Piraten is the signature attraction at Djurs Sommerland in Denmark. This Intamin Mega-Lite
provides the prototypical thrills and airtime of a hyper coaster, except in a much smaller and more
affordable package. I had previously ridden one of these in Kawasemi at Tobu Zoo and thought the
ride was good, not great. Piraten is an entirely different animal. Find out why in this review!
Intamin debuted the Mega-Lite roughly 1.5 decades ago. This model is now listed as the Ultra Coaster
on their website, but it’s essentially has the ejector airtime hills Intamin hypers are known for
in a smaller package. The first and only to go to Europe was Piraten in 2008.
The other four all exist in Asia. Piraten is located to the right of the main
entrance and it’s the anchor of the pirate-themed area. This coaster’s grey track and first drop
really capture your eye from the entry plaza. Then this ride also had more theming than I expected.
The queue line is this boxed in fort with cannons and pirate animatronics. Then you enter through a
giant skull to enter the station, which is decked out in pirate paraphernalia.
Then the crew are dressed as pirates and excitedly scream at guests to get them
amped up for their ride. It’s a really great atmosphere for this attraction!
Piraten runs two trains, each seating just 16 riders across 8 rows. Fortunately, the line
moves at a reasonable rate since this ride has a pretty fast cycle time and the operators can check
the restraints quickly. I visited on a summer Saturday. The line was typically 15-20 minutes,
and it was 30 minutes at worst. The one bugaboo is that the restraints
have a super low verify, so this ride is not very accommodating to larger guests.
That’s the only thing that seemed to slow down dispatches. The crew will try their best though!
I saw a staff member stand on a restraint at one point to allow one person to ride.
Those restraints are your classic Intamin T-bars, similar to the ones on Expedition
GeForce or Millennium Force. And I love these lap bars. They leave you extremely open
and they don’t really lower any further throughout the attraction,
which maximizes your airtime. It’s worth noting there’s a seatbelt as well,
but the limiter for larger guests seemed to be the required down position on the lap bar.
If you want the best ride experience, I recommend the back. The airtime was more extreme there.
This attraction is notorious for needing time to warm up. There was a significant difference
between my early morning rides and afternoon or evening rides. Some hills that had no airtime
in the morning went on to launch me from my seat. Others went from pops to more sustained airtime.
Make sure you ride this in the second half of the day to experience it at its full potential.
And I think this is one of the reasons I much preferred Piraten to Kawasemi.
If you’re familiar with Tobu Zoo, you know that park has extremely low attendance.
We only saw Kawasemi cycle once in our time at the park without us.
We rode it several times, but we were usually the only two people on the train.
The empty trains and lack of time to warm up did not help the coaster. I’ve heard Kawasemi
can give awesome rides, but you need full trains that are constantly cycling. I clearly did not get
that. Meanwhile, you get those conditions at Djurs Sommerland basically every day.
Kawasemi also has a noticeably slower cable lift hill. From POVs, Piraten is pulled to
the top 25-30% faster, which allows the coaster to carry some extra speed through the layout.
Speaking of that cable lift, once the restraints are checked. The catch car grabs onto the train
and the operators scream as you’re swiftly pulled out of the station and sent up the 102 foot or 31
meter tall lift. You can get a pretty cool view of the park if you look behind you, but you’re being
thrown over that 70 degree drop in no time. For such a short train, this drop has
an awkwardly large crest. So you don’t get the ejector airtime you may expect.
In the back, this drop rides similar to a lot of hyper coaster towards the middle of the train.
You get some mild floater airtime. You then rip around a low turn. This
start reminds me of I305. While the turn isn’t as likely to cause greyouts, it still can because
it’s very forceful. It’s also worth noting this is the one part of the coaster that can have a bit of
a shuffle. The rest of the coaster is glass smooth as you’d expect from an Intamin mega coaster.
You then navigate this giant S-hill underneath the lift hill. This is one of the elements that
changed noticeably throughout the day. On my morning rides, I got zero airtime on this hill.
After the ride ran for a few hours, I got some faint floater up front and better floater airtime
in the back paired with some solid laterals as you’re yanked downwards. But don’t worry,
Piraten only picks it up from here. Next is a camelback and yet again,
this is a hill that needed time to warm up. My morning rides gave a decent pop of air in back
and solid semi-sustained ejector up front. By the afternoon, I was getting strong sustained ejector
throughout the train. But I think this is the one element that has more power in the front row.
The drop then shoots into a misty tunnel. You then zip around another low and forceful turn.
Piraten then enters the best sequence by far- the trio of s-hills.
These are some of the most violent airtime hills in the world.
It doesn’t matter what time of day you ride Piraten, these hills deliver.
You get absolutely catapulted out of your seat while also being tossed sideways from
the laterals. They’re especially sweet in the back car and the second hill is the wildest.
You can see it in my POV, but my chest mounted Go Pro refused to stay in place for this part of
the ride. The airtime was that extreme. After another decently forceful turn,
you zip over back-to-back bunny hills. These hills also improved throughout the day.
They only gave pops in the morning, but they were offering semi-sustained airtime by the afternoon.
The back car gets decent ejector airtime on both hills
while the front gets weaker ejector airtime. You then hop upwards, giving everyone a quick
burst of negative Gs, before rounding a pretty mundane turn. You then bank upwards and dip down
into the brakes. This maneuver offers some faint weightlessness if you’re in the back while those
up front just get some lateral hangtime from the speed loss over the top. You then come to a stop,
ending the 2477 foot or 755 meter coaster. That’s not too much track, but this ride packs in a lot.
So what would I rate Piraten? I would give this coaster an 8.5 out of 10.
Morning rides are closer to an 8 while the afternoon rides are more like a 9, so I’m
splitting the difference. I cannot emphasize how important it is to let this coaster warm up.
The airtime at the start and end is noticeably stronger. But no matter when you ride, those
s-hills in the middle are elite moments that are some of my favorite hills on any coaster.
I cannot believe how aggressive they are! While this can’t match Intamin’s best hypers,
this does manage to top several of them. And I ultimately do think this is the best
coaster in Denmark once it’s running at its peak. 2 years ago I reviewed Alpina Blitz at Nigloland,
which is basically Mack’s take on a mega lite. At the time,
I said I easily preferred this Mack coaster to Kawasemi, but I had to ride another Intamin mega
lite to determine whose was better. Have my thoughts changed since riding Piraten? Yes.
I still prefer Alpina Blitz, but it’s just by a hair. I mainly prefer that coaster since it’s more
consistent and has a far superior first drop. But both are great rides for their respective parks.
It’s a bummer the Intamin Mega-Lite didn’t catch on more or make its way to America because
these are really good coasters. I’m glad Piraten showed me what this model was truly capable of.
So those are my thoughts on Piraten at Djurs Sommerland. What are your thoughts
on this Mega-Lite or any of the others out there? Let me know down in the comments.
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