Djurs Sommerland Wednesday 13th July

[Gazza]

Djurs Sommerland Wednesday 13th July

https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/djurs-sommerland

Next park and perhaps one of my most anticipated was Djurs Sommerland, which is located about 45 minutes from Aarahus, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

 

For a laugh on the drive to the park I stopped off at the Graceland replica called "Memphis Mansion" someone built in the town of Randers.

The park I felt was similar to Europa Park with its very wide variety of activities, but seeming avoidance of having any rides with inversions (Which Europa Park only addressed with the addition of Blue Fire)

 

It’s definitely a solid traditional theme park, with distinctive themed lands (Albeit pretty conventional and sometimes stereotypical: Wild West, Pirates, Farmyard, Dinosaurs, Vikings etc), nice theming and immaculate upkeep. There are also a ridiculous number of playgrounds, and i know if i was a kid that would be the best thing ever because a couple of them were huge and had large spiralling slides, so nice to know the kids have plenty to do that doesn’t involve queuing.

 

And of course Homer Simpson trampoline world USA:

 

The park was busy but the lines moved well, with waits never above 30 minutes. Like Farup, the staff were friendly, efficient and not stressed and quite good with kids (Eg particularly at Piraten where they were using foam swords to get people to do up their seatbelts) So i got plenty of rides on everything I wanted to.

 

 

Drage Kongen x3
Started off with this and it was a pleasant surprise. Heard it shakes a bit, but in reality less so than say Big Dipper or DC Rivals. It looks gorgeous built into the landscape, with great near misses with the landscaping. It also has quite an ‘unpredictable’ layout. You cant really see it in one go like you can for Orkanen, and it alternates between high up parts and down low turns, randomly goes behind the main building, has random sharp turns, its excellent.

I heard the ride had a ‘fast start’ and I thought it was just some quick friction wheels out of the station, but spoiler, it launches like motocoaster into an actual indoor section with a drop and helix in the dark, which totally surprised me.

 

Jungle Rally
Small model Zierer kiddy coaster with a basic oval layout, but again good effort into the theming.

 

T-Rex Family Coaster
This ride was built during covid and just sat there until this year. The whole Dinosaurland sorta works, it’s like a rusty weathered version of Jurassic park with “Dino Inc” plastered everywhere like you’d see “Ingen” everywhere in a Jurassic Park themed zone. A lot of the signage had an “Engrish” vibe to it, which is unusual since Danes are usually spot on with English.
But IDK it felt weird, like you had fossil digs and skeletons right next to live dino animatronics. Is it like a purgatory where Dinos and Humans live together.
The ride decent if not ground shattering, with a lively pace through some helixes. It had onboard audio but it was kind of just there, with some music and researchers yabbering on the radio, it wasn’t full on synced to the ride.

Dino Xpedition
This had no queue at this point and was right next door so I did it thinking it would just get some better pics of T-Rex Family Coaster, (which is somewhat set back) actually turned out to be quite a lengthy car ride with some fun special effects, and even a random dark ride section with King Kong (Maybe they got a discount package of animatronics 2nd hand and built the zone based around that?)

The queue was nicely themed, again a bit stereotypically as a dino research lab.

 

 

Thors Hammer x2
One of those Gerstlauer Bobsleds, and a clone of the original at Tripsdrill. Short description its like a wild mouse with some banked turns and helices. They are fine as a middle of the road attraction, but I've concluded on the whole they are really not that much more thrilling than a roller skater. What I did love is the theming, the station had a full on Viking feast scene, a yak being milked, runestones. Great stuff.

 

Juvelen x3
Awesome ride. You take the pacing of Jet Rescue and increase the speed and length of the ride and you get this. It just powers through the course and feels relentless, with the 2nd launch maintaining the pace. There are some great details too, like the odd crashed ATV along the track, and some near misses with tree stumps on the inside of the banked turns, so it feels like you are going to bump your head. 

The queue line theming is nice too, obviously inspired by Indiana jones, with lots of nice stonework and tree roots running through the ceiling.

 

Piraten x5
The ride everyone talks about. Piraten is a mini version of a hypercoaster from Intamin. If you replaced the launch and top hat of Superman with a lift hill, and then tacked on the last bit of DC Rivals, this is what you get in terms of pacing and level of airtime. 
I’ve ridden Kawasemi back in 2019 so my thoughts are still the same (Though I got better rides on this in the summer heat verus the Japanese winter) Its a great ride loaded with airtime, but it’s definitely a product of its time. Back in the day Thoosies would consistently rate the intamin “Airtime Machines” at the top of the rankings (EGF, Toro, SROS etc). But then the likes of RMC came along and re-wrote the book in terms of what a wild intense ride could be, so Piraten is still good, but no longer best of the best.
The highlight of the ride was those two twisted airtime hills after the 2nd turnaround where it becomes a bit unhinged.

 

 

Skatteoen
Skat Owen? No, it's a Storm Coaster clone (Or rather, Storm cloned this) so you all know what to expect. This one has lovely theming, with rockwork and pirate forts, and a boardwalk that edges around the base of the ride and over some bridges to the station. The pre lift flume section had a kraken animatronic with several moving limbs.
Not really much of a narrative, just pirate related stuff that looks nice.
Of course, one of the best features is that bystanders get full view of the splashdown, so non-riders get more of an appreciation of the water coaster gimmick.

 

 

 

Sablen
Had to do this because its a new ride type to me. Its a larger version of a frog hopper but the whole tower tilts. Frustratingly i got the middle seat so really the least possible amount of movement, so perhaps that means im  rating it lower than it should, but the sensation is more like “oh, its tilting”, and not “woah this is unstable, better hang on”. It doesn’t generate enough of a lurching sensation IMO

 

At that point i stopped for lunch at the Pirate food market. The park is well priced, I had a nice chicken salad, drink, and a side serve of onion rings and jalapeno poppers and i think it came to $17 and all came served on crockery.

Vilde Honsejagt
Unbelievable the number of Zierer family coasters the rest of the world has but none in Aus. This was a medium sized one, with a cute chicken theme, and a train themed like egg crates, with a fox hunting a chicken at the front.

Milk Shakeren
Following the theme of doing rides that were new to me. This Zamperla Barnyard ride lifts up and tilts. When I got on i realised its really just a variant on a wave swinger or all those other rides that tilt and spin. The outward facing seating position makes it a little more stomach churning. Visually it looks great.

 

Tigeren
Totally did not expect to like this as much as I did. This is a larger version of a Gyro swing, with lap bars like Goliath at AW. The last time I did a Gyro Swing i felt a bit off colour afterwards, but this was something else. I think the sheer size means the swings are more sustained, and the airtime more drawn out, so you do get a superb sensation of flight and freedom at the top of the swings. I just felt like the overall pacing and mechanics of the ride made this better than any other equivalent i;ve done. 
It also had a well themed queue, perhaps the most elaborate ive seen on a flat ride.
And my first encounter with those infamous counters, but I think it was more for the benefit of the operator since they were still manning the turnstile, you weren’t just being let in unsupervised.

Rio Grande Rafting
Rapids ride, but wasn’t really much to write home about but the bit with the wave generator and geysers did look pretty nice. 

Skydebane
Discovered this by accident. There is a free shooting range. You get given a ashtray with about 10 little slugs in it and a piece of paper with a target. Find a spare bay, wind the target out and start shooting.
This is the first time ive ever shot anything with live ammunition and predictably i was terrible at it.

Solguden

This is a dumbo type ride, but it had fountains around the outside you had to dodge by lifting your car up and down. It was hot so i was just plowing through them regardless. Visually i love the way the arms look like stacked stones.

 

Speedy Gonzales
This is one of those ‘dry’ multi lane slides. I just went up there towards the end of the day hoping to get some pics of Piraten (since the slide is on a bit of a hill). Anyway turns out to be totally unsupervised so you just grab a raft and send yourself down by pushing a button. +1 on the ride count.

Andedammen
Have i been on a Metalbau duckmill? Nope. Ok lets ride.
As gentle as you’d expect, but everyone should ride the silly rides occassionally right.

Long Cun Expedition
I closed out on this about 5 mins before closing time. I had been skipping it all day because it looked like a clone of the flume I’d done the day before. But the station looked gorgeous, actually resembling a stilt house you’d see on a rice paddy in SE Asia. Had some suprising squirting elephant, but a flumes a flume.

And thats it, managing 24 rides in 11 hours was a productive day, and you can see from the Parkz database the park has around 50 attractions, so you could easily bum around doing more flats. You’re never going to get bored here.

 

 

In terms of how to improve the place. Well the most popular rides were the big thrill coasters (Well, the coasters in general actually!) which sort of explains why management keeps building one every couple of years. So maybe now is the time for them to branch out and build a looping coaster?
Perhaps a dark ride? They attempted it briefly on the Dino Xpedition car ride.

Oh, but one thing. They have a ride called Buffalo Bumper Cars, but it would have been such a great Danish/English pun to call them "Buffalo Bils"

But really, its a popular park that guests are quite satisfied with, so there’s not really much room for improvement

As always, you can see more photos here, and if you have other questions about the park, just ask.

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/djurs-sommerland

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by Gazza

[Gazza]

Bonus video: The launch at the start of DrageKongen

[Jobe]

Its funny how many enthusiasts are visiting the same park for vlogs at virtually the same time. Just recently watched Theme Park Worldwide visit here for the first time as well as Coaster Studios. Both were extremely informative vlogs and they conveyed a good sense of the park.

Great trip report Gazza. This and the aforementioned vlogs has definitely put this park on my radar for a visit.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

🤔 what if Theme Park Worldwide = Gazza?

[Gazza]

If I had to guess, Fonix at Farup and the long awaited opening of Monster at Grona Lund prompted people to go to Scandinavia and do everything else. I can't really think of any other big thrill coasters in Europe this year.

Certainly, I had been holding out for Monster given that project has been known about for several years, but in the end it's swings and roundabouts because I missed Balder due to its track replacement.

Edited August 16, 2022 by Gazza

[Rivals]

4 minutes ago, Gazza said:

If I had to guess, Fonix at Farup and the long awaited opening of Monster at Grona Lund prompted people to go to Scandinavia and do everything else. I can't really think of any other big thrill coasters in Europe this year.

Kondaa and Ride to Happiness also opened mid last year, but since covid (lockdown wise) has calmed down a bit, people may be heading over to check out all the new rides that have opened since 2020 as it’s less likely to be trapped there in a lockdown.