Legoland Deutschland

Ninja training in Legoland

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Preface

What do you do if you are a fan of the Sky Fly rides of the manufacturer Gerstlauer and completely disregard the opening hours of the Holiday Park in advance but are already in Darmstadt? Certainly not the way back of 500 km to Hamburg, when you can also have a way back of about 1000 km, but with one or the other ride. Surely you shouldn’t make this decision at 10 o’clock in the morning, so that you don’t reach Legoland Deutschland until the afternoon due to the rather modest condition of the south German motorways. At the entrance to the parking lot we found out that the rides close already one hour before the actual closing time of the park, so we only had about 90 minutes left for the park and Flying Ninjago.

Legoland Deutschland

Tempel X-Pedition

In 2013, a good three years after Legoland Billund, the dark ride Tempel X-Pedition opened at Legoland Deutschland, where you can go on an interactive treasure hunt through the Egyptian temple armed with pistols in search of the tomb treasure of the pharaohs. The ride is handsome and original, but a little too short. Although the rides in Billund and Günzburg are the same, the outdoor area here is much more convincing.

Flying Ninjago

In the same year in which the prototype of the Sky Fly rides was presented to the public in Nigloland, France, Flying Ninjago, the second ride of this type, was opened. Since then, the prototype, which was designed after the quite popular in-house animation series Ninjago, has been putting its more or less daring passengers upside down or not, but unfortunately without The Weekend Whip, the title music of the series, as soundtrack. Instead, you accumulate your rollovers under shallow Asian-sounding music, which can be numerous even without much practice. Unfortunately, the ride was operated without the last two rows for most of the time, so that there was some waiting time in the otherwise empty park.

Halloween in Legoland

Interestingly enough, Halloween was already taking place at the time of our visit, which is why the medieval area was significantly redesigned and the Feuerdrache (fire dragon) was therefore shown in a different guise. Nearly all figures were transformed into ghosts with sheets and the soundtracks were deactivated or changed, but this limited the sense of the dark ride before the actual roller coaster part a bit. For the more courageous children there was also a little Maze, which was indeed operated during the week, despite the small crowd.

Pictures Legoland Deutschland

 

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Legoland Deutschland

The acclimatisation garden

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Jardin d’Acclimatation

Acclimatisation means the adaptation of living beings to changing climatic conditions. In order to research the subject, the Jardin Zoologique d’Acclimatation was founded on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, the city’ s famous forest. Opened by Emperor Napoleon III in 1860, the zoological garden soon became more popular, so that even after major losses due to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, visitors quickly flocked back to the park. With the opening of a small narrow-gauge railway, which still today connects the station Porte Maillot with the park, and other attractions, the Jardin d’Acclimatation developed into one of the city’s cultural centres. This direction was encouraged by renewed losses, starting with the First World War, and by general competition.

Today, the Jardin d’Acclimatation offers a beautiful garden, the Village aux Manèges, numerous playgrounds, various sports facilities, a puppet theatre, as well as animal enclosures. Apart from a large aviary and an interesting fallow deer enclosure, the Petite Ferme Normande is largely based on domestic breeds of farm animals, which is of great educational value, especially with regard to the city.

Tacot Express

The Village aux Manèges has two roller coasters as well as various children’s rides, a wave swinger, a Saltamontes with shoulder restraints and a cogs ride. The Tacot Express, a powered roller coaster from Soquet, is located directly on the square with the other rides. The ride starts with a curve, then goes up and down hills. After a right turn, the ride continues with some small hills and then a left turn to reach the highlight of the ride. With absurd rabiatism, the gradient into the tunnel follows, which is similarly surprising as the first drop of the Feuerdrache from Legoland Deutschland. With the speed now clearly present, another bend takes us in the direction of the station, just before the second round follows.

The Tacot Express seems to be a small, manageable ride, but it is full of surprises. In comparison to the more well-known rides of this type, for example the Blauer Enzian by Mack Rides, it trumps all along the line due to its compact design.

Papillon d’Alice

Almost opposite, the cars of the only Reverchon Junior Spinning Coaster are spinning themselves around in the Jardin d’Acclimatation. Papillon d’Alice is the name of this unusual ride and it is as unusual in appearance.  After a small curve, you climb the lift hill and pass a go-kart track. Above a building you make a small hairpin bend before passing a small dip. Continuing at a lofty height, you now drive along parallel to the station, before the rotation of the car is released after another 90° bend. Unfortunately, this is not as pronounced as with the bigger cousins of the same manufacturer, but for a small children’s roller coaster it is quite understandable. Two more long straight lines follow, until the biggest drop of the ride takes place after a block brake. Two directly connected hairpin bends lead into another smaller dip before it comes to the final dip on the way back to the station.

Although the roller coaster doesn’t look particularly spectacular or have any other exciting attributes, this little spinning coaster is first class. For a small children’s roller coaster there are at least far more duller layouts without any twisting effect, so that Papillon d’Alice can be seen as quite a cute ride for in between.

Dragon

A little bit away from the hustle and bustle, at the Jardin de Séoul, there is another roller coaster from Soquet: the Dragon. After a right turn you climb up the first friction wheel lift and another turn later the first drop of the ride takes place, at the end of which the next friction wheel lift is already waiting. Now you pass a left turn and drive through a tree, before, not surprisingly, another friction wheel lift comes up. The following drop is only used to build up the necessary speed for the next curve and therefore pushes you straight into it without paying any attention on your body. Clearly surprised you pass the station in order to make another lap.

Although the dragon is by far not as ingeniously absurd as the vintage car express in the front part of the Jardin d’Acclimatation, this ride is also quite convincing. The curve, which has been reworked after the construction, is just as strange as the very compact layout with the tree and its three lift hills.

Pictures Jardin d’Acclimatation

Conclusion Jardin d’Acclimatation

The Jardin d’Acclimatation is a great little leisure park in the most metaphorical sense, because no place seems to care as much about leisure as the garden does. Although there are some rides, these generally do not define the park and only make up a small part of the time spent here. The cultural offer of the park is relatively large and can entertain a family with children in connection with the animal enclosures and playgrounds throughout the year in a good and inexpensive way, because apart from the low entrance fee, you only pay a small price for every ride. Moreover, the prices of the gastronomy are also much more appropriate than generally in Paris, although you are not so far away from the actual tourist destinations.

 

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Jardin d'Acclimatation

A day at Legoland Billund

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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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Legoland Billund