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Liseberg

Gothenburg·Sweden·Europe

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Visit

Breakdown

Introduction

We visited Liseberg for out first ever visit on October 5th, 2024 from 11:45-22:00 for an epic 10+ hours of halloween thrills. We were extremely excited to visit Liseberg, a premier amusement park that we for some reason had never gone to before, even pre-Parkrating era. The big disclaimer for this visit is that we visited during the halloween season which did bring quite significant changes, both good and bad and overall, we left with a lot of thoughts.

Liseberg Review

Best Coaster

7.5
The first thing we saw in the morning, before even arriving at the park was that the app stated that Helix was closed. We hoped this wasn't true or that it would at least open up later in the day but this never happened, so we had to spend our first day ever at Liseberg without getting to ride Helix (which is that much more infuriating considering that you can see it from literally anywhere in the park).
The choice for best coaster did become a lot more interesting however, as we find both Balder and Valkyria to be great rides in each their own aspects. In the end we gave the honor to Balder for its classic wooden coaster feeling, smooth tracking and immense amount of airtime. We have no doubt that Helix would claim this title on a re-visit but for now, Balder gets the honor of being Lisebergs best.

Coaster Depth

7
Coaster Depth
The remaining coaster lineup is obviously impacted quite a lot by Helix being closed as this means both Helix and Balder won't count for this score. Thankfully, Valkyria is an excellent supporting coaster and Lisebergbanan is a fantastic wildcard for a park like this to have. Liseberg does lack a true family coaster which caters to everyone as Lisebergbanan is bordering on being a thrill coaster and Luna is targeted a bit more toward the younger audience. Liseberg also has both a junior and kiddie coaster so overall, its a solid line-up, even without Helix, mostly due to the high quality of the coasters they do have but with Helix, this would be much higher.

Water Rides

3
This is another category where Liseberg was hit quite heavily as one of their two water rides were closed due to the halloween season. We found this quite weird as the park still kept their log flume open so closing such a major ride just for another scare maze (of which the park already had like 7 of) wasn't a trade we found to be worthwhile. This meant that FlumeRide, the 1973 Arrow Dynamics classic log flume, had to carry the score and we didn't really think it did that too well. While it does have a really cool dual-station and some nice views, there was no real theming and the drops didn't too much for us. Therefore, Liseberg really needed that second water ride that they didn't have during our visit, so it ends with a rather lackluster score for now.

Flatrides And Darkrides

7.5
Also here the park suffered closures thanks to their halloween season as AtmosFear, the parks giant droptower was closed for a scare maze. We did try that specific maze and it was okay but for theme-park junkies like us, having such major rides be closed for halloween-only events will almost never be a worthwhile trade. Thankfully, the park does have a very impressive flatride line-up that could carry it to a good score, even without one of their main flats in operation. Loki, the parks giant Intamin Gyroswing being their best, and one of the best flatrides in the world. Mechanica, Aerospin and Uppswinget being other noteworthy attractions and there are many more good ones so overall, Liseberg still manages to do well here.

Park Appearance

9.5
Park Appearance
One thing that was immediately clear to us, was the parks immense beauty. The park strikes the perfect balance between a naturally charming amusement park and a detailed themepark. The hillside and abundance of greenery around the park, gives it a lot of natural beauty but the park also leans heavily towards theming for most of their rides, especially the bigger ones. The entrance area and main path feels very modern, the area by Balder and Loki is executed at the level of theming and immersion most high-end European themeparks strive for and then the area surrounding, and including, the kids area feel very calm and relaxed. All of this was further enhanced by the halloween decorations. thousands of pumpkins were placed along the paths and the norse area truly came alive at night when it became sort of a scare-zone hybrid, filled with fog and a few very impressive scare actors. Overall, Liseberg was clean, beautiful and very well themed.

Park Practicality

6
We found the park practicality to be a bit mixed. On one hand, they do have a really good app and most ride entrances are clear and easy to get to but the park also has the disadvantage of having a large section up on a hill, with only a couple of places to get you up or down from it. Furtheremore, given the numerous reide closures and the staggered openings we experienced, we did feel like the parks layout wasn't that intuitive and had several areas that felt a little empty. It's not that it's a downright impractical park but we fully expect Liseberg to do better here on a re-visit.

Food

7
For food we tried one of the parks three Max Burgers. Though it is slightly less exciting than custom restaurants with themed food, the were quite impressed with the overall quality of the (fast)food we got. Given our long 12 hour day, we also ate dinner which ended up being some kebab at the food court which was decent. Overall selection looked good and quality was solid so nothing to complain about here.

Snacks And Drinks

9
We ere contemplating what kind of snacks we we're going to get, and where, up until we walked past 'Systrarna Olsons Våffelbageri' and took a look inside their colorful little shop and saw their extremely greasy waffle irons, we knew that we had to try them and luckily, they did not disappoint. Selection around the park is good with many amusement park classics and overall, we were very impressed with the snack game at Liseberg.

Ride Operations

8
Operations were very good at Liseberg. They were running multiple trains on everything they could and dispatches were fairly fast. Balder had a huge team in the station and the crew at Lisebergbanan were clearly going for some kind of record in how fast they could dispatch the trains, which is fantastic to see. Not all rides had operations this great but still, the overall level of operations at Liseberg were quite impressive.

Park Management

4.5
We were really not that impressed with how Liseberg ran the park on our first visit, though most of it probably relates to the halloween season specifically. We thought it was a shame that so manor major rides were closed and to then have their undisputed star attraction closed for the entire day on top of that, was quite rough. We also experienced some heavy staggered openings for all rides on the hillside and we wished their merch game would have been stronger as well but we didn't run into any facility closures of weird policies so that's good. In the end, we hope Liseberg can do better here, on a re-visit.

Roller Coasters (7)

Main Coasters (5)

Name
Year
Manufacturer
Rating

Optional Coasters (2)

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