This is Piraten, the 2008 Intamin Mega-Light (now called Ultra coaster) at Djurs sommerland in Denmark.It's a sit-down, steel coaster with modest stats and a fairly compact footprint for a thrill coaster. Piraten really did change the game when it came to Djurs in 2008. The Danish coaster scene was at the time still very humble with only a couple of thrill coasters but everything changed when Piraten entered the game.

Denmark's Airtime Machine

Before Piraten, the thrill coasters of Denmark consisted of a Euro-fighter, a small B&M floorless coaster and a couple of boomerangs and Pinfari loopers. All of these focus more on inversions and positive G's. But Piraten is an entirely different ride, focusing almost entirely on different forms of Negative G's like an S-hill, two small twisted hills and a couple of airtime 'bumps' which all provide different kinds of airtime in terms of strength and duration. Even after the opening of Fønix at Fårup Sommerland, Piraten remains the main provider of airtime in Denmark.

Punches above its weight class

Probably the greatest thing about Piraten is how it's a ride that seems to be closer to a Euro-fighter or other small to medium-small scale thrill coasters, with less than 2500 ft of track and a drop under 100 ft all while having 0 inversions and a compact footprint. You really would think that this coaster is merely an average filler coaster but Piraten definitely has the tools to deliver a ride to remember. The turn right after the drop delivers strong positive g-force while those small, twisted airtime hills will throw you about in the best way. Overall, this ride has a lot more to say than you would think just by looking at it and it remains one of the premier coasters of Denmark.

Where it's lacking

Now it might sound like Piraten is an absolute powerhouse like a small scale RMC or something like that but there are several factors that work against it. First, we do find the drop to be fairly disappointing, even despite getting pulled over it. For some reason it is angled in such a bizarre and shallow way that you don't get much airtime - or much of anything really - going over it.
The ride is also extremely temperamental and those amazing ejector-airtime-filled rides that it is capable of delivering will only happen when specific conditions are met such as it has been running for the majority of the day and while being hot outside. If you ride it before noon, with a half-filled train or just in lower temperatures, it will run very sluggishly and if it doesn't have the airtime, it really doesn't have that much and we think that's the main problem with this ride. The fact that it is so short and compact while not having any on-ride theming means that those elements (which consist almost only of different airtime hills) must hit in order for the ride to really work and this ride does give a lot of underwhelming rides in between its great ones. Now we don't want to make it sound like it's a complete dud if it isn't 9pm on a hot summer day but just a note that our rating reflects the rides we got from our most recent visit and the quality of those can vary quite a lot on Piraten.

Conclusion

Piraten is a solid thrill coaster that has more to offer than some might think and while there are many bigger and better coasters out there, it still holds its own as one of Denmark's best attractions. The 6.5 score represents the somewhat middling rides we got on our last visit while still appreciating its short but fun, smooth, airtime-filled layout.

All photos

Adjusting the seats on Helix…

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