A day at Legoland Billund

Preface

Since my cousin has never been to Legoland before and his parents originally wanted to go there with him, but were unable to drive due to lack of time, I took up the challenge to drive to Billund and back to Hamburg in one day and do some coasters in Denmark at the same time. Driving on the A7 and the E45 is not very difficult, but you have to know your exit and then follow the signs to Billund. The journey by plane would be less complicated, as the airport is located right next to Legoland Billund.

Legoland Billund

After buying the ticket for my cousin, which was 34€, and showing my Merlin Annual Pass we went straight to the entrance to wait for admission. There were already bigger queues and it took some time to get into the park.

Monorail

After a short orientation in the park we confiscated the Monorail. The track is comparatively short and unfortunately you can’t see much of the park. At least we could discover our next destination, which found its place here under the park’s own hotel.

Atlantis by Sea Life

The Atlantis by Sea Life is, as in Legoland Deutschland, bloody short and basically not worth mentioning. Also my cousin, who owns an aquarium himself, was not very enthusiastic about it (but he found the giant crab quite impressive). But if you want to go to a Sea Life Centre in an amusement park you should have a look at the one in Chessington World of Adventures.

Mine Train and Lego Canoe

In the following we moved to the western part of the Legoland Billund, which exists since the 70s. This area offers beside the Miniland also the biggest charm. Here you will find, among other things, the impressive theme ride Mine Train, the beautifully designed white water ride Lego Canoe with its life-size and wonderfully staged animals, as well as the first roller coaster of the park, the Timber Ride.

Timber Ride

This is a Tivoli Small, built in 1978, which has been highly decorated. The ride is very entertaining, even if the track is very short. For a total of 19 years the Timber Ride was the only roller coaster in the park.

Dragen

The medieval area of Legoland Billund is also quite small, its only attraction being the Powered Coaster Dragen. Thanks to the dark ride at the beginning, the coaster features a multi-train system, which unfortunately eliminates the fast station passage. Nevertheless, the ride has managed to convince completely, the sudden speed boost with the following helix brings a broad grin to your face and also the rest of the ride is done quickly before you slowly enter the station again.

X-treme Racers

The third and most recent roller coaster is the extended Wild Mouse X-treme Racers by Mack Rides, which is oddly built with a large concrete wall (even if it was meant to be a noise barrier, the airport makes a lot more noise). Lego has managed to get the best out of the wall and has added some mirrors and figures. The ride on the ride itself is quite nice, but not exhilarating. The classic Wild Mouse layout is much more fun.

Vikings River Splash

For friends of the liquid element of H2O there is a splash battle in the pirate area, as well as a modern rapids river from the company Intamin. Unfortunately there was not enough action at the Splash Battle, so the ride ended dust-dry. There are also very few triggerable effects. The Intamin Rapids Ride Vikings River Splash turned out to be wetter, but abandoned the most common rafting elements and didn’t offer a really wet spot except for the last descent. It is also very predictable in which position you will descend the gradient at the end. The highlight of the ride are the singing stones, which made a quite fitting choice of title with “We will Rock You”.

Piratbåde

In this area you will find, besides the above-mentioned attractions, a Kontiki, a teacup railway, a Heege tower, as well as the worth seeing pirate boat trip Piratbåde. Passing some scenes we cross the lake before we dive into a real pirate’s cave and stay there for most of the really long trip. Here we meet pirate ships, sea monsters and finally a real pirate treasure with a treasure chest. A must-do for every amusement park and Lego fan.

Power Builder

Lego City is located at the rear of the park. Here you can find the great Power Builder – a ride where a gondola carrier is hurled through space by a Kuka robot – and an interactive fire brigade attraction, which is also available in the Ravensburger Spieleland. Since my cousin wanted to force me to do some sports, this ride was tested and found to be quite nice.

The Temple

In the park’s Adventure Land you will find the novelty for 2010: The Temple is an interactive theme ride from Mack Rides. Basically a nice ride, but unfortunately our car was controlled by the system. We have seen all the important scenes, but could not get points in a big sense.

Minibåde

In the front area of the park there are some Frog Hoppers, a Mack Rides Old Train, the park railway and the Minibåde. Here you can take a trip around the world with small boats. On the small cruise we pass numerous oversized Lego replicas of many famous sights. A wonderful fun, where especially children should have their pleasure – after all, you steer the boats yourself.

Miniland

In Billund, Miniland is not located in the centre of the park, but extends in the front area of the amusement park. Here you can find a lot of very impressive buildings, among others an oil platform, the Billund airport, or the Danish capital.

Pictures Legoland Billund

Conclusion Legoland Billund

Compared to Legoland Deutschland, Legoland Billund offers a lot more charm, but at times it seems like a wildly jumbled group, whereas Legoland Deutschland has larger and, above all, coherent theme areas. The park convinces by its cleanliness, its staff, as well as the well developed terrain. My cousin liked it in any case, because he hadn’t thought of the Lego buildings so enormously and still raves about his visit today.

 

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Some hours in the Zoo Safari- und Hollywoodpark

Zoo Safari- und Hollywoodpark

Since most other amusement parks in the surrounding area had a day of rest on the program, today I went to the Zoo Safari- und Hollywoodpark in Stukenbrock. Since one could only read very little about this amusement park in the various forums, I was all the more excited to visit the second largest safari park in Germany.

Arrived at the park, I was very positively surprised by the reduced entrance fee on this rather quiet day. As one of the first guests I went on safari. In contrast to the Serengeti-Park in Hodenhagen, the route is much smaller, but you could observe many animals and was undisturbed by the clear view in the morning. The highlights of the tour are certainly the lions and tigers.

Flying Tiger

After the safari follows first of all an excursion through the park to get to the parking lot. The parking place catches one’s eye negatively due to the high concrete walls, but this hardly reduces the overall picture of the park. After a short exploration walk I went to the Super Tornado, alias Flying Tiger. The good condition of the somersault roller coaster with its classic Arrow-HUSS coaster trains catches the eye in a very positive way – the ride itself was ok, but there was some weight missing in the train (after all, the ride was started just for me), so compared to the sister ride Speed Snake at Fort Fun Abenteuerland, the ride was a bit too slow.

Flying Oil Pump

Like many other attractions, the second roller coaster of the Zoo Safari- und Hollywoodpark was not supposed to open until later. That’s why I was next drawn to the Flying Oil Pump, a Fabbri Cataclysm. The looping carousel with the imaginative name was my highlight in the park. The ride is exciting, fast and fun. Although you are secured with shoulder restraints during the ride, the big game makes for a very pleasant and extremely exciting ride. The many rollovers and the interaction with the second gondola make the ride to something very special and should be tried by each visitor of the park.

Giraffe Tower and Black Fly

The other Fabbri offer of the Zoo Safari- und Hollywoodpark is somewhat more borderline. At the Giraffe Tower freefall tower, for example, you hang at the top for just under a minute and the Frisbee Black Fly unfortunately hardly swings out at all. Nevertheless Fabbri could convince me of the ride comfort of her rides. Besides Zamperla the second Italian manufacturer who could score points with me.

Teetassen-Karussell

Speaking of Zamperla, there are also some rides from this manufacturer in the Zoo Safari- und Hollywoodpark. They are a lot more family-friendly, but this should not be missing in such a park. Thereby, the tea cup carousel Teetassen-Karussell is specially worth mentioning with its extremely smooth-running gondolas that can quickly give you a real turning worm.

Kongo River

Also worth a special mention is the log flume Kongo River by the Dutch manufacturer Van Edgom. The Kongo River is not convincing because of its extremely slow lift speed, but it can certainly knock the socks off any passenger because of its descents, the rapids and the enormous airtime in the double drop. A big praise is due to the personnel at the ride, who did not feel too bad to rescue my cap that flew off during the double drop.

Affenzug

Behind the water ride there is a place with some enclosures. Beside a large enclosure with mostly lazy white lions, one could observe extremely active white tigers during my visit. The station of the Affenzug with which one drives over the monkey island is also located here. During the trip, the monkeys climb around the train and can come very close to the visitor – if it were not for the grids on the train. You can also find the frisbee and a water roundabout.

Marienkäferbahn

Close to the Flying Oil Pump there are several Heege motor swings, which have a nice portion of airtime, as well as a water playground, several children’s attractions and hardly slippery slides by Metalbau Emmeln. The park’s second roller coaster, the so-called Marienkäferbahn, is also located here. In a small wooded area, the big Tivoli Coaster by the manufacturer Zierer takes you through the ground level curves of this classic family roller coaster.

Pictures Zoo Safari- und Hollywoodpark

Closing Words

The Zoo Safari- und Hollywoodpark has a great price/performance ratio. 24€ is quite affordable for what is offered and if you go on a day without shows, like I did, you only have to pay a reduced price (17€50). The rides are (almost) all in a good and well-kept condition and can convince. The park is definitely worth a visit.

 

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Hamburger Sommerdom (2010)

One of my favorite rides by HUSS is the Top Spin. Although I’m not the biggest fan of the large versions, I’m definately one for the smaller ones, as they can offer a much more powerful and variable ride. Plaenert’s Top Spin Nr.2 is a great looking exemple of such a ride. I’ve spend nearly all of my budget at this ride and was never disappointed.

 


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