides of note
Vuistorata
A wooden rollercoaster with a brakeman riding every train to regulate the speed to keep the train from flying off the track. The first thing I noticed was that it was very smooth. My other point of comparison, Rutschebanen at Tivoli is a much rougher experience. However, the roughness and general joie de vivre of Rutschebanen is what makes me regard it as the more enjoyable one of the two. Still, Vuistorata is fun, a classic and it is big.
Taiga
This is my new favorite coaster of all time, beating Wildfire at Kolmården. I recommend looking at the video above because it features so many different… features that are hard to convey in writing. It is really fast paced throughout while still letting each element stand on its own. You are only restrained by the big lap-block over your thighs so you are frequently struggling to keep your upper body upright and within the train during the quick banks and twists.
I estimate riding it 15 times. I called it quits when my shouts of excitements were replaced with groaning from the pain in my thighs caused by the restraints during all the airtime moments the ride offers.
Plus the train design is so cool.
Summary
I arrive home, happy and tired, a substantial amount of bus travel now safely behind me.
The trip description did warn about it being quite a tough one, with a lot of early starts, late hotel arrivals and significant amount of time spent traveling between parks. It was all made tougher by the seats not providing enough legroom for someone shaped the way I am. The bruise from Mr. Dragon on my knee kept reminding me of itself every time I bumped it against the seat in front of me. All in all, the discomfort left me bit extra exhausted each day. I am not the most talkative person even on a good day, and the lack of energy from the travel meant that I did not socialize as much as I wished I had. At least I did not come down with a cold mid-trip like last year!
Coming up in August is another ECC trip, this one going to Poland. Super looking forward to that one too!
To all ECC members who are also going to Poland - I’ll see you there. To everyone else - I’ll see you on a roller coaster somewhere, some other time. Looking forward to meeting you all again!
rykarn