Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Grona Lund & Kolmarden (July 2022)

JamesB

JamesB

Mega Poster
Hej! So the other week I spent 5 days in Stockholm, with the main intention of doing Grona Lund and Kolmarden as well as seeing the city.

This was my itinerary:
Monday: Flight, sight seeing & Vasa museum
Tuesday: Grona Lund, ABBA Museum
Wednesday: Kolmarden
Thursday: Museum day (Nobel Prize Museum, Nationalmuseum, Moderna Museum)
Friday: Skansen, flight home

Let's start with Grona Lund:

Grona is very simple to get to from the city centre, you have the option of tram or boat. I opted for tram as was pressed for time. The park opens at 10 for the morning session however I got there about 9:45 and the gates and rides were already running. Be aware the tram does get very packed but its not a very long journey.

Have some photos and then I'll get to the rides:



















Ride count:

Monster x 3
Insane
Vilda Musen
Star Flyer
Ikarus
Jetline x 2
Bla Taget
Kvasten
Twister
Rock Jet
Chair-o-planes

I won't go into a long report as I'm aware the park has been covered a lot this year. So I'll do a highlights/lowlights list...

Highlights:
  • Monster was excellent, loved the station and overall feel of the area. Staff were excellent at batching and never saw the queue over 20 minutes all day. The head/foot choppers are amazing and add so much to the ride experience
  • Jetline again had amazing operations, that first drop is really fun and love the way it interacts with the rest of the park
  • Ikarus was a real WTF moment but I kinda loved it. There's a real moment where you question your life choices as your dangling facing the floor
  • The overall feel of the park is great, staff were friendly and helpful. Pretty much all rides had excellent operations despite how busy the park was I didn't see many long queues
  • Bla Taget was great fun, love the random themeing outside the ride
  • I was a bit worried about having time to do everything in the allocated time slot of 10 - 15:30 but actually despite the park being very busy I got on pretty much everything I wanted to
Lowlights:
  • Twister didn't open until around 1PM for some reason, queued for about 30 minutes for it and I have to say I didn't particularly enjoy it.
  • Insane was vile, which I sort of expected having done Kirnu a few years ago. The last drop/spin really whacks the wind out of you
  • The food options weren't great in the park and made worse by crazy wait times. I couldn't get the app to work so had to queue and order, and then wait again (about 20 minutes) for a mediocre burger and fries. I think in hindsight I should have been better prepared about the eating options. (This will come up again in Kolmarden!)
I'll back to post a bit about Kolmarden soon!
 
There are some really nice food options around the harbour side near the park - so for future reference I'd head out that way for decent grub.

+1 for Insane hate, and -1 for more love for Monster which is making me question why I've not been yet.
 
Lets finish this little report up with Kolmarden!

Originally I wasn't going to do Kolmarden but basically talked myself into it, mainly for Wildfire! I had a bit of faff with tickets, I had originally booked tickets for Thursday and the forecast changed and was showing storms for Thursday. I got onto the phone and was told I could get refunded half the ticket price and had to rebook on the website. So I went and did this (later on my bank statement I find they actually refunded me the whole ticket, so that's a win!). I had unfortunately booked train tickets which were non-refundable so lost out on those.

The journey is pretty easy with a direct train from Stockholm to Kolmarden, then catching the bus direct to the park. I got my trip there free as the driver didn't speak English and I had no idea about the app you needed to buy tickets for the bus. He just waved me on without a care in the world! On the way back I asked a local to help me.

Here's some pics from Kolmarden:















The zoo is huge and there's so much to see. I think I got to the zoo around 10:30 and then left around 17:00 to get the bus/train.

I did Wildfire twice, I must admit it was a lot more rough/shakier than I expected. I loved the first half and then found the second half a bit too much for me with the shaking. It's still a great coaster but out of the two RMCs I've done I prefer Zadra. The overall view and area around Wildfire is stunning. Such a great location for a coaster.

I didn't do the two kiddie creds as the park was busy and no queue times were advertised. Being school holidays there were a lot of families and I didn't feel up for kid creds at the time. One of the main cons about the park is the lack of queue times (aside from Wildfire). I got to the cable car ride mid-afternoon, no staff about or times advertised. I actually ended up queuing around 45 minutes. Thankfully most the queue is shaded. I wish I had done the cable car first! (Lesson learned!) It is worth the queue though, there's so much to see on the 15 minute ride. Its a shame they aren't booking people into time slots for it, especially on busy days like that.

The food options are slightly better there. I had planned to go to the buffet restaurant but turned up and there was a huge queue out the door. I ended up eating at the Asian take out by the tiger area. The food was decent but again a long wait time similar to Grona Lund.

I guess that's about all I have to say, I loved both parks despite both being pretty busy. Both exceeded my expectations, I have to be honest.

Over and out!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top