Denmark 06/17 – Legoland Billund + Tivoli Friheden
Due to the very limited operating season of the region, I failed to hit all the parks in mainland Denmark on my previous visit. Still needed Fårup, Friheden and Drage Kongen had just opened… so lets check things out.
Might find a couple of recycled pictures of some rides from previous visits thrown in here because I was particularly lazy this time. You can probably spot the difference in the weather.
Day 1 – Legoland Billund
We landed in Billund with the sight of Polar X-plorer greeting us from the plane window. Unfortunately I had to endure a revisit in the morning so that Mega-Lite could get the creds.
We ended up in an overflow car park at the back of the park which meant a good 15 minute walk around the perimeter to the entrance. It cost a stupid amount for the parking privilege as well, it’s Alton all over again.
The park itself was so packed full of people that it was a struggle to get around and I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with that, but as we would discover everywhere on this trip, Denmark seems unable to get big queues.
Started with a couple of laps on the best coaster in any Legoland – the Zierer with the drop track. It had only a 10 minute queue and was then walk on after a short and well handled breakdown.
Still found it to be a great family ride that gives you a little something to think about.
Stop building wild mice, start building things like this.
15 minutes for the wild mouse, X-Treme Racers which had also had a well handled breakdown. It was trim braking itself to death after the big drop for some reason, not that it really mattered.
I didn’t realise the powered coaster Dragen could run 2 trains, must be some sorcery going on there. The dark ride section remains well kept and the outside section remains pointless.
Reminded myself how short and pathetic The Temple is, no wonder they decided to buy a second shooting ride for this park. Took a few confused seconds to pinpoint that it was playing the Tomb Blaster theme from Chessington.
Still don’t like Ghost. The hardware is a glorified frog hopper in a park with 3 perfectly suitable frog hoppers. The walkthrough is more of a chore now and the theming isn’t particularly enthralling.
Still like Ninjago, even though it seems impossible to get a hang of the actual shooting, waving arms frantically over sensors with no feedback. It’s a fun little sit down and a definite change of pace.
In true Merlin style, the effects seem to have already been toned down from last year.
Job done.
Tivoli Friheden
I was expecting a crappy Bakken atmosphere from this park for some reason, but this was a really relaxed place to visit. Just not so good on the coaster front.
Didn’t end up taking many (any) photos here because after the nice looking entrance area it quickly begins to look like you’re in the Battlebots arena, with all the exteriors of the rides being covered by soundproofing plexiglass.
Had a moment of realisation that I’ve ridden too many uneventful coasters, as our conversation continued unhindered throughout the Pinfari looper that is #1 Orkanens Øje. Completely zoned it out. +1.
Was quite intrigued by the uniqueness of #2 Cobra, the world’s only Sartori Rides inverted coaster, but didn’t expect much from it. It rode about as well as a middle of the road Vekoma SLC and the layout was mildly interesting, most notably impressive for its use of space rather than the experience.
#3 Bisværmen, the bee themed SBF spinner was a thing.
2nd #4 Dragen of the day, the not quite a wacky worm was a thing.
The Zamperla spinner, #5 Tyfonen didn’t spin at all, by design. And here I was thinking it was just Japan that had weird ideas like that.
Haunted House was the only other attraction that caught my eye. It was a ghost train which stopped dead at screens several times to shoot zombies in a completely non-immersive fashion. Enjoyed the standard themed sections in between those moments a lot more.
I just had to try the SCAD tower, without really thinking too much about the implications. The staff were extremely nice and fantastic at leading people through the experience. While dangling over nothingness I was asked if I was “much of a screamer?” I replied that I wasn’t.
The guy said: “I’ll scream for you then. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Splat.
I’m glad I gave it a go, though I wouldn’t say it was an enjoyable experience for me.
In my head there was very little fear going on, but the instinctive physical lurching reaction in my gut to freefalling backwards, when my body decided “I’m about to die”, wasn’t particularly pleasant.
Sat down on a bench and looked at some pictures to calm down, it did leave me buzzing a bit in it’s own way, then had a round of crazy crazy golf before calling it a day.
Day 2