Legoland Billund - Sep 2014

[peep]

So a while back Jordan concocted the stupid idea to do Legoland Billund as a day trip. It sounded like a stupid yet amazing idea so Conor, Joey, Nic and I decided to tag along.

Tuesday 2nd September

The night before Jordan and Conor were working till close so Joey, Nic and I decided to hassle them at work until they finished. We then didn't get back to their place till gone 1am. We then had to wake up at 4am. It was gross. By 5am we were in our cars and we drove over to London Stansted airport. Dropped the cars off in the car park and got the horrifically busy shuttle bus to the terminal. Security at Stansted was a joke, the queue was just a mess and it was frustrating and slow.

Some food and sit down later and we're on the plane heading off to Billund in Denmark. Once at Billund airport security was a whiz and then we soon found ourselves a cab to share to go round the corner to the park. You can actually see the park from the airport which is rather surreal. Our driver was pretty awesome and he kept playing 80s cheese which Conor got him to turn up.

We were then at Legoland Billund! *sound of triumphant trombones*

We then just walked right in with Joey and Khalid's amazing Merlin staff tickets. Many thanks to them two for wasting some of their stamps on us. The entrance of the park looks like a Legoland park, they're all pretty similar. We walked straight on not really knowing where we're going or what we're doing. We walk past a couple of Lego things...

Before coming across Atlantis. The exterior seemed to suggest this would be the same as the Atlantis attraction in Windsor, so a submarine ride through a Sealife tank. This was not the case however, it was simply a sealife themed to Atlantis. We couldn't help but be sorely disappointed. Then as we went through the more engrossed we became, it surely was one of the better sealife attractions out there.

We then waltzed around a bit trying to decide where to go first.

This shop name amused me way too much

The Western area was unexpected but really nice. Actually it was quickly becoming apparent that this was a really nice looking park and had already outgrown our expectations.

We then found the new for 2014 attraction, Ghost, the haunted house. There was about a 10 minute wait to get in. They had a bunch of Lego blocks you could play with, Conor proceeded to take advantage of this which resulted in most of the queue just watching him.

We then got batched inside. It was fab. The theming was fantastic and the staff man set up the story in English (yay!) before letting us roam the haunted house. You start by walking up some stairs where you come across scary knights...

Then at the top of the stairs is two scenes with a bunch of maglite torches set up. If you activate the torches and shine them at a ghost things happen. It's rather exciting and awesome. Interactive things <3 Upstairs there's also a mirror maze which was really good. At one point Conor just appeared out of nowhere but in time to the music, it was amazing (but you totes had to be there). There was also a fake exit <3

Courtesy of Jordan

Before going back down the other set of stairs there was a bookcase with yet more interactive things, the whole thing was just fab.

At the bottom of the stairs is then the drop ride. The whole idea is that the Doctor (who is clearly mad) tries to recreate the ghostly motion of floating in mid air. FAB! There's projections and some nice models and the ride is really fun, if a little tame to allow kids on. I think it was safe to say we all loved this new attraction, it was just full of humour and interactive fun things, what's not to love?

We then walked to the creds via the Pirate area which had a nicely themed splash battle.

First cred stop was the Dragon rollercoaster which was a little different to the Windsor one I'd been on. The castle setting was still present but with lots of additional cool things in the queueline. The ride starts with these huge doors opening and then some lit up mist which you then go through. It then has a fairly long dark ride section with various scenes within the castle setting. There were some nice models in there. It then goes outside where it pretty much launches (it's a powered Mack) into a rather nice couple of helixes but set in a really nicely looked after garden area. It was a fun ride, not worth a massive wait but a fun ride all the same.

We then got distracted by Viking River Splash. It has a few nice drops and then it has a vertical lift up to a really big drop. Nic got quite wet which was amusing.

Next up was X-treme Racers. It was a little rough/vibratey which was weird. Does have a few good drops on it but apart from that it was just too rough and slow to enjoy.

Next door was the Egyptian shooty ride, The Temple so that had to be done next. It was alright, I don't remember the Windsor one having a continuous stream of cars, especially ones that spin too, so that was nice.

Then it was finally time for the third (and last cred) of the day, Polar Explorer. This was the only ride all day where the queue was actually quite burdenous and long. The park was fairly quiet all day so there was no need for two train operations and to be honest the staff were totally on the ball all day but for some reason this queue just felt like it took forever. So, the ride? Once again it has that weird roughness to it that's a little distracting from the actual ride experience (just because it doesn't feel right). The first half is actually brilliant, some excellent forces going on and really fun. The drop room looses so much of it's effect because you can't see what's being projected (i.e. the story for why something is about to happen) and then you drop. The drop was actually sudden and really great (Conor's face afterwards was amazing as he had no idea <3 ) but then the ride barely makes it back to the station without stalling, it's quite a poor design in my opinion. Oh and the brake run at the end kept making this awful noise, like pistons exploding every now and then.

We decided to hang around and watch the penguin feeding show which was all a bit Danish. Still, penguins <3

Food was next on our agenda. We had seen a pretty awesome looking place in Legoredo Town so we went back to that. It was a little pricey so it resulted in some umming and aarrrrring. We did end up at this place, called the Saloon. It did incredible Pulled pork sandwiches. It also had really nice chips and it was generally a world of food so it was well worth the £15 or so we paid for it. Nom nom nom. Would have appreciated less wasps coming to say hi though, they were a little bit of a burden all day though.

We then chilled out by riding Pirate Boats. It's a boat dark ride in the light and dark. We were joined by guests0149 who clearly loved the attraction as he went round for seconds! Not surprised, it really was fab, full of moving animatronics and the like.

Soon after we spotted a Liseberg rabbit balloon in a shop... what?

LEGO Canoe was called upon next. This was the park's log flume which was ok. The way it came off the lift hills and into the trough was disgusting and the colour of the water was unpleasant. Still it was a nice little attraction.

Play it again Sam

Near the exit of the flog lume was this little American Indian tribal area thing. There was an actual camp fire going with lots of little horses around it, the idea is you buy bits of food to stick on to sticks to then heat on the fire. It's a great little idea if a bit random in the Summer. We did meet the Chief though who was very into his role and his responses were Disney standard, actually amazing.

We then found ourselves roaming Miniland for quite some time. We loved watching a boat use a working canal lock.

I was rather excited by this one

We then went on Miniboats which goes round some rather large models.

And then I managed to catch up with Jordan and Joey and then we crashed! This set me back a bit but by the end of the ride I caught up with them again!

We then headed back over towards Adventure land for some amazing ice cream. We had marshmallow things with a hard to pronounce name, they were tasty. Jungle racers was our next ride, these things are always good fun. They look pants off-ride but you can get some amazing forces when you swing the boat out.

The last attraction we wanted to do was Ice pilots school. Otherwise known as the robot arms from Kuka. I'd already ridden the ones at Futuroscope (France) a few times and I enjoy the craziness of them. I was alone in thinking this though on this occasion. Understandable though as they are mental.

We then faffed, spent some time in the "World's largest Lego store" (hard to believe) and then went to grab a taxi back to the airport. The airport was actually amazing, once through security there was free wifi, free lego blocks to play with and free fussball tables (I played against Nic and failed miserably). It was just a really pleasant airport to be in. Shame the same can't be said for Stansted, that was atrocious.


It has been a tiring yet brilliant day. Just a nice chilled out day with some pleasant weather in a nice park filled with some fun attractions. Would I go back? They'd need to build something amazing for that but for a first time trip or a family day out it's fantastic. I'll leave you with this picture of Nic posing with a Lego man at the airport.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

The KUKA arms at Billund are fab, I assume you can still 'build' your ride cycle?

Ghost looks fab as well, shame it looks like Windsor's is getting spited...

 

[peep]

Yep, which I thought was a nice feature. I did just randomly pick them though which resulted in a very random cycle.

 

[SaiyanHajime]

I hate Legoland Windsor. Pretty sure that it's popularity rests solely on the brand and I can't even appreciate it in a "it's not for me, but it's great for ____" kind of way. I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, though. And I've arranged a day out with someone who grew up with the place and knows a lot about it's history and design in an attempt to understand why it's "good".

So when John mentioned the Billund trip Jordan had come up with, I was interested because a.) it's free for me, b.) creds and c.) maybe this Lego park... THE Lego park, doesn't suck.

Well it does. In all the same ways Windsor does. And I'd argue there's even more suck to add to the list of reasons why Legoland parks are terrible.

Had a great time. Weather was nice. Company was lovely. It was an easy trip to do.

I could easily turn this into a run down of why I hate Legolands in general but I'll save that for a blog post or something and instead concentrate on ripping Billund a new one specifically.

Okay, so that new Ghost attraction thing was actually kinda fab in a lot of ways. The theming standard is high, the effects are neat, some of the interactives are super fun and it's home to the best mirror maze I've been in (the false exit in particular was awesome. That "haha I found the end really fast I'm clever! - wait... NOOO!" is funny). The tech based interactives were however, as they always are, glitchy and you find yourself wondering "am I an idiot not doing it right, or is it just broken junk?" And the stupid thing is that it's just unnecessary, as a queue formed for the physical joke of being able to put your head up through the table... This whole "becoming the attraction" thing, as with the mirror maze false exit, is popular stuff that has existed as long as amusement parks have. More of that, less techy rubbish, please. The drop tower itself is ruined by a video before it that shows the physical hardware. Is that really necessary? Can't we have a Dungeons approach in the form of forewarning with a person, who gusts can individually enquire should they want to know more? Or maybe just a video that doesnt actually show the ride with the lights on? Why not something animated with Lego characters? This is Legoland, after all. The show building inside is a little bland. I have issues with the attraction in that, whilst it's neat and original, it doesn't gel that well together and it's impossible to tell guests what it is without ruining the special things about it.

Polar Xplora is... Well, The outdoors section is good. In fact, it's very good. But the main event, the show building drop sequence, is shockingly bad to the point of embarrassment. Bare hardware on show, no themeing, bird poop everywhere. You can't see the projection clearly, but I'm kinda glad, lets not draw attention to this white slab just stuck on the wall of the otherwise black interior. It's small too. It would genuinely be better without it at all. It's just so bad it makes me actually seeth. I can't even excuse it for being new.

The Dragon coaster is cool and not cool at the same time. On the one hand it's neat how the ride is a surprise layout because you don't approach it from where the majority of the layout is, on the other hand how the hell are guests supposed to know what they're queueing for. It's a really weird entrance and queue area compared to Windsor.

The robo arm things are really cool looking? John was moaning about the music, but I loved it. Granted, the theme, the way they look, the atmosphere, the music, etc. makes no sense. They end up conveying a sort of abstract mysterious delicate theme and the ride experience is anything but... But, I think it's a shame more of a spectator event isn't made out of them, because they're beautiful to watch. Obviously it's a terrible ride experience, obviously, but still.

Much of mini land was....... dirty. Like, more dirty than I recall Windsor being? And I don't think it was as good, either.

And the food prices were DISGOOOOSSSSTIN but Scandinavia so I guess to be expected.

I owe Jordan £3 and Nic something like £25 I'm writing this here because I will forget otherwise.

Oh and you know what can **** right of?

This.

This.

And this.

I get that these queues are designed to allow kids to go off and play with Duplo, but, they're so bad. Like, why the cattle pen sea? Why so thematically irrelevant? Why uncovered? I could go on all day but it's plain to see that those are some of the most vile queueing areas in the world.