We were having a brilliant day at Liseberg yet had something even more fantastic to come! The time had approached five o’ clock and we sat outside of the parks guest services at the centre of the park and was greeted by a joyous man called Pontus. He was here to provide us a look around some of Lisebergs roller coasters and see what these rides looked like behind the scenes.
We were shown behind the scenes of four roller coasters, Lisebergbanan, Balder, Helix and… Valkyria! (Not necessarily in that order). This provided a great representation of how roller coaster technology has evolved over 31 years (1987 to 2018).
We were extremely thrilled when we were shown behind the scenes of Valkyria and as we were stood in one of the staff areas watching Valkyria trains fly past every 30 seconds, we talked to Pontus about the process of getting Valkyria from the initial plans all the way to what we saw that day with guests screaming and smiling as they flew around the track. It was a great insight into how much Liseberg care about the right attraction for the guests that visit the park every year, always trying to provide an experience the other rides do not and it is clear to see when you look at all the rides currently in the park.
As we made our way into the maintenance shed we were amazed at how immaculate it was with not a bolt or wheel out of place. It felt like we were on a futuristic spaceship, white walls, white floors and incredibly clean. As Valkyria was a very new ride we thought the cleanliness of the maintenance shed was an anomaly, however, the level of tidiness was prominent throughout including Lisebergbanan which opened in 1987, even though the track was worn and there was grease on the floor through years of wheel changes and maintenance on the parks five trains the area was still incredibly organised.
Throughout our tour Pontus was incredibly friendly as well as knowledgeable giving us lots of information during our two hour tour, he clearly seems to have a passion for the park and theme parks in general (Not an uncommon occurrence during our trip) and we are thankful for his time during our visit, he was incredibly hospitable and made our fantastic day even greater.
