Coaster reviews

Nice surprise!

A very nice wooden coaster. Unusual for Japan.

Location Fun Rattle Capacity

While this is a very fun ride, I cannot say that you should go out of your way to ride this. The que line was absolutely awful. It was totally unmanaged and you could see kids coming off the coaster and entering the line from the side where their friends were standing and no one did anything about it. I think over 50 people enterered the line in front of me. Not only that but the personnel did a terrible job at seating the riders. You get designated a seat: First person in line get the first row. But he is then sent to the locker furthest in the back. And they wait until everyone from the previous car has completely gotten all their belongings and left the exit. Doesn't this completely lose the whole point of running two trains? There are several minutes going by as two empty trains are standing at the station. I tried to help them out by letting the guy from row 2 ride in front with me. Did they get the point to let two more riders jump on? Of course not! They left row 2 stay completely empty with a line that took over 3 hours to get through! Horrific!

Location Duration Discomfort

Why, oh why?! You had this Fujiyama! I was ready to swear by your name as The King of Rollercoasters. The lifthill is truly amazing with the majestic view leading up towards Mt. Fuji. That moment will live on forever in my heart. So will the first drop and that nice and equally scenic turnaround. But that last section was really rough, man. It was still a lot of fun but it was uncomfortable. But this really is an iconic coaster!

Masterpiece Layout Harness

This is a technical masterpiece! No doubt about it. I won't fight anyone who says this is the best rollercoaster in the world. It feels so smooth and flawless in every movement. A very original ride. And I say that knowing that X2 exist. A slight complaint would be the harness which felt awkward as I put it over my shoulders. I am 6'0" and I suspect this might actually be quite uncomfortable for anyone taller than me. But I didn't pay any attention to this once the ride started. It wasn't uncomfortable at all.

Inversions Location Duration Reliability

I almost gave up. I had travelled for 3 hours to reach Shima Spain Village. It was raining. It was windy. And at the gate I was told that Pyrenees was closed. I decided to go inside anyway. Both Pyrenees and Gran Montserrat was closed. I asked the staff and they said that unless the weather got better the ride would not open. I was sad. And the wind just kept blowing. At several points I was about to leave the park. But as I was in a bathroom I heard a roar coming from outside. "That was not the Kiddy Montserrat!" I thought to myself. I went outside and Pyrenees was test running. And it kept test running. For an hour. The crew just shook their heads as I showed up. But then suddenly Gran Montserrat started running and I got on that one. And 20 min before the park closed....Pyrenees was running! Because of the lack of crowds I got to ride it twice and what a treat! Is this the greatest inverted coaster in the world? It's so much fun. And that view! Shima is gorgeous! On my second ride I was in front row and I could take it all in. I loved it!

Harness

Big and bold flying coaster. The size makes it a bit chunky though and that makes it #2 for my flying coasters in Japan. I found Acrobat more swift and fun paced. Acrobat also have another tremendous advantage: No wait times!

Comfort Smoothness

I loved this more than The Flying Dinosaur. Sure, this might be less intense but it is so enjoyable. I think it's fantastic!

Pace

I am not trying to be contrarian. I'm really not. But for how amazing this ride is, it's only #3 in this park for me as I like both Acrobat and Steel Dragon 2000 even more. I rode this in the very back and found it a bit disorienting and jerky. So, that moved it down slightly for me. But I would love to ride it again!

Fun Too short

I like it! But there are no room for your legs. And I hope you didn't stand in a long line to ride this because it is over before you know it. The biggest fun factor was the screaming girls sitting behind me. It's easy to forget that a coaster like this might just be the most intense ride someone has ever ecperienced. Bless their hearts!

Fun

A good fun ride!

Fun Too short

This is a surprisingly intense "kiddy coaster". It takes those turns quite fast. But as you may expect it is short.

Theming Fun

Yes, I do remember the exact date I rode this coaster. My mom (who was the best mom ever) used her saved money in order to make my childhood dream come true: To visit Disneyland. We travelled from Sweden (through Iceland), spent a week in New York and then went to visit my mother's childhood friend in Dana Point, California. We visited Disneyland on Christmas Eve and then visited Disney World on New Year's eve. I will never forget how we stepped off the public mover train at Tomorrowland and made our way to Matterhorn. My dream had come true. And Matterhorn met every expectation I had.

Fun Rattle

This is a ride that I rode as a kid in the 80s and that my dad rode before me in the 1940s. It's amazing to think we rode the same coaster at the same age. I have come to realise that memories cannot also be relied upon but I have a distict memory of this rollercoaster having more than one track. But I only rode it once. What I have seen from historical photographs doesn't correspond to my memories but possibly this ride changed through the years. I remember the ride being fun but very rattling.

We went on a school trip to Gothenburg in the late 80s and this ride had just opened. I had visited Liseberg previously when they still had their old wooden coaster and the looping coaster was their premier ride (a ride I was way to scared to ride). In a Swedish magazine there was a promotion with a coupon to ride Lisebergbanan. Me and my friend went house to house in our village and asked every neighbour if we could have their ride coupon! When I went to Liseberg that year I had a stack of Lisebergbanan coupons. I didn't have time to use them all but I rode it a lot. I remember the annoyed look at the personnel at the ride since this was NOT the way you were supposed to use this promotion. :P

Fun

Possibly my first rollercoaster and the only rollercoaster still standing from my early childhood. This ride was a very joyful experience for me as a kid and I find it a bit sad that we rate kiddie coasters so low because we compare them to modern extreme rides. I tell myself that I will not be the kind of rider that collect credits just for the sake of getting credits and I don't plan on riding many kiddie coasters in the future. However, I will make an exception for this ride for nostalgic reasons if I go back to Gröna Lund. I first rode this in the late 70s.

One of my first rollercoasters. I had possibly ridden the rollercoaster at Furuvik before this as it was my closest park. I had also ridden Nyckelpigan at Gröna Lund. What is funny is that I remember my friends laughing at me when I told them I found Nyckelpigan (a kiddie coaster) scarier than this one (a coaster we all percieved as a ride for grown ups). While I remember being intimidated by the lift hill (and the rotating radar thing at the top), the ride was more predictable while Nyckelpigan had faster twists and turns. I rode this in the very late 1970s or 1980 at the latest.

Location

This was possibly my first rollercoaster. I don't remember much about it as I was a kid. It was most likely a family coaster but for me it was thrilling. As with my other really early rollercoaster (Radar at Gröna Lund) my strongest memory is the intimidating lift hill and the surrounding pine trees (Furuvik means Pine tree bay). I don't know when I rode this but it must have been late 70s (or 1980 at the latest). I rated this 3 stars but that is just an estimation. Through the eyes of a small kid this was an extremely exciting ride but in hindsight it was probably little more than a carnival ride.