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From July 1 until July 11, 2005 we stayed in Germany. With our seasonpasses we
paid several visits to LegoLand Günzburg (nine to be exact: we had planned many
other excursions in the area but the kids didn’t like to sit in the car for
hours every day).
Let me be a little bit critical of the park:
• First a
general remark about the behaviour of the people visiting the park: all over the
park you find garbage-bins and ashtrays. All the garbage-bins are damaged
because people put out their cigarettes on the lids of the garbage-bins before
throwing their cigarette-ends in them. Don’t they know the difference between a
garbage-bin and an ashtray??
• And there’s more: inside the buildings, the
attractions and queues smoking is not allowed. The playgrounds all have special
soft floorings with many, many holes in them; holes caused by hot cigarette-ends
(I can’t say one good word about people who smoke; the further the stay away
from me, the better).
• The park is pretty much a copy of Billund: many similar
creations (buildings, vehicles, sculptures and even entire attractions). The
attraction “Project X” is an exact copy of the one in Billund (the only
difference: it’s mirrored). We were rather dissapointed in our search for new
things...
• Rides are closed one hour before the park closes. This does not
mean that you have to leave the park one hour before closing time; you can still
walk around in miniland, have a snack (ice-cream) or visit one of the
restaurants or shops. What happens: they start cleaning the ladies’ rooms one
hour before closing time. My daughter had to go, my wife ran half around the
park to find a toilet but she ended up in one of the toilets for the
handicapped, because the ladies’ rooms were not accessible (every day!).
• When
we visited a restaurant we also noticed that the staff doesn’t bother too much
when new guests arrive: they only take away the glasses and plates from the
previous guests, but they don’t always clean the tables. Bon appetit!
• What
about the language? In LegoLand Billund you can hear at least three different
languages: they usually speak Danish, but towards foreign visitors they are
always capable of speaking English or German. In Germany they simply refuse to
speak another language: if you can’t say it in German, then you are simply
ignored (in the restaurant an Israelian family tried to get the attention of a
waitress in English, but unsuccesfully). This is a very misplaced form of
chauvinism. As Lego is a very international product, the LegoLand parks may
attract a very international public, but they are clearly not prepared to do
so.
• More about the language: Günzburg is in the south of Germany, rather
close to Austria. In that area many people even speak a very strange dialect (I
am capable of having a conversation in German, but it gets very difficult if you
can hardly understand what the others say...). The correct word for “three”
(“3”) in German is “drei”. On two different occasions I ordered three things
(three ice-creams in one restaurant, three kids-meals in another). Even when I
showed three fingers, I received only one on both occasions!?!
• I have an
unlimited seasonpass. This gives me 10% discount on everything I buy (if at
least I show my pass), and I also get points for every euro I spend (later I can
exchange these points for nice items, e.g. 50 points give me a reduction of 50
grams in the Pick-a-Brick). The first day we bought ice-creams for the children
(in one of the stands outside), but I didn’t get 10% discount, nor the points
I had a right to. Only a couple of days later I realized that I could have
bought these very same ice-creams in one of the restaurants (inside one of the
buildings), where I would have received my points and my discount. The ice-cream
stands outside don’t have an electronic system to run my card through and that
was the reason why I didn’t get discount or points the first time. Why on earth
don’t they tell the people to go pay inside: I showed my seasonpass. Are the
employees not well trained or are they doing this on purpose?
• In the
Pick-a-Brick you can buy pieces by weight at 7 euro/100 gram. This is getting
pretty expensive compared to two years ago. In the “Bau und Test Center” you can
have some fun building (e.g. when it rains) and if you really want it, you can
buy your creations. The price: 7 euro/100 gram!! They sell second-hand bricks
at the same price of new elements!!
• Something that really bothered me
concerning the behaviour of other visitors: when we were queuing for a ride on
one of the attractions it often happened that kids just climbed over the fence
to pass other people who wanted to go on that ride too. Apparently they don’t
like to wait for their turn and this clearly is one of the main disadvantages of
the zigzagging of the queuing line. The employees see it happen but they never
said anything about it. Even worse: kids that just got out of a ride (and
wanting a second ride) don’t leave the attraction through the exit, but they
immediately climb over the fence again passing lots of other people who are
nicely waiting for their turn. And again, the employees see it happen and didn’t
say a word. We were nine days in the park and I’ve only seen one employee
(!) who told the kids who wanted a second ride to leave the attraction and go
back in the queuing line. It sometimes even happened that people just stayed in
their seats refusing to get out, when you could clearly see many others waiting
for their turn. And again, the employees never said anything about it.
• I have
three children: the first one is eight years old and measures 1.40m, the
second one is six years old and measures 1.20m, the youngest one will be four
years old soon and measures 1.00m. Their lengths are crucial because they are
exactly the minimal required lengths to be allowed on certain rides. According
to the Germans their age is also crucial to be accepted on certain rides. I
don’t agree with this point of view: my daughters are much wiser than many
stupid twelve year old boys (e.g. if I tell my children to stay in their seats
during the ride, they’ll listen to me).
• I have seen kids clearly much smaller
than 1.00m even wearing a diaper going on rides were 4 years was the minimal age
to be accepted on it. The employees never said anything about it.
• On certain
rides the company of an adult is required under a certain age or length. Many
kids (clearly not big enough to go alone) go on those rides without the company
of an adult. And again, the employees never said anything about it.
• And
there’s more: we even saw kids approximately 0.20m smaller than the minimal
required length going on rides (without the company of an adult). And again, the
employees never said anything about it.
• But: if my children wanted to go on
a ride (even when I was accompanying them), they were always measured!! (nine
days!) They were never measured when we were waiting for our turn; every time we
were already sitting in our seats waiting for the ride to start, they took my
children out of the vehicle (making the waiting queues unnecessarily longer) to
measure them before accepting them. And if I said something about it they even
got mad at me because I wouldn’t let them do their job properly!
• My wife has
seen one child being sent away for not being tall enough (in nine days!), I
haven’t seen a single one being sent away, but I’ve seen hundreds of children
that should have been sent away for not being tall enough. Only for security
reasons. Did you know that there is also a maximum length of 1.95m on certain
rides (because tall adults won’t fit in the seats anymore)? They didn’t check
this either!
• Most of the vehicles are two-seaters: only two people can sit
next to each other. Two large adults or two very small children: there’s no
difference. Even if three children would take up less space than two adults, it
is not allowed! But: at least once a day I saw two adults with their child in
between them sitting on a ride. And the employees never said anything about it
(I’m referring to the attractions “Dschungel X-pedition” and “Drachenjagd”). And
if I wanted to sit on one row with two of my children, we had to leave the
attraction because that was not allowed! Amazing!!
I’ve seen way too many
irregularities! Amazing, because I was told that German safety rules are one of
the most severe in Europe.
One more general remark on the location of the
fourth LegoLand park: it is located in the south of Germany, rather close to the
mountains which affect the weather seriously. Sun shining one minute, heavy
thunder and lightning the next. Every time it started to rain (it rains hard in
this area) many attractions were closed. They didn’t care if you were the next
to go on the ride or if you were already queuing for one hour: they simply close
down and they tell you to come back once it stopped raining! We had our
seasonpasses, so it wasn’t such a big issue for us. But I can understand all
those people who bought a one day ticket: they paid for it and they couldn’t do
a bloody thing (I assume they didn’t get a refund). I’ve never seen attractions
being closed because of the rain in a Belgian theme park (or in LegoLand
Billund). I don’t know if they considered these heavy weather changes in
choosing this location.
To finish I should say something positive about the
park: when I was making an inventory of the Pick-a-Brick shop (the “Fabrik”) one
of the employees came to me and asked me what I was doing. I explained that I
was doing this for the AFOL community and I showed her a couple of pictures of
my own creations. In the end a couple of Lego designers (currently working on a
new model in the Fabrik) got to see my pictures. They were very impressed with
my Level 42-mosaic. One
of them even asked me if I hadn’t applied for a job at TLC!
Maarten
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