So after visiting Xtreme Scream Park at Twin Lakes last weekend and being incredibly disappointed with the staff's inability to batch a maze properly, hence running into the group in front and forming a damn conga line throughout each AND EVERY maze; we visited the beautiful country of Sweden this weekend just gone. This is going to be a slightly different review to normal, as it will basically be a trip report with thoughts and opinions on mazes, scare zones, park-wide theming, and rides! Hence, it's only partially horror themed, but it will be an interesting change to my usual film or game reviews.
We arrived in Sweden in the early afternoon, however, the park didn't open until 5PM! So we checked in to our hotel across the road, then got some lunch and prepared. We genuinely spent about 30 minutes looking at the park from our hotel room in the hopes we would see some rides testing. We only saw the Ferris Wheel testing. It was a sad time. Around 4.30PM we headed over to guest services, bought our wristbands, sorted out disabled access and headed in to the park shortly after 5 to collect a wheelchair for my broken butt.
We started our (late) day with a ride on Balder, which was having some serious issues with the brakes and was getting stuck. Balder was good fun, there was a lot of airtime and squeals from myself, however; I feel it lacks character, unlike most wooden coasters it is incredibly smooth and doesn't throw you around at all. I came off feeling that Balder, and by assumption all pre fab Intamin woodies are simply a little soulless, and I doubt will ever make my top 10. (I know, unpopular opinion).
Then we moved on to one of the two brand new rides on park - Valkyria. I had watched the POV a couple of times and wasn't too impressed, I thought it wasn't picking up the speed it probably needed to. However, when we got on it, even with the Swarm style restraints (which I hate with a vengeance) it was an absolute delight. I was hugely surprised by the force it was pulling, it whipped through the layout like there was no tomorrow. The way Valkyria shot up into my top 10, albeit at number 10, was pretty shocking. Well done B&M.
We then went on Loki, which was just a very, very big pendulum, good fun, but nothing too special. After that we decided to try Lisebergbanan, which is a fantastic little family coaster, and nothing more or less than I was expecting. It's definitely on the more thrill end of family thrill, and don't forget to brace for all three sets of brakes, which genuinely want to wind you!
Eventually, it was time to head up the hill to Helix, my most anticipated ride in the park. The hill was horrific in a wheelchair, really, don't do it if you can help it, just get on the infamous escalator to the top. However, Helix delivered in so many ways, the pops of airtime and the inversions, both launches were smooth and although less intense than some, were very effective. Helix also looks fantastic at night, as it races around the track with it's lights on, the soundtrack is amazing, and the layout is incredible. Honestly, I knew it was in my top 10 immediately, but I needed a few more rides to decide if it would be 3rd or 4th.
After Helix, I braved my first maze, The Experiment. I was greeted by a staff member dressed as a doctor, he gave me the spiel, don't touch the actors, don't turn back, blah blah. He then said something that did make me giggle, he told me not to touch anything as some parts are electrified, he saw me giggling and reassured me that he wasn't joking. I walked through the maze with my hands together. I went alone, and even walking at quite a fast pace, I didn't run in to any groups, there were actors around every corner, the maze looked really nice, and you could tell a lot of effort had been put in to the event as a whole. Quite a few of the scares really made me jump, and I came out with a huge grin on my face, even though it was relatively short in comparison to most mazes I've done. Thoroughly impressed, we headed to the next maze. We had to pass through a scare zone in order to get there, there must have been 10 to 15 actors in that scare zone alone, they were all zombies, the special effects make up was incredible, the area had been themed with lots of broken items including cars, and looked fab.
Zombie, we were told, was wheelchair accessible, so my chicken of a boyfriend pushed me into the maze after our usual safety talk. My first thoughts upon entering were that the maze, again, looked fantastic. The sets were very well made, and the make up was impeccable! Honestly, there were so many actors, at one point, there were 4 actors in 1 room with us. They had sent us round as a 2. However, halfway through, we encountered the dreaded squishy floor, which was definitely not ideal for a wheelchair, so I had to get up and walk. The actors continued to absolutely terrify my poor boyfriend, and make me jump, and at the end, a fully inflated tunnel thing, apparently a wheelchair can get through that... Well it can't, so the boyfriend was taken out through a back way whilst I went through the inflatable tunnel. After this experience, I concluded that being in the chair left me feeling more vulnerable and that, unless I wanted to be single, I couldn't force boyfriend dearest through any more mazes. However, on the way to the next one, there was another scare zone, replacing zombies with the equally clichéd and overused clowns. The area was massively themed, and there were so many clowns running at guests, even children. They really didn't care. They had dancers, they had a "bearded woman", there were performances, and the make up was great.
We proceeded to the next maze Smittharden Gasten. This is Liseberg's all-year-round maze, and had obviously racked up the scares for Halloween! Firstly, I cannot accurately describe just how beautiful this maze is. Honestly, there is one room that is a path across a flooded floor, a chandelier hanging above the water, it looked GORGEOUS and I wandered through with my very small group of five with my mouth hanging in amazement. This maze is the best looking thing I have ever seen, and the scares delivered. All the mazes were teeming with actors, honestly, and they did their jobs so well. Even if they were shouting at me in Swedish. The actors obviously enjoy what they do, and are very good at it. After this, we popped literally next door to the final maze, still encountering many clowns and a fantastic general atmosphere.
Finally we came to Vinden, which my boyfriend was sure meant wind. (I looked it up the next day, it means attic...) I had to get in a huge industrial lift that shot you up to the beginning of the maze. At first I was slightly disheartened because there were about 20 people in the group, but they split us up into groups of around 5. To begin with, the maze looked like a building site/industrial area, however; when you walked through the doors, the white, sterile walls were gone and replaced with brown, dirty looking walls. Soon we were surrounded by living dolls hiding in all the small nooks and crannies you would expect in an attic. And then we reached my favourite part of the maze, several 7(ish) foot tall animatronic dolls that all swayed and moved in unison, there were no actors in this room, and yet it was the creepiest of all. Again, it looked incredible, and the make up was great. The actors swarmed on our group in several parts and there was very little let up. In fact, all 4 mazes were damn intense, but also stunningly themed and designed.
The park itself seemed to come alive when the sun went down, with rides crammed into so many areas, thousands of pumpkins, creepy sound effects, smoke effects, and the mist from Valkyria's drop making that area almost impossible to navigate. The park must look beautiful all year, but the extra theming, the branches all over the place, pumpkins piled up, restaurants and food places all decorated, plus the scare zones just meant that the park looked even more gorgeous. We also saw restaurant staff with spooky hats on, and also with zombie make up that was somewhat toned down compared to the roaming actors.
Aside from the spookier aspects of our trip, we did manage to get on all the coasters, including the kiddie ones, we also found the staff to be extremely pleasant and all spoke very good English, the disabled access was well thought out and very useful to us, and the food was also pretty good. I honestly couldn't recommend this event enough!
A fabulous event with great rides, amazing scare zones, and some of the best mazes I've ever done.
9.5/10
We arrived in Sweden in the early afternoon, however, the park didn't open until 5PM! So we checked in to our hotel across the road, then got some lunch and prepared. We genuinely spent about 30 minutes looking at the park from our hotel room in the hopes we would see some rides testing. We only saw the Ferris Wheel testing. It was a sad time. Around 4.30PM we headed over to guest services, bought our wristbands, sorted out disabled access and headed in to the park shortly after 5 to collect a wheelchair for my broken butt.
We started our (late) day with a ride on Balder, which was having some serious issues with the brakes and was getting stuck. Balder was good fun, there was a lot of airtime and squeals from myself, however; I feel it lacks character, unlike most wooden coasters it is incredibly smooth and doesn't throw you around at all. I came off feeling that Balder, and by assumption all pre fab Intamin woodies are simply a little soulless, and I doubt will ever make my top 10. (I know, unpopular opinion).
Then we moved on to one of the two brand new rides on park - Valkyria. I had watched the POV a couple of times and wasn't too impressed, I thought it wasn't picking up the speed it probably needed to. However, when we got on it, even with the Swarm style restraints (which I hate with a vengeance) it was an absolute delight. I was hugely surprised by the force it was pulling, it whipped through the layout like there was no tomorrow. The way Valkyria shot up into my top 10, albeit at number 10, was pretty shocking. Well done B&M.
We then went on Loki, which was just a very, very big pendulum, good fun, but nothing too special. After that we decided to try Lisebergbanan, which is a fantastic little family coaster, and nothing more or less than I was expecting. It's definitely on the more thrill end of family thrill, and don't forget to brace for all three sets of brakes, which genuinely want to wind you!
Eventually, it was time to head up the hill to Helix, my most anticipated ride in the park. The hill was horrific in a wheelchair, really, don't do it if you can help it, just get on the infamous escalator to the top. However, Helix delivered in so many ways, the pops of airtime and the inversions, both launches were smooth and although less intense than some, were very effective. Helix also looks fantastic at night, as it races around the track with it's lights on, the soundtrack is amazing, and the layout is incredible. Honestly, I knew it was in my top 10 immediately, but I needed a few more rides to decide if it would be 3rd or 4th.
After Helix, I braved my first maze, The Experiment. I was greeted by a staff member dressed as a doctor, he gave me the spiel, don't touch the actors, don't turn back, blah blah. He then said something that did make me giggle, he told me not to touch anything as some parts are electrified, he saw me giggling and reassured me that he wasn't joking. I walked through the maze with my hands together. I went alone, and even walking at quite a fast pace, I didn't run in to any groups, there were actors around every corner, the maze looked really nice, and you could tell a lot of effort had been put in to the event as a whole. Quite a few of the scares really made me jump, and I came out with a huge grin on my face, even though it was relatively short in comparison to most mazes I've done. Thoroughly impressed, we headed to the next maze. We had to pass through a scare zone in order to get there, there must have been 10 to 15 actors in that scare zone alone, they were all zombies, the special effects make up was incredible, the area had been themed with lots of broken items including cars, and looked fab.
Zombie, we were told, was wheelchair accessible, so my chicken of a boyfriend pushed me into the maze after our usual safety talk. My first thoughts upon entering were that the maze, again, looked fantastic. The sets were very well made, and the make up was impeccable! Honestly, there were so many actors, at one point, there were 4 actors in 1 room with us. They had sent us round as a 2. However, halfway through, we encountered the dreaded squishy floor, which was definitely not ideal for a wheelchair, so I had to get up and walk. The actors continued to absolutely terrify my poor boyfriend, and make me jump, and at the end, a fully inflated tunnel thing, apparently a wheelchair can get through that... Well it can't, so the boyfriend was taken out through a back way whilst I went through the inflatable tunnel. After this experience, I concluded that being in the chair left me feeling more vulnerable and that, unless I wanted to be single, I couldn't force boyfriend dearest through any more mazes. However, on the way to the next one, there was another scare zone, replacing zombies with the equally clichéd and overused clowns. The area was massively themed, and there were so many clowns running at guests, even children. They really didn't care. They had dancers, they had a "bearded woman", there were performances, and the make up was great.
We proceeded to the next maze Smittharden Gasten. This is Liseberg's all-year-round maze, and had obviously racked up the scares for Halloween! Firstly, I cannot accurately describe just how beautiful this maze is. Honestly, there is one room that is a path across a flooded floor, a chandelier hanging above the water, it looked GORGEOUS and I wandered through with my very small group of five with my mouth hanging in amazement. This maze is the best looking thing I have ever seen, and the scares delivered. All the mazes were teeming with actors, honestly, and they did their jobs so well. Even if they were shouting at me in Swedish. The actors obviously enjoy what they do, and are very good at it. After this, we popped literally next door to the final maze, still encountering many clowns and a fantastic general atmosphere.
Finally we came to Vinden, which my boyfriend was sure meant wind. (I looked it up the next day, it means attic...) I had to get in a huge industrial lift that shot you up to the beginning of the maze. At first I was slightly disheartened because there were about 20 people in the group, but they split us up into groups of around 5. To begin with, the maze looked like a building site/industrial area, however; when you walked through the doors, the white, sterile walls were gone and replaced with brown, dirty looking walls. Soon we were surrounded by living dolls hiding in all the small nooks and crannies you would expect in an attic. And then we reached my favourite part of the maze, several 7(ish) foot tall animatronic dolls that all swayed and moved in unison, there were no actors in this room, and yet it was the creepiest of all. Again, it looked incredible, and the make up was great. The actors swarmed on our group in several parts and there was very little let up. In fact, all 4 mazes were damn intense, but also stunningly themed and designed.
The park itself seemed to come alive when the sun went down, with rides crammed into so many areas, thousands of pumpkins, creepy sound effects, smoke effects, and the mist from Valkyria's drop making that area almost impossible to navigate. The park must look beautiful all year, but the extra theming, the branches all over the place, pumpkins piled up, restaurants and food places all decorated, plus the scare zones just meant that the park looked even more gorgeous. We also saw restaurant staff with spooky hats on, and also with zombie make up that was somewhat toned down compared to the roaming actors.
Aside from the spookier aspects of our trip, we did manage to get on all the coasters, including the kiddie ones, we also found the staff to be extremely pleasant and all spoke very good English, the disabled access was well thought out and very useful to us, and the food was also pretty good. I honestly couldn't recommend this event enough!
A fabulous event with great rides, amazing scare zones, and some of the best mazes I've ever done.
9.5/10
Comments
Post a Comment