Halloween in TIVOLI, Copenhagen

 

 TIVOLI is the oldest amusement park in the world and probably the most beautiful, too. It is situated in the centre of Copenhagen in Denmark and usually my daughter and I visit it at least once a year. We have been there during summer where the TIVOLI gardens with all their flowers and coloured lights are particularly beautiful and we have been there during December where the amusement park is all dressed up for Christmas. Both have been breathtaking, so this year we decided to visit TIVOLI during its third annual opening season: Halloween.

 To be honest, TIVOLI's Halloween season is not on Halloween, but during week 42 (as this is a school holiday here in Denmark) and week 43. We brought along a friend of my daughter's and we were all so excited to go, but to be honest, for the first time ever, TIVOLI couldn't live up to our expectations.

The Halloween decorations were fine, of course. TIVOLI is famous for its beautiful decorations, no matter if it is summer or winter, and the Halloween season was just as beautiful with pumpkins and scarecrows everywhere. That was not the problem. The problem was that TIVOLI wasn't scary at all!

Browsing the TIVOLI's website, you'll see the Boys Guard marching band wearing pumpkin hats instead of their usual bearskin hats. In TIVOLI they didn't. On the website you'll see TIVOLI attendants dressed up as zombies and monsters. In TIVOLI they weren't. And on the website you are told that at 5 p.m. the area called "Smoegen" will turn into a scary alley with monsters lurking everywhere. In TIVOLI it didn't. Although signs were warning people to enter "Smoegen" (not after 5 p.m. as it says on the website, but after 6 p.m.), no matter what time we were there, there were no monsters whatsoever. We were VERY disappointed!

And then there's the new Halloween ride, "Hotel Scary", a haunted house that you have to walk though. At least they had an attendant who tried to look scary, but we never got inside the hotel, as according to the attendant, the floors inside were wobbly and had holes in them, so they were not suited for people with mobility disabilities like me. It didn't say so anywhere on the website, but I wish it had, as we wouldn't have been disappointed then, that we couldn't go.

All in all I was rather disappointed in TIVOLI and in how they treated their visitors. At least if the visitors were single. My daughter and her friend tried some rides on their own and I tried some as well. But because I was single, the attendants didn't respect my place in line, so when it was my turn, they always gave my (good) seat away to couples and found a lousier seat for me. When that had happened three times on the same ride, I got really angry and told the attendant off. It didn't help at all and I still had to sit on the lousy seat, but AFTER the ride was over, the attendant offered me a better seat, should I want to go again, which of course I didn't! By then I was sick and tired of being treated as a second rate person just because I have the guts to be single!

Oh well, it isn't all bad. In TIVOLI you'll find a maze of hay, funny and kind witches, colourful stage shows and other nice things suitable for families with small kids.

And if you pay an extra 5 Danish kroner (50p) in entrance fee, you'll get a "free" meal (how can it be free when you pay 50p?). The meal, of course, consists of a fat-dripping burger or hotdog, but at least it's so small that you probably won't put on much weight from eating it!

And of course you can enjoy the many inventive Halloween displays and the beautiful coloured lights in the evening. At least these are as magic as ever, so I'll leave you with some "TIVOLI after dark" photos for you to enjoy.

For more information: www.tivoli.dk