The Experience
Introduction
Dragekongen is a 2017 Intamin Suspended Family Coaster, located in the Wild Asia section of Djurs Sommerland. Together with Piraten on the other side, the immediately greets people as they enter the park and draws people towards it. At the time, this addition cemented Djurs Sommerland as the premier coaster-park in Denmark (at least until Fårup got Fønix) and serves as one of two big family-thrill coasters at the park.
Supersized family coaster
While a coaster like Piraten is considered fairly small for a thrill coaster, Dragekongen is in contrast a very large family coaster and the fact that it has the same top speed as piraten, while also being longer and almost as tall (most likely around the same drop height) it really puts things into perspective. Now this doesn't mean that it is a more thrilling or intense right than Piraten (and it isn't), but it does show that they really went all out with this family-thrill coaster.
Starts with a bang
Everything from before the ride to the lift hill is great on Dragekongen. The queue is well themed and the station is really great with dark and atmospheric lightning and banners that light up as the train enters the station. The train also gets kind of "launched" out of the station with a roar and into a small pre-lift section that consists of a helix with lots of noise, before hitting the chain lift. This is a great opening to a ride, especially a family coaster and it should be said that the first drop is also far above that of smaller family coasters.
A polarizing ride experience
Given how much bigger this is compared to the much more common Vekoma suspended family coaster, you would think that this is a slam dunk family-thrill coaster and much better than the ones from their competitor and while we overall think it is, it's definitely closer than you might think. The biggest complaint that Dragekongen always gets, is its rattle and some have even referred to the ride experience as being rough. Now we don't agree with us and in fact, we think the rattle is only slightly noticeable in a few instances but the buttery smooth tracking on the Vekoma models does give them an advantage over this ride. Our biggest gripe is actually with the fact that it isn't more forceful than it is. It does have a a few strong turns, especially the first one after the drop but there is quite a lot of meandering and even an airtime hill that doesn't give airtime (at least we haven't gotten it so far), which means that a lot of this extra speed and length isn't really being utilized properly and therefore, the overall experience, is only moderately better than that of some other, much smaller models.
Conclusion
To conclude, Dragekongen is a very strong family coaster with very good theming both off ride and on-ride (trenches and mist) and a really cool station send-off and pre-lift section. It is a shame that the ride experience after the first drop doesn't utilize it's speed and length better than it does but overall, Dragekongen is a fairly complete feeling family coaster experience and the 6.0 (which is a strong score for a family coaster) reflects that. It simply just had the potential to be truly standout and potentially the best coaster in the park.
Gallery
DrageKongen Gallery
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Strengths & Weaknesses
| Strong layout for its ride type | |
| Theming | |
| Pre-lift section | |
| Some dead spots | |
| A bit lacking in forces |
Information
NameDrageKongen
Year2017
ParkLoading...
ManufacturerIntamin
ModelSuspended Family Coaster
ScaleFamily-Thrill
Ride Count2
Technical Specs
Specifications
InvertedCustom
TypeSteel
Length2706,7 ft
Height98,4 ft
Speed52,8 mph
Inversions0
G-Force4,0 G
Duration120 sec
Notes
Drage Kongen means "The Dragon King" in danish