Volume 3, No. 17. September 12,2003
Four
times ROI
Gröna Lund
installed one ride for the 2003 season and got four new rides out of it.
The park, landlocked in downtown Stockholm, Sweden, was looking to build a Wild
Mouse, something to fill the gap in coaster riding for kids between the ages
of the park's Zierer family coaster Ladybug and the steel Schwarzkopf
Bergbanan Jetline. The ride most in need of retirement was the
Dreamboat, said Peter Osbeck, Gröna Lund’s ride manager. However,
he didn’t think Dreamboat's location provided enough space for the
Gerstlauer Vilda Musen that the park wanted to install.
Osbeck, however, struck on an idea. “The Jetline coaster is designed
to be able to carry the weight and wind strength of a covering,” he said.
“When we ordered it we thought maybe we’d cover it with a mountain.
We decided not to do that because of the expenses, and probably that would look
ugly. There are not many artificial mountains that look good.”
His idea was to utilize Jetline’s structural strength by building
the Vilda Musen into it. With help from engineers Werner Stengel and
Wendelin Stückl, Gerstlauer accomplished the feat. It made for a singular
layout of the Gerstlauer mouse that not only engages in several fly-bys with
the Jetline trains but has turns so sharp the manufacturer had to cut
away some of the hood of the Vilde Musen’s cars.
The larger coaster is not the only ride with which Vilda Musen interacts,
either. Coming off the lift hill mouse riders take a 180-degree curve that seems
to pass right in the path of the 55-meter (180-feet) S&S Power Combo drop
tower. Gröna Lund and Gerstlauer engineers went to the very edge of the
TUV envelope when spacing the two rides. “There’s not much between
them,” Osbeck said. “When you’re both moving pretty fast, it
seems very narrow.” Additionally, Vilda Musen cars fly by the six
rotating arms of the Mondial Top Scan ride.
By changing the experience for riders on the other three rides, Vilda Musen’s
installation effectively created four new rides for Gröna Lund. And, by
putting the Mouse’s station one story up, the park used the ground floor
area for an arcade, souvenir shop and kiddie bumper cars. In a season marked
by 32-degree Celsius (90-degree Fahrenheit) temperatures in July that kept local
residents indoors or in water somewhere, Gröna Lund was fortunate to have
the additional hardware, real and virtually real, this year. Vilda Musen
has notched 550,000 riders, the other three attractions have seen increased
ridership, Osbeck said, and the park pulled in 1.25 million visitors, about
even as last year.
“You always get a good effect (on attendance) when you put in a new ride,
and for us this was a pretty big ride,” Osbeck said. All four of them.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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