Legoland Billund Resort

Legoland Billund
Location Billund, Denmark
Coordinates 55°44′8″N 9°7′34″E / 55.73556°N 9.12611°E / 55.73556; 9.12611Coordinates: 55°44′8″N 9°7′34″E / 55.73556°N 9.12611°E / 55.73556; 9.12611
Owner Merlin Entertainments
Opened June 7, 1958
Operating season March - October
Visitors per annum 1.9 million (2011)
Area 140,000 m2 (35 acres)
Rides
Total 50
Roller coasters 4
Water rides 2
Website http://www.legoland.dk

Legoland Billund, the original Legoland park, opened on June 7, 1968 in Billund, Denmark. The park is located next to the original Lego factory and Denmark's second busiest airport Billund Airport. Over 1.9 million guests visited the park in 2011 and since the opening more than 50 million guests have visited the park. This makes Legoland the largest tourist attraction in Denmark outside of Copenhagen. The Legoland parks that have since been built are modelled upon Legoland Billund, most noticeably the Miniland area which is made up of millions of Lego bricks.

History

The first Legoland was built next door to the Lego factory that was founded by Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1949. His son, Godtfred, took over the family business in 1957 when his father died and just two years later he bought out his three brothers. In 1968 Godtfred decided to open a 14-acre Legoland Park to promote his toy business. The park became an instant success and has over the years added many original rides. The now 45-acre park is divided into nine themed areas: Duplo Land, Imagination Zone, LEGOREDO Town, Adventure Land, Lego City, Knight's Kingdom, Mini Land, Pirate Land, and Polar Land.

Today, Legoland Billund is the most visited tourist attraction in Jylland. Five other Legolands have been built in other parts of the world: Legoland Windsor in 1996, Legoland California in 1999, Legoland Germany in 2002, Legoland Florida in 2011, and Legoland Malaysia in 2012. In 2005 the investment firm Blackstone bought a 70% controlling stake in Legoland, with the remaining 30% still owned by Lego. The parks are operated under the Merlin banner.

Themed Lego Lands

Mini Land is the heart of any Legoland park. The 1:20 scale Lego brick models feature landscapes, sights and buildings from all over Denmark as well as famous landmarks from other parts of the world, these include from Denmark: Amalienborg Castle, Nyhavn, Skagen, Klampenborg Station, Ribe, Billund Airport, Dybbøl Mill, Møgeltønder, Lilleby (a fictional Danish village). In addition there are famous landmarks from Sweden, Bergen in Norway, Scotland, Germany, the Netherlands, Kennedy Space Center, Mount Rushmore, Abu Simbel in Egypt, Statue of Liberty, Acropolis of Athens, and Star Wars. The Lego Top offers a nice view of the entire park. The structures were made using more than 25 million Lego bricks.

Duplo Land contains rides and attractions for young children, with the Lego Duplo brand name. The Duplo Playhouse is a play area for children ages 2–6, which is themed like a city that children can play in. They can build using Lego, or play on fake planes and fake cars. There are also slides, stairs, interactive elements and a role-play area. The Duplo train, which is a kiddie train ride that looks like a train made of Duplo bricks, takes two minutes to complete. Duplo Planes is a plane ride similar to Disney's Dumbo ride, but with a Lego theme. Duplo driving school is a car ride for children ages 2–6, who are not yet ready for the Traffic school ride.

This zone contains the Lego Studio, a purpose built 600 seat 4-D Theater, complete with special effects and a giant screen. There are 4 movies that play daily (2010), these are Lego Racers, Spellbreaker, Bob the Builder 4D, and Clutch Powers. Lego Atlantis by Sea Life was added in 2007. The attraction starts off with an animated movie, featuring Lego figures and a submarine that travels down to the submerged city of Atlantis. There is also a Sea Life aquarium and other hands on activities with more than 800 sea creatures. Numerous Lego figures and models are in and around the aquarium.

LEGOREDO Town is a Western-themed land which contains the rides Lego Canoe, LEGOLDMINE, Westernride, Timber Ride, LEGOLDMINE Train. There is also an Indian camp led by the popular Chief Long Ears (referring to the long rabbit ears on his headgear). LEGOREDO also has its own band called "The Rattlesnakes" and they play country music all day long. The mountain terrain of Lego Canoe offers a scenic background, directly opposite on the other side of the town is the hilly landscape of The Mine Train which travels through mines in the mountain.

Pirate Land is a pirate-themed area. It features the Pirate Splash Battle where participants get wet. Other rides include: Pirate Wave Breaker, Pirate Water Falls and Pirate Boats.

This area contains some of the park's more exciting rides such as the wild mouse roller coaster X-treme Racers. Jungle Racers jet ski ride has a jungle theme and spins the riders quite fast. In 2010, The Temple was introduced: an indoor ride where riders board Explorer SUVs and are equipped with laser guns to shoot at moving targets in 11 different scenes themed to ancient Egypt, the land of the Phaeros. The Temple has a game area with an Egyptian theme as well, containing ring-toss, water-shooting, balloon-popping and a mummy game. The area contains two gift shops (Temple Gifts and Adventure Shop) and two restaurants.

This part of the park previously contained power builders, a bionicles themed ride (now changed to ice pilots school), now only contains the Flunck Fire Brigade, a ride where you take your assigned vehicle to the scene of a fire where you and your fellow firefighters have to put out a fire in a building, and the fastest team wins.

Knight's Kingdom contains The Dragon coaster which is located inside a medieval Castle. The ride starts with a slow moving dark ride scene with Lego figures themed to medieval times that includes a mighty dragon. Viking's River Splash is a Viking-themed river rapids ride that was added in 2006 and has plenty of wet surprises on the way. Riders' photos are taken at the end of the ride. Knight's Kingdom also has Granny's Apple Farms Restaurant, Knight's Barbecue Grill and Castle Burgers.

Polar Land is a North Pole and South Pole themed area and is the newest part of the park, having opened in 2012. It features the Polar X-plorer roller coaster, Penguin Bay featuring live penguins, and Ice Pilots School. In Polar Land, visitors can eat at Polar Pizza and Pasta with a view overlooking the Penguin Bay habitat.[1]

Roller coasters

Ride name Type Year opened Themed land Additional information
Dragen (The Dragon) steel sit down 1997 Knight's Kingdom Starts inside the medieval castle with a large dragon intimidating the riders; height limit 100 cm.
Polar X-plorer steel sit down 2012 Polar Land A Polar-themed family coaster that reaches a speed of 65 km/h with a 5-meter freefall drop section; height limit 120 cm.
Timber Ride steel sit down 1978 Legoredo Town Reaches a speed of 26 km/h (16 mph) on a 60 meter long track (197 ft) and a height of 3 meters (9.8 feet); height limit none / 100 cm alone. Permanently closed as of August 19, 2013.
X-Treme Racers steel sit down wild mouse 2002 Adventureland A wild mouse coaster that reaches a speed of 56 km/h (35 mph) on a 400 meter long track (1312 ft) and a height of 16 m (52 ft); height limit 120 cm.

Water rides

Other rides

Kiddie rides

Shows

Extras

Special events

The park hosts many special events throughout the season, including a Halloween celebration, firework shows, and Star Wars days.

Accidents

On April 29, 2007, a 21-year-old female employee was killed by a roller coaster when she climbed over a security fence to retrieve a guest's wallet.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ LegoLand Billund (October 11, 2011). "Get ready for Polar Land – this year’s big news in LEGOLAND®". LegoLand Billund. Archived from the original on October 19, 2011. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
  2. ↑ "Legoland Employee Dies After Being Hit by Roller Coaster". AP. 2007-04-30. Retrieved 2008-09-08.

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