Europe

Racing on the Minifigure Speedway

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Legoland Windsor

I haven‘t been to Legoland Windsor in ages. During the time since my last visit, quite a few attractions opened within the park – most of them unique to this Legoland park.

Lego Ninjago World

Lego Ninjago The Ride

Lego Ninjago The Ride is the first interactive themed ride where passengers use only their hands to aim. The ride system uses a series of sensors to detect the movements of the hands. Depending on the height of the hands and the angle to the sensor, the hand movement is interpreted and a coloured dot appears on the screen so that you know where you are currently aiming. The whole process is not very intuitive and so confused hand-waving is actually a good way to score a lot of points. You can refine your movements on the many screens you pass. All in all, Lego Ninjago The Ride is a very solid and fun attraction.

Lego Mythica

Since the second Lego movie was unfortunately a flop, the Merlin Entertainments Group decided to create the Lego Mythica brand for Legoland Windsor instead of a themed area based on the film. The Lego Mythica themed area includes the Flying Theater Flight of the Sky Lion, the two very fun family freefall towers Fire & Ice Freefall, and the redesigned Jet Ski attraction Hyda’s Challenge.

Flight of the Sky Lion

In true Lego style, the Flight of the Sky Lion takes you on a colourful adventure through the different realms of Lego Mythica. There is a lot going on during the wild ride, especially as every creature wants to start a fight with you. The ride itself looks good, has some accelerating movements and tells an easy-to-digest story – but that’s about it. If the queue is short, a ride on Flight of the Sky Lion is an easy recommendation.

Lego City

Lego City: Deep Sea Adventure

The Lego City: Deep Sea Adventure dark ride combines two of Merlin Entertainment’s core brands: Lego and Sealife. The ride through the aquarium is therefore quite impressive and a cool way to watch the goings-on in the large water basin around you.

Haunted House Monster Party

While Legoland Billund surprised everyone by creating a scare attraction with a cluster of small drop towers, Legoland Windsor took a more family-friendly approach by inviting everyone to the Monster Party. Here, guests enter a large room that turns upside down. Of course, this is only an optical illusion, as the ride itself only tilts back and forth by about 30°.

The Haunted House Monster Party is a nice addition to Legoland Windsor and a unique Mad House with a very cool vibe. Hopefully we will see this attraction at other Legoland locations in the future.

Duplo Valley

Duplo Dino Coaster

The Duplo Dino Coaster is the smallest roller coaster at Legoland. It has an oval layout with gentle drops and turns. The ride itself is fun and a great way to start your rollercoaster career as a toddler.

Bricktopia

Minifigure Speedway

High above Duplo Valley is the large family roller coaster Minifigure Speedway. The ride features two dueling tracks, each offering a forward and backward ride. Both tracks consist of a series of tight-radius turns with a gentle hill in between. Although the ride itself is very family friendly, the new Zierer coaster still packs a punch, especially during the backwards ride.

The Minifigure Speedway is a great addition to Legoland Windsor and a very special first for roller coaster manufacturer Zierer. It would be great to see similar rides at other Legoland locations around the world.

Pictures Legoland Windsor

Conclusion Legoland Windsor

It is good to see that Merlin Entertainments is still investing in some of its parks. Although the presentation of the rides could be a little better – the Legoland Speedway and the Haunted House Monster Party in particular look a little uninspired and drab – the additions over the last 10 years add a lot to the line-up of this popular theme park. It will be interesting to see what the future holds, especially as a large plot of land, once occupied by the Vikings River Splash rapids ride, is set to become available soon.

 

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Legoland Windsor

The FirleFranz of Bayern-Park

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Prelude

A lot has changed since my last visit to Bayern Park. Not only is the theme park now much more impressive with a large and beautiful entrance area, there are also three attractions that are well worth seeing. The biggest of these is of course the Voltrum freefall tower, which is over 100 metres high and is intended for the more daring. For the whole family, there is the Duell der Adler and the crazy FirleFranz family rollercoaster.

Duell der Adler

As soon as you enter the theme park, you come across the Duell der Adler. The Gerstlauer Sky Fly is a great family carousel where you can customise your own ride. By adjusting the position of the wings on the gondola, you can experience a rather calm ride or a wild ride with lots of somersaults. A counter counts these and enables a final comparison.

FirleFranz

I like the new style at Bayern-Park, which really comes into its own on the new FirleFranz family rollercoaster. The open-ended coaster, with the train going both forwards and backwards, is an interesting feature.

The ride itself begins with a gentle friction wheel start backwards out of the station, climbing about halfway up the spiral. We accelerate forward once more, then cross the switch and enter a turn. This then takes us up a hill, which we ride a bit slowly. The big drop is followed by a Bavarian bend. Another bend leads us into the second launch area, which would serve as an additional braking zone if the switch had not been set correctly. However, we accelerate and enter a helix after a short climb. After going through the switch a second time, we travel forward through the station to the end of the spiral, which is an interesting experience, especially in the front part of the train. Now the switch is set a second time and we travel backwards a little faster through the section we have just experienced. A great feeling and my highlight of the ride.

FirleFranz is a really good family coaster with a clever layout that makes the supposedly short track seem like a much longer ride. Even though the ride forward is a bit smoother, the fast ride backwards is all the more impressive. All in all, a really great family coaster from Gerstlauer.

Voltrum

The large Voltrum drop tower is my favourite of the three new features. It offers a fantastic view of the area and an equally fantastic drop. The theming of the ride gives it a very special feeling, something that only Scream at Heide Park has achieved in Europe so far. It feels elaborate and not like a temporary addition like many other theme parks. In short, a really great ride.

Pictures Bayern-Park

Conclusion Bayern-Park

Bayern-Park is making really good progress. I can’t wait to see which attractions will fill the vacant areas in the park. I was also very pleased that my biggest criticism from my last visit no longer seems to apply. The staff here were very friendly, especially the nice employee who directed guests to the right ticket office in the morning. That’s great and gave me a very positive impression overall.

 

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Bayern Park

A ride on Flotter Otto and Looping Alois

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Flotter Otto and Looping Alois

On my Easter trip this year, I used the afternoon entrance to Skyline Park to try out last year’s additions.

The larger of the two new rides still uses the station of the former Bob Racing attraction, but not the area around it. This is now largely unused and still gives an idea of the layout of the former bobkart track. The track of the new family coaster Flotter Otto runs parallel to the station building. At both ends you take a turn in a helix and that’s it. As many park visitors have commented, the ride is not a worthy replacement. However, it is a very good starter coaster for young children.

The second addition is the Looping Alois flat ride. Theoretically, you can control your flight, i.e. whether you go up, down and sideways. Unfortunately, the ride at Skyline Park is operated in automatic mode, which means that every passenger inevitably rolls over against their will. This is not unpleasant, but not very nice either. Without interactivity, the ride is simply not attractive to many visitors.

Pictures Skyline Park

Conclusion Skyline Park

Overall, the park makes a worse impression than on my last visit. Although there are more attractions, the paint is peeling in other places. This is particularly noticeable on the façade and some of the figures on the Geisterschlange dark ride, which are now simply weathered. The fisherman on Sky Rafting is also more off-putting than inviting, as are many of the decorations around the park. This is a shame as the park has a lot of potential.

 

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Skyline Park