What does Bart say? – A Theme Park blog!

LEGOLAND Deutschland opened in 2002 as the third LEGOLAND park in Europe. Did you know this location could have been the fourth LEGOLAND park in Europe? No? Neither did I! While I’m working on an article I like to look into the history of a park, that’s when I found out that there used to be another LEGOLAND Park in Germany and you probably have heard of it! Hansa-Park used to be a LEGOLAND park, fun fact right? Let’s get back to the LEGOLAND Deutschland park in Günzburg where this article is all about. This park is relatively close to Stuttgart, and as a LEGO fan I had to visit this park. After visiting LEGOLAND Windsor I was curious to see what the German park was all about. Despite the fact that both parks are somewhat similar, they are still different. Curious about my opinion of LEGOLAND Deutschland? Find out now in.. What does Bart say about.. LEGOLAND Deutschland 🧱.

As soon as you drive into the car park, you are immersed in the LEGO atmosphere. Along the side of the road, various LEGO references and figures greet you, which makes me (as a big LEGO fan) even more enthusiastic about my day at the park. The car park is very large for a relatively small park, which worried me a little. When a small amusement park has a large car park, you can be almost certain that the park expects (or may expect) large crowds. And unfortunately, this was indeed the case during my visit. To be on the safe side, I had purchased a Fast Pass 4 before my visit (this allows you to skip 4 attractions without waiting), and I am glad I did. Without this Fast Pass, I would probably have been able to do a lot fewer attractions. I have to add the indicated waiting times were long, but at most attractions (and I want to emphasise most), the operators work hard, which resulted in the queue hardly ever coming to a standstill.

LEGOLAND has 4 different Fast Passes, the costs of which vary (depending on the type of Fast Pass and the expected crowds). If you want to use a fast pass, I recommend purchasing it online. It is possible to purchase it on the day itself at the information desk, but there is a chance that fast passes will no longer be available or will be more expensive than the online price.

At present, the park has four roller coasters, but at the time of opening of LEGOLAND Deutschland in 2002 there were only two: “Das Große LEGO Rennen”, a MACK Wild Mouse and “Feuerdrache”, a Zierer Force. The “Das Große LEGO Rennen” is one of the larger attractions you encounter when you enter the park. This roller coaster is clearly visible from the car park and gets a long queue, especially at the start of the day. Since I hadn’t seen the rest of the park yet, I decided not to use my fastpass for this and joined the 40-minute queue. Like I mentioned earlier the operators work hard and they kept on dispatching trains. Halfway through the queue, I realised that the fastpass queue merges with the regular queue, which means that even with a fastpass, you still have to wait around 15 minutes. The “Das Große LEGO Rennen” is a fun Wild Mouse, similar to those were used to from MACK, and apart from a few sections it runs very smoothly. It’s a shame that the queue remained around 40 minutes all day, because I would have liked to give this another ride. If you are taller, I recommend riding it in the back, you will have more legroom here, and wasting a credit because you are taller is not only a waste of your credit, but also of queue time and any fastpass you may have used.

The area where “Das Große LEGO Rennen” is located is called “LEGO X-Treme”, and this is probably the most inappropriate name for one of the areas in the park. While most theme areas live up to their name, surroundings and attractions, this is anything but the case in this area. Apart from the “Das Große LEGO Rennen”, there are mainly flat rides, a 4D cinema, the Sea Life centre and a restaurant. Don’t get fooled by the submarine at the entrance of the Sea Life centre, this isn’t a ride like LEGOLAND Windsor, but a walkthrough.

I hardly dare to say it, but I’ve seen more LEGO castles than Disney castles. In fact, I’ve never been to any of the Disneyland parks before. When I tell people this, they often look at me strangely. I’ve visited quite a few parks in Europe, but I’ve never been to Disneyland. Before I digress too much, let’s get back to the LEGOLAND castle. The “Feuerdrache” opened in 2002, as mentioned earlier, and combines a dark ride with a roller coaster. When I rode the “Dragon” at LEGOLAND Windsor I was very impressed with what they set up there. With the knowledge of what they did with the “Dragon” I entered the queueline with high expectations of the “Feuerdrache”. My expectations were more than exceeded, and I can say with certainty that the “Feuerdrache” has a better dark ride scene, and effects during the ride then the “Dragon” at LEGOLAND Windsor. The dark ride scenes are well put together, and the decision to install a Zierer roller coaster for the “Feuerdrache” instead of a roller coaster from WGH Transportation makes a big difference. Whereas the “Dragon” is fairly tame, the “Feuerdrache” is anything but tame!

In 2003, the “Land der Ritter” was expanded with a Junior Coaster from Gerstlauer, named “Drachenjagd”. As a credit hunter you probably know the sentence a cred is a cred. So, to increase your credit score, you have to overcome your embarrassment and join a queue where the average age is considerably lower than your own.  Watching the train go by from the queue it did seem like a harmless kiddiecoaster, but in reality it was anything but harmless! After the first descent, the train picked up quite some speed, and it tore the train through the track. I didn’t see this coming, and you could tell from the action photo that was taken, haha. You can see the fear on my face in that photo. In hindsight, I should have bought it, but then the photo would end up in a drawer somewhere and I would probably never look at it again. You do two laps, and even though I was prepared for it, I was still shocked by the speed the train picked up after the first descent  the second time around.

The “Land der Ritter” is one of the greenest areas in LEGOLAND Deutschland, which is remarkable for a park that opened 23 years ago. There is plenty of greenery around the park, but you hardly see any inside the park itself. With the lack of greenery in the park,the themed areas don’t flow nicely into each other. Which ensures that attractions don’t get the love and attention they deserve. In terms of maintenance, they look good, but it takes away some of the excitement because no suspense will be built up walking to the entrance of the ride. Most rides are fairly hidden between greenery in the “Land of Knights”. But the attractions in areas such as the “Land of Pharaohs” towards “LEGO Mythica” deserve more greenery, or at least a clear boundary. ‘Lego Mythica’ opened in 2023, but you can clearly see this area from the “Land of Pharaohs”  which is a shame for both areas.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you probably know about my mission to ride every B&M in Europe. With my recent visit to LEGOLAND Deutschland I was able to add another B&M to my credit list. When you’re active in the themepark community you probably have read about the B&M curse, especially with roller coasters they have opened in the past few years. They  aren’t smooth and have a slight rattle shortly after opening. In 2023 LEGOLAND Deutschland expanded the park with the “LEGO Mythica” area, featuring several flat rides, a catering location and the B&M Wing Coaster “Maximus – Der Flug des Wächters”. I saved this roller coaster until last, expecting it to be the best roller coaster in the park (and it is), but after the first ride, I was disappointed. Secretly, I had hoped that this roller coaster had escaped the B&M curse, but unfortunately it didn’t, the safety bar felt very uncomfortable, and the ride lasted just long enough not to become painful.

When you ride a roller coaster for the first time it’s often not your best ride experience. With my fast pass still in my pocket, I joined the queue again to see if a second ride would make any difference, but again I experienced an uncomfortable, almost painful ride (riding it front row didn’t change much). I’ve had 2 rides on “Maximus – Der Flug des Wächters”, and on both rides I sat on the “right wing” which is a shame, I really would have liked to experience the “left wing”. I only can compare riding it in the front and back of the train on the “right wing”. With a 45-minute queue, no more fast passes and no option to choose between the “left” or “right wing” in the queue, I didn’t want to risk ending up on the “right wing” again. I’m pretty sure that the grouper will let you choose your wing on a quiet day, but on a day like my visit they didn’t allow it.

For a newly opened roller coaster, the queue is very illogically organised. There are clear queues for the regular guests, single riders and fast pass users. Just before the station, the single rider and fast pass queues merge which causes confusion for the single riders fast pass users. The grouper has to ask everyone waiting in line “Who has a fast pass?”.  And as soon as I indicated that I had a fast pass ready to go, I had to pass the single riders queue to enter the station. It felt very uncomfortable to walk past the single riders waiting in line.  Surely there must be a better way.. right, LEGOLAND?

The unique thing about LEGOLAND parks is that Miniland is never the same anywhere. Whereas at LEGOLAND Windsor I saw famous landmarks and cities from England, here, as the name suggests, it’s all about German landmarks and cities. I’ve visited quite a few German cities, I could recognise some of the landmarks and reminisce by walking past these buildings. While we walked past  “Hamburg” I immediately recognised the “Hamburg Dom” (a large fair in Hamburg) and the Hamburg harbour where the boat “Queen” departed for a trip (I saw this boat sail away and return from the Hard Rock Cafe Hamburg roof terrace). This is not particularly remarkable in itself, but at that moment it was wonderful to see this boat sail away. Miniland would not be complete without a glimpse of its neighbour, the Netherlands. And as a proud Dutchman, I had to pause for a moment to see how they represent our country. It’s quite impressive how they recreated these buildings with LEGO bricks, you probably need a lot of patience and creativity to recreate these buildings.

If you are curious about how LEGO bricks are made, you can visit the LEGO factory, where you can see for yourself how the bricks are made. This is a unique experience, but I will suggest only visiting the factory when you have some spare time. With the number of people going through the factory at once it was almost impossible to calmly watch the process. If you want to take your time and watch it at a leisurely pace, there are plenty of explanatory videos available on the internet, and you can use your time in the park for other attractions or possible re-rides.

LEGOLAND Deutschland is definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area, and if you can spare a little extra to purchase a fast pass, I recommend doing so. I had already expected it to be busy in the park, as I was going during the summer season (in August). But with the purchases off my fast pass I could ensure that I was able to go on the roller coasters and major attractions in the park, with enough time to grab a bite to eat and have a break between rides. My day didn’t feel rushed, even with the crowds in the park.

I thought the prices for drinks and food were on the pricey side (the portions are very large, and some of them are easily enough for two people to share). Throughout the park various Coca Cola freestyle machines can be found (a refill is possible every 15 minutes) which makes it worth buying a freestyle cup. I have often experienced freestyle vending machines not working, or several drinks no longer being available, but that was not the case here. In fact, the selection was very extensive and included not only soft drinks, but also various fruit juices and water.

The PEPPA PIG Park:
Although the focus of this article was on LEGOLAND Deutschland, I think the PEPPA PIG park is worth mentioning. PEPPA PIG Park is located across from LEGOLAND Deutschland and is mainly aimed at the little ones, but don’t let that stop you, because PEPPA PIG park also has one roller coaster; “Papa Wutz” Achterbahn! When purchasing my LEGOLAND tickets, I had the option to buy a combination ticket (for LEGOLAND and the PEPPA PIG Park), which I did. The PEPPA PIG Park opens at 9:30 a.m., half an hour before the gates of LEGOLAND Deutschland open (if both parks did open at the same time I probably wouldn’t have bought the combination ticket). If you have the opportunity to be at the gates of the PEPPA PIG park at 9:30 a.m. (and don’t mind paying a little extra for a combination ticket), then it’s easy to take the +1. Otherwise, I would advise against it. After my ride, the queue time had already increased to 30 minutes (and that was 5 minutes after the park opened). And apart from the roller coaster (and meeting Peppa herself) there is nothing for adults to do.

Side note: if you are taller than 185 cm, I advise against purchasing a combination ticket, as there is a high chance you will not fit on the roller coaster! A similar roller coaster is the “Brazilian Buggies” in Bellewaerde. If you have tried this roller coaster and did not fit, you will not fit here either.

LEGOLAND Deutschland was the second LEGOLAND park I’ve visited and it didn’t disappoint, but I don’t see myself coming here again anytime soon. Unless the park decides to add a major coaster or dark ride worth going back for. If you’re a LEGO fan like me it’s definitely worth visiting the park, but if I may choose between LEGOLAND Deutschland and Windsor I prefer to visit Windsor park.

And that is what I had to say about… LEGOLAND Deutschland!
Bart