After picking up our car in Gothenburg, it was time to begin our drive across Europe. As I mentioned in my previous article, we had bought a car through Volvo’s Overseas Delivery Program back in December 2011, but because it was during the winter we only made it to Copenhagen. This time around, we made a brief stop in Copenhagen for dinner before continuing on to Odense, Denmark where we spent the night. The next morning, we made the short drive to Billund and the original Legoland Park.
If you're a fan of Lego, Billund is Mecca, and the Legoland here is the original theme park that has spawned other Legoland parks around the world. We have visited the Legoland parks in California, Florida, and Windsor, and as you would expect there are a number of similarities between the original park and its offspring. The layout of Legoland Billund is similar to Florida and California with an elongated design that creates some dead ends and can be tricky to navigate if you’re not a regular visitor to the park. The park’s Miniland is located near the front entrance, and focuses on European destinations, but does include some American locations as well as another display featuring skyscrapers from around the world.
One of the most striking differences I noticed about this Miniland was the level of complexity with the animation of the displays. While other Minilands we’ve visited have had some impressive animated scenes, the ones here were incredible, including a portion where Lego boats actually went systematically through a series of locks.
Size-wise, Billund’s Miniland isn’t that much bigger than the Legolands we’ve been to, but the details in the displays are on another level.
Speaking of another level, the amount of fine Lego details and flourishes are beyond what you will find in other Legoland parks. There’s Lego everywhere, from the signs to the buildings to the landscaping. As with other Legoland parks, there are plenty of elaborate Lego sculptures and displays, particularly near rides and in attraction queues, but if you look more closely, you’ll see Lego literally everywhere and in places you’d least expect.
As far as attractions go, Legoland Billund has a number of rides that you will find at other parks around the world. However, one of the most popular, Driving School, is actually an upcharge attraction in Denmark costing @$12/person. Perhaps this is a way for the park to manage the popularity of an attraction that has a very limited capacity, but it seems a bit over the top to charge kids extra for an attraction that represents a rite of passage for youngsters. The Traffic School course is exceptionally detailed, but didn’t seem that much different than the other versions of the attraction we’ve seen at other Legoland parks.
Since it was shaping up to be a pretty busy day when we arrived, we went straight to the back of the park to Polar Land (after taking a spin on Ninjago the Ride along the way – very similar to the other versions we’ve ridden). Polar Land is where the park’s two most adult-oriented rides are located. The first is Polar X-plorer, which is a Zierer drop track coaster with trains themed to look like a really long snowmobile. The coaster opened the same year as Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and was the second coaster in the world with a vertical drop track (after Th13teen at Alton Towers). The ride starts out with a standard lift hill that takes you a little over 60 feet up, but despite the sedate 40mph top speed, there are still some decent forces as the train makes tight turns around a mountain at the center of the layout, where the drop track is located (and hidden from view). I thought Polar X-plorer was decent, and it’s approachable for the younger Legoland audience, but while it’s probably the most thrilling coaster in the park, it’s not going to thrill those who have ridden a lot of coasters.
Next to Polar X-plorer is a hanger-like structure where another more adult-oriented attraction is located. Ice Pilots School is a Kuka arm attraction where guests can program their own ride sequence with as many (or few) crazy maneuvers you can fit into the ride cycle time. Similar to Sum of all Thrills, that used to operate at EPCOT, guests are directed to touch screens where they can select from a series of different movements that are grouped by intensity. If you want to just gently sway back and forth for a couple of minutes, you can certainly do that here, but if you prefer something more intense, there are plenty of different selections that will flip you upside down as many times as you can stand over the approximately two minute ride cycle. With just six Kuka arms available here, Ice Pilots School has a pretty limited capacity, which is why we wanted to hit it earlier in the day.
Another more adult-oriented attraction that we experienced was Apocalypseburg Sky Battle located in the Lego Movie World section of the park.
This is a flat ride where guests ride in individual planes and can move the wings back and forth to spin your seat upside down. Unlike the similar version of this attraction we rode at Liseberg, the one here has a support that spins the seats at a slight angle that makes it easier to generate inversions. This was a fun flat ride, but lines that were steadily over 30 minutes all day meant that we only had time for one spin on the attraction.
Next to Apocalypseburg Sky Battle is Emmet’s Flying Adventure – Masters of Flight, which is a flying theater attraction like Soarin’. Like other non-Disney versions of this type of attraction, guests are queued to seats on one of the three levels of the theater where the ride simply turns the seats towards the giant screen instead of lifting the seats into the theater. The movie is vivid, but in Danish, so a bit difficult to understand if you don’t know the language.
The final adult-oriented attraction we experienced was Ghost – The Haunted House.
This attraction starts with an elaborate walk-through section with flashlights mounted to railings that guests can point at various targets to trigger effects in various haunted-themed Lego displays. As walk-through attractions go this one is really well done with plenty of things to look at and play with, but there’s actually a ride at the end of the walk-through portion of the attraction. The ride portion is a drop ride system that flings guests up and down tracks mounted to the wall. The ride is all about surprise, and as the show plays out in the center of the room, guests are lured into a sense of security until they’re launched upwards and pulled back to the floor when you least expect it. The ride itself probably isn’t more than 30 feet tall, but it’s a lot of fun.
We also made sure not to miss the Pirate Boats, which is essentially a Lego version of Pirates of the Caribbean. There are scenes here straight out of Disneyland, but it’s always cute to see how Lego puts their mark on what are classic and well-known theme park rides.
We also took a spin on Legoland staples like Jungle Racers (spinning airboat flat ride) and The Temple (shooting gallery dark ride).
However, we didn’t have time to experience The Dragon, Wild Eagle (kiddie coaster), or X-treme Racers (wild mouse coaster) given how crowded the park was. We also had reservations at another Lego-themed attraction in Billund that's separate from Legoland.
In downtown Billund, you will find the Lego House, which is more or less a museum for Lego.
Lego House has an interesting architectural style that is captured in a set you can only purchase in the gift shop, in addition to other exclusive sets only available here. However, while we were definitely interested in the exclusive sets available at Lego House, we were primarily here to eat dinner at the Mini Chef restaurant. Legoland Billund has some great themed restaurants, but the Mini Chef at Lego House is one of the most unique themed restaurants you’ll find anywhere in the world. Reservations are highly recommended, and we had made ours a number of weeks in advance since we knew we were only spending a day in Billund and wanted to maximize our time in the theme park. When you are seated, you’ll notice that there are two giant robots near the kitchen. Their names are Robert and Roberta, and they will serve your meal when it’s ready. It’s a bit like the Roller Coaster Restaurant concepts around the world where the backstage kitchen prepares the orders and then they slide down tracks inside cleverly designed Lego-shaped containers and are pushed into the pickup bay by the robot servers.
However, the theming here goes beyond how your meals are served, because at Mini Chef, guests place their orders using Lego. At each table there are bags of colored Lego pieces that represent various menu items. Guests can choose one piece of each color representing the different parts of their meal (protein, starch, vegetable, and side), with the shape of the piece corresponding to a different menu item. Instead of placing your order with a server, you take a specially designed tray from the tabletop ordering unit (looks a bit like a jukebox at a diner) and fit the Lego pieces matching your order onto the tray. You then slide the tray into the unit, and your order pops up on the screen.
If your order is accurate, you touch a button to confirm the order, and the Mini Chef gets to work preparing your meal. It’s great fun, and you get to keep the Lego pieces when you’re done. If you order a kid’s meal (same as the adult meal minus one of the sides), you get an exclusive minifigure of Mini Chef. Of course, there are plenty of Legos located in bins throughout the dining room to play with while you’re waiting for your meal, as well as Lego builds throughout the restaurant to marvel at. Everything about Mini Chef was so clever, right down to the containers that your meals are served in, and if you’re still hungry, human staff can bring you additional servings of the sides (only one round of the protein sadly).
The food was pretty good, but eating at Mini Chef is not necessarily about the quality of the meal, it’s about the experience. If you find yourself at Legoland Billund, this Lego-themed experience outside the park is one you won’t want to miss.
Next up – The Efteling
Previously – Liseberg
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Glad you enjoyed Billund! Thanks for sharing some helpful things about Legoland. We are doing the Insider Tour in October and can't wait to checkout Lego House / Legoland :)