Tivoli Gardens Building Classic Ride with a Modern Twist in 2016

It has been revealed that visitors to the famous Tivoli Gardens, located in the heart of Copenhagen, Denmark, will find a new expansion and world-first ride with options for the whole family in 2016.

© Huss

The main new attraction is named Fatamorgana and will be located in the Orient themed part of the Gardens.  The ride is an updated Condor, manufactured by Huss Rides.  Known as the Condor 2G (for 2nd generation), the attraction will tower 148 feet above the park, with the ride carriages reaching just over 98 feet.  The 50 foot height difference between riders and the top will feature custom theming.

© Huss

The Condor attraction utilizes four separate carriages that rise up the tower and spin in the opposite direction of the larger arm.  The motion created is like that of a Scrambler, although taking place at a great height above the park.  Since Fatamorgana is an upgraded 2G Condor version, two of the four arms will feature suspended seats facing outward in a ring (seen in a rendering by Huss above).  These will rotate quickly and make for a more extreme ride, while the traditional 'boat' seats will give a forward-facing, less intense more scenic ride.

© Huss

Tivoli Gardens is a park that always likes to add something for all members for the family, so along with the tower ride will be a set of mini-bumper cars located near the ride's base.

The entire Fatamorgana tower is being custom designed by Tivoli's team, with final renders of the distinctive theming to be released later.  The ride will accommodate 900 riders per hour and has a planned opening of April, 2016.

We haven't seen too many Huss rides going up lately, at least in North America, so it is nice to see a modern version of one of the company's classic rides being built.

Checking Out Tivoli's Merry Corner + Aquila

© Tivoli Gardens

I realize that after Denmark's Tivoli Gardens announced their "Merry Corner" expansion for this past season I never heard a peep about it.  The park sent out some really great looking concept art for the new park area, and detailed the three new rides that would be in it.  The rides were a kiddie plane flat, a mid-sized family freefall, and a Zamperla Air Race.

The Air Race, named Aquila, is located up on a platform above the new section, and got some really nice theming.  The whole area looks really good, actually - just like the concept art. (you can see some general shots of the area and its rides here)

© Tivoli Gardens

Naturally the most popular of the additions is Aquila, which is just as much fun to watch as it is the ride.  Actually I wouldn't know as when I encountered one of these in Coney Island I had to pass - my stomach says no thanks to contraptions like this!

Either way, this video from the park has some rider reactions but also good ride footage in between:

It is pretty amazing how the dressed up ride looks so much more elaborate than ones without a theme - but the thrills are still there nonetheless!

Personally, I'm just waiting for one of the big chain parks in North America to start installing these all over.  To me they're just wild and different enough that parks could really market them as a unique addition. 

Tivoli Gardens' New Merry Corner

Denmark's Tivoli Gardens has announced a new mini-area that will be added to the amusement park in 2013, named the Merry Corner.  The area will be themed after the famous Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer, and will reflect his love of the stars, planets, and galaxies.  The spirit of his discoveries will fill the area, complete with some interesting contraptions to take a spin on.

The Merry Corner is just that - a small corner of the already packed amusement area that currently is used as an employee area.  It will be opened up next year and feature a total of three attractions, all themed, with a little of something for everyone.

The park's children's plane ride will be given a unique theme and turned into an "interactive flying carousel," in which riders can control the height of the plane.  Also new will be an 8 meter freefall ride that's meant to thrill the entire family.

The buildings surrounding the rides will be finished in a traditional Copenhagen style, which will provide an interesting contrast to the past-future theme of the rides.

The biggest news of the Merry Corner is the new Zamperla Air Race that will be installed, up on a platform over the area.  Giving it extra height, the thrill ride will be unique to the European market.  The cars will be themed as giant eagles, soaring and inverting on top of a mechanically themed base.  No doubt, the added height of the ride will make for an even greater thrill.

For a virtual fly though of the Merry Corner, check out this video the park has released.  The google translated press release is available here.

Weekly Rewind 12.19.09

First Miracle Strip, now Cypress Gardens...maybe. Local sources are hinting that a buyer may have been found for Florida's first theme park, which closed its doors for good back in September 2009 following nearly a decade of instability. If the supposed deal comes to fruition, an announcement could be made before the end of the year.

The rest of the world may have moved on to Christmas, but if you're still in a Halloween state of mind, there's an upcoming episode of Paranormal State that you won't want to miss. Join the cast and special guest Chip Coffey as they explore the mysteries of the Hotel Conneaut in Episode 55, "Dead Legends". It's scheduled to air on December 22, 2009 at 10:30 p.m. ET and again on December 23 at 2:30 a.m. ET.

It seems the winds of change have caught up with the industry, as Danish amusement park Tivoli Gardens is set to become a 100% wind-powered operation by early next year. Everything from rides to restaurants will draw power from a single wind turbine. But don't worry--The park will still be plugged into the Danish electricity grid, just in case Mother Nature runs out of breath!

Captiain EO isn't the only show making a comeback at Disneyland. This past Friday marked the return of the perennially popular "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln", which has been absent from the park's line-up for five years. But this ain't your granddaddy's Lincoln. Per the Funland blog, Disneyland's "Mach V" animatronic features "a hydraulic-powered body with an all-new electronic head".

After experiencing one for myself this past summer at Schlitterbahn, I must say I'm a huge fan of the "themed water slide" craze which is slowly but surely sweeping our nation's water parks. Raging Waters in San Dimas, California will introduce their take on this concept when they unveil Dr. VonDark's Tunnel of Terror in 2010. The ride will feature various special effects created by projecting visual images onto water curtains.

The former Six Flags New Orleans' days as an amusement park may be over if one California-based company has its way. Big League Dreams has once again expressed an interest in scooping up the "spoils" left by Six Flags, Southern Star, and Nickelodeon and turning the site into a sports complex. While sad for park fans, the proposed plan could have very positive implications for the city of New Orleans.

The owners of Paulton's Park must have breathed a huge sigh of relief this week, as the New Forest National Park Authority approved an application which will allow the park to retain its Cobra roller coaster. Cobra was one of two rides put in danger earlier this year when it was revealed that the park did not obtain planning permission before building them. The fate of the second ride, a Zamperla Disk'O named Edge, is still up in the air.

Speaking of Disk'Os, Seabreeze Park has officially named the one which will be joining its line-up in 2010: Revolution 360°. If you've never seen a Disk'O in action--well, you've probably been living under a rock. But just in case, the park has posted some videos on its web site.

If roller coasters and drop towers just don't "do it" for you anymore, perhaps you'd enjoy jumping off a 1149-foot tower. Don't laugh, because you just might have the opportunity if the Stratosphere in Las Vegas receives permission to install a proposed Sky Jump attraction. If that concept tickles your fancy, perhaps you'd like to test drive (above) the version of this attraction which already exists in Auckland, New Zealand. (By the way, the Sky Tower jump in Auckland is only 629 feet...Just sayin'.)

Help! The Alton Towers PR machine is out of control! How do you stop this crazy thing?! Okay, okay: This next bit has less to do with Alton Towers PR and more to do with people who have way too much money for their own good. It seems the park has been approached by quite a few "high profile" individuals who are willing to part with significant chunks of change to be first in line when the park's TH13TEEN coaster makes its debut next year. But some good may come out of it yet: Should the park decide to entertain those offers, all proceeds would go to the Merlin's Magic Wand charity.

Aerial Antics: Tivoli Gardens

Tivoli Gardens is one of the oldest amusement parks in the entire world, dating back to 1843 - well over 160 years old and still going strong.

The park is located in busy downtown Copenhagen, Denmark, but still has a beautiful garden feel to it due to it's history as, well, gardens. Gardens became a popular area for people to gather, and when rides gained in popularity it was a natural fit for the park to expand in that direction. Walt Disney visited the park on a trip when planning Disneyland, and is said to have gathered inspiration for aspects of Disneyland from the Gardens.

The park is also known for it's large music hall, seen above. The concert hall seats over 1,600 people is and still one of the premier places to see classical music concerts to this day. But for us ride geeks, you can see the Mack powered coaster swirling around on roof tops above the theatre - that's the Odin Express, and it was added back in '85.

The park has a very unique selection of flat rides for guests as well as coasters. Here we see the park's free fall tower, The Golden Tower, standing over some of the cool flat rides.

Here's the park's big steel coaster, the Demon. It's a B&M Floorless coaster, and one of the manufacturer's shortest rides to date! It has that fancy turn off the lift and into the drop, and still manages three uniquely shaped inversions after that.

This shot covers one of the park's oldest rides, and one of its newest. The tower there isn't the same as the previous photo - that is the park's Star Flyer, basically a really tall Wave Swinger that I want to go on really badly. Behind it is Rutschebanen, which aptly means roller coaster. The classic wooden ride still uses a brakeman to slow the trains, and dates back to 1914.

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