I think I judge TusenFryd more harshly than I do other parks. Sitting here among the mountains looking out at the wide world, it seems like the rest of the world keeps churning out new coasters and other interesting rides all the time, while TusenFryd stays the same old place, only occasionally adding something new or replacing old crappy rides.
That being said, the rest of the world is a big place, with many parks contributing to the image of a constantly evolving coaster world. Although "the world at large" sees exciting new additions all the time, each individual park contributes little. And the ones that consistently build huge and exciting rides are giant parks drawing guests from several megameters around them, you can't really expect a regional park in a mid-size city to compete with those. Heck, even Liseberg is a big park compared to TusenFryd, with secure funding and thousands of guests drawing from the huge internal market of Sweden, as well as tourists from the neighbouring countries. Liseberg is a centrepiece of Gothenburg, TusenFryd is something you drive past halfway between Oslo and the Swedish border.
The cost level is also something to be considered. Norway is expensive in general, meaning that new rides will cost a lot more than something equivalent in, say, Poland or even Germany. No wonder the park seldom builds anything bigger than it needs to be, it's simply all that the budget can afford. Likewise, the labour costs drive park prices up sky-high, not helped by the short theme park season (late April to early October) - the company has to make up for a whole year of expenses with half a year's worth of income. I tend to scoff at TusenFryd for charging a lot for what they offer, but I guess that's just the realities of business.
So in the grand scheme of things, I guess my criticism of TusenFryd isn't always warranted, or it has perfectly good reasons beyond "the management is lazy and greedy". Insisting on that stance would actually amount to wishful thinking, since it implies that if the management just straightened up and did their job, the park would instantly be world-class and full of new rides. But alas, most of my judgement is unfair, and when I think it through, the reality is that the park is as good as the realities of business allow.
Then again, this is awfully hard to remember when you look at the parks managed by Parques Reunidos, and the handful of coasters they have built in total after the acquisition of the respective parks within the last decade. With a second-hand family coaster in 2012, TusenFryd can actually count itself among the luckier parks in the chain in that department. Realities of business or not, something about Parques Reunidos smells awfully of mis-management. So even with all this in mind, please allow me to rant further about the state of my home park in the future.
), and I neither ignore nor invent issues about the parks. Since I know both parks so well, I can probably judge them better than other parks. It's much easier to evaluate the park as a whole when you've been to it 15 times* instead of once.
