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livMy amazing partners planned a trip to Legoland! It's the kind of thing I probably wouldn't have considered without encouragement; I'm not really a theme park person, and it's about 5 times more money than I'd usually expect to spend on a holiday. But it was an absolutely wonderful experience and I'm really glad I am in a relationship with people who do trips like that.
Going with my polycule (quad plusghoti_mhic_uait's other partner) and two children aged 6 and 9 was just about perfect. It would likely be fun for adults only, and it would likely be fun for younger or older children, but it was absolutely magical this year. Everything about the whole land is organized just right, all geared towards fun and excitement and convenience. And I really liked the ways the park contains a mixture of rides with, essentially, artworks made of Lego; it's much more interesting than any other theme park I've been to. There are a number of sculptures which you can only get a good view of by going on the rides, so it's all one integrated experience. The last two hours they close the rides but you can still wander about looking at all the cool Lego sculptures and Miniland, which is a giant model railway version of Europe.
Travel was a bit unpleasant, with our flight getting in two hours late so we were left wandering around a very deserted Billund airport at midnight. Plus the first thing I saw when I got off the plane was a Nordfront sticker promoting my murder; there isn't anything one can do about that other than try to put it out of mind, but it really wasn't a good start. We managed to catch an ordinary municipal bus to the hotel, which is fantastically exciting even when it's the middle of the night and you're travel weary.
We had three full days, which was enough to see and do everything without feeling rushed, and enjoy the way that everything in the hotel is made out of Lego (they even have a working post box). We arrived late Saturday night; Sunday and Monday the park was quite crowded because it was a bank holiday weekend, as we hadn't realized that Denmark has their bank holiday actually on Pentecost rather than a random week in May. But we had the place basically to ourselves on day three, it being school term in England and Germany as well as Denmark. Even when it's quite full, the park is incredibly well organized. All the queues have Lego to play with and fun things to look at, and actually we never waited more than about 20 minutes. Another thing I loved was that there are Lego workmen all over the place pretending to build or repair both the park and the hotel. Also tiny dragons indicating who should use which toilet: girl dragons, boy dragons, explicitly NB dragons, wheelchair-using dragons, non-wheelchair using disabled dragons.
The first day we kind of zipped about all over the place mostly chasing after whatever Andreas was excited about. Which made it a bit tiring since we were walking back and forth across a fairly large park from 10 am to 8 pm. Day two we were more systematic and made sure to visit all the areas we hadn't been to on the first day. And we had a bit more time and energy at the end of the day to sit around playing with the Lego – both the park and the hotel have pools of Lego at every corner. And the third day, we revisited all the rides we'd particularly enjoyed, some of them several times since there was no queue.
I really liked the variety, there's a huge mix of rides. Gentle rides where you just go round a track looking at the cool Lego, including boats, a monorail, a little train, 'cars' on rails and all sorts. A small number of actual thrill rides (which I mostly avoided), and a really interesting variety of all-ages rides. The obvious classics like smaller roller coasters were really enhanced by having a gentle section with Lego scenery as well as the exciting speedy bits. And there were some completely non-obvious things, like a ride where you program a robot arm to swing your seat around, and a couple of rides where you interact with the scenery, a VR Ninjago-themed one and a not!Indiana Jones ruined temple where you shoot at targets. My favourite was a log flume ride which gently meanders along a river past several scenes of American wildlife, and then ends with the classic dump you over a waterfall thrill section. I think my favourite sculpture was the reproductions of the world's tallest towers, but I basically loved all of them.
And eating food was just amazingly easy, expensive, yes, but Denmark is expensive and the exchange rate is not in our favour, so I don't think we could have saved money by doing things less conveniently. We had breakfast at a buffet in the hotel which provided enough food to keep us going through the day, and plenty of variety. Lunches included a pizza and pasta buffet in a restaurant that has a view of the penguin pool (actual living penguins, not Lego ones); somewhat indifferent burgers in a beautifully Lego-themed diner (they had celebrity patron photos of Lego characters, and chips shaped like Lego bricks); and rather nice grill in a Wild West saloon. And we had nice fairly standard icecream van icecream for Shavuot; Denmark has a flavour called Børnescoop which is stripes of pear, vanilla and strawberry, and many many different colours of slushies another day. Dinner was hotel buffets again; at the weekend we were able to eat in a pirate-themed family restaurant, and on weekdays in the main buffet. But basically there were plenty of options everywhere in the park, so you didn't have to plan your day around the one place that serves actual meals rather than just sweets and chips.
I agree withjack that the Wild West theming in one area is somewhat unfortunate. It's very cowboys-and-Indians, and yes, they use the word 'Indians'. Mostly I liked the way the land, celebrating its golden jubilee this year, keeps the older elements while adding new stuff, but that could really do with an update.
Also Danish is very strange, because I can read it pretty fluently, but the pronunciation is so distant from Swedish that I can't understand or produce even the simplest phrases. We had a lot of odd conversations in a mixture of English, Swedish, Norwegian (which my partners speak a little) and German, but we got by.
Travel home was impressively easy; we had time to eat a meal between the park closing and needing to be at the airport just down the road. And in the middle of the week the airport and plane were very uncrowded. The awkward part was that I'd managed to commit to a work conference in York the day after we arrived in Stansted at midnight. I ended up staying in an airport hotel and getting a train at 6 am, so that wasn't ideal, but clearly nobody's fault but my own.
Basically it was just purely enjoyable from start to finish, and I'm really glad I got the experience. I am not sure whether I'll go back; probably not very often, because it was worth the money once but I would probably rather either do something cheaper or something completely new. And at some point I may get round to sorting out photos so I can post some, but if I held up until then I'd never actually put the post up, so.
Going with my polycule (quad plus
ghoti_mhic_uait's other partner) and two children aged 6 and 9 was just about perfect. It would likely be fun for adults only, and it would likely be fun for younger or older children, but it was absolutely magical this year. Everything about the whole land is organized just right, all geared towards fun and excitement and convenience. And I really liked the ways the park contains a mixture of rides with, essentially, artworks made of Lego; it's much more interesting than any other theme park I've been to. There are a number of sculptures which you can only get a good view of by going on the rides, so it's all one integrated experience. The last two hours they close the rides but you can still wander about looking at all the cool Lego sculptures and Miniland, which is a giant model railway version of Europe. Travel was a bit unpleasant, with our flight getting in two hours late so we were left wandering around a very deserted Billund airport at midnight. Plus the first thing I saw when I got off the plane was a Nordfront sticker promoting my murder; there isn't anything one can do about that other than try to put it out of mind, but it really wasn't a good start. We managed to catch an ordinary municipal bus to the hotel, which is fantastically exciting even when it's the middle of the night and you're travel weary.
We had three full days, which was enough to see and do everything without feeling rushed, and enjoy the way that everything in the hotel is made out of Lego (they even have a working post box). We arrived late Saturday night; Sunday and Monday the park was quite crowded because it was a bank holiday weekend, as we hadn't realized that Denmark has their bank holiday actually on Pentecost rather than a random week in May. But we had the place basically to ourselves on day three, it being school term in England and Germany as well as Denmark. Even when it's quite full, the park is incredibly well organized. All the queues have Lego to play with and fun things to look at, and actually we never waited more than about 20 minutes. Another thing I loved was that there are Lego workmen all over the place pretending to build or repair both the park and the hotel. Also tiny dragons indicating who should use which toilet: girl dragons, boy dragons, explicitly NB dragons, wheelchair-using dragons, non-wheelchair using disabled dragons.
The first day we kind of zipped about all over the place mostly chasing after whatever Andreas was excited about. Which made it a bit tiring since we were walking back and forth across a fairly large park from 10 am to 8 pm. Day two we were more systematic and made sure to visit all the areas we hadn't been to on the first day. And we had a bit more time and energy at the end of the day to sit around playing with the Lego – both the park and the hotel have pools of Lego at every corner. And the third day, we revisited all the rides we'd particularly enjoyed, some of them several times since there was no queue.
I really liked the variety, there's a huge mix of rides. Gentle rides where you just go round a track looking at the cool Lego, including boats, a monorail, a little train, 'cars' on rails and all sorts. A small number of actual thrill rides (which I mostly avoided), and a really interesting variety of all-ages rides. The obvious classics like smaller roller coasters were really enhanced by having a gentle section with Lego scenery as well as the exciting speedy bits. And there were some completely non-obvious things, like a ride where you program a robot arm to swing your seat around, and a couple of rides where you interact with the scenery, a VR Ninjago-themed one and a not!Indiana Jones ruined temple where you shoot at targets. My favourite was a log flume ride which gently meanders along a river past several scenes of American wildlife, and then ends with the classic dump you over a waterfall thrill section. I think my favourite sculpture was the reproductions of the world's tallest towers, but I basically loved all of them.
And eating food was just amazingly easy, expensive, yes, but Denmark is expensive and the exchange rate is not in our favour, so I don't think we could have saved money by doing things less conveniently. We had breakfast at a buffet in the hotel which provided enough food to keep us going through the day, and plenty of variety. Lunches included a pizza and pasta buffet in a restaurant that has a view of the penguin pool (actual living penguins, not Lego ones); somewhat indifferent burgers in a beautifully Lego-themed diner (they had celebrity patron photos of Lego characters, and chips shaped like Lego bricks); and rather nice grill in a Wild West saloon. And we had nice fairly standard icecream van icecream for Shavuot; Denmark has a flavour called Børnescoop which is stripes of pear, vanilla and strawberry, and many many different colours of slushies another day. Dinner was hotel buffets again; at the weekend we were able to eat in a pirate-themed family restaurant, and on weekdays in the main buffet. But basically there were plenty of options everywhere in the park, so you didn't have to plan your day around the one place that serves actual meals rather than just sweets and chips.
I agree with
jack that the Wild West theming in one area is somewhat unfortunate. It's very cowboys-and-Indians, and yes, they use the word 'Indians'. Mostly I liked the way the land, celebrating its golden jubilee this year, keeps the older elements while adding new stuff, but that could really do with an update.Also Danish is very strange, because I can read it pretty fluently, but the pronunciation is so distant from Swedish that I can't understand or produce even the simplest phrases. We had a lot of odd conversations in a mixture of English, Swedish, Norwegian (which my partners speak a little) and German, but we got by.
Travel home was impressively easy; we had time to eat a meal between the park closing and needing to be at the airport just down the road. And in the middle of the week the airport and plane were very uncrowded. The awkward part was that I'd managed to commit to a work conference in York the day after we arrived in Stansted at midnight. I ended up staying in an airport hotel and getting a train at 6 am, so that wasn't ideal, but clearly nobody's fault but my own.
Basically it was just purely enjoyable from start to finish, and I'm really glad I got the experience. I am not sure whether I'll go back; probably not very often, because it was worth the money once but I would probably rather either do something cheaper or something completely new. And at some point I may get round to sorting out photos so I can post some, but if I held up until then I'd never actually put the post up, so.
