Fantastic Plastic: our trip to Legoland Billund!

At the end of last year Ryland and I had fun entering the Shell & Lego #readysetbuild competition and were super chuffed when one of our photographs, taken on Brighton’s Madeira Drive, won the top prize of a weekend at Legoland Denmark for two adults and two children under 12!

#readysetbuild #uk

A photo posted by superluckydi (@superluckydi) on Dec 21, 2014 at 1:08am PST

We decided to invite Ryland’s cousin along, and booked our holiday for summer. Finally last weekend it was time to go! We flew out from Stansted with Ryanair, on a flight taking little more than an hour.

The Legoland Hotel was fantastic for the kids. A carpet covered with pirate treasure and rum, a huge toothbrush-wielding dragon in the bathroom and Lego mini figures admiring our buttocks from inside the toilet seat.

In the room was a chest full of Lego and the kids each got a Chima set on their bunk bed. There were play areas everywhere for the children; the à la carte restaurant had an outdoor terrace adjacent to a mini football pitch, trike circuit and playground. In the restaurant itself was a Duplo play zone. Beyond the main buffet restaurant was a Lego play zone full of bean bags. A fire truck in reception screened Ninjago round the clock and Lego Friends played on a big screen in another corner.

I was delighted to spot two competitions in the room for hotel guests, with daily prizes up for grabs for children who got their entries in before 11pm. Both were a fun treasure hunt with clues to be found around the hotel: next morning we checked the winners board to discover both Ryland & Hannah had won a big Lego set with their entries – they’ve clearly been taking tips from me!

The hotel also has a monthly theme for guests to build Lego models, with more daily winners. The August theme was cars but there was a distinct lack of wheels to be found in the huge pots of Lego, so the kids gave it a miss and got stuck into table football and the Nintendo games room instead. Rob, on the other hand, spent ages on his military vehicle (he didn’t win). I chuckled to see so many models submitted by the over 40s!

Food and drink in the hotel was pricey, but our generous prize included £500 spending money so we didn’t mind paying for the evening buffet and several local beers. There was a fine selection of fish and cheese which made me very happy. What I loved about the hotel was the Lego play pools dotted around the hotel, full of bricks, plus the walls where you could sign your name with Lego. The adult guests were just as engrossed in building as the children. I don’t think any of us grow out of Lego…

The park itself had many similarities to Windsor, with a few more water rides. The queues were shorter because we chose to visit after the Danish kids had returned to school, so we could ride our favourites three times! We loved the Dragon (a tame roller coaster), the Canoe (log flume) and the Temple (laser shooting). I cried with laughter at the Pirate Splash Battle, seeing grown men firing water cannons at each other in an attempt to see who could soak the other more! And maybe I’m getting old but those lovely relaxing boat rides past Lego scenes are definitely my preferred mode of transport…

Ry loved the water play area with the huge bucket that splashed down every ten minutes or so!

There’s a mini Sea Life Centre in the park too, which fascinated the kids.

New to Billund this year is the world’s biggest Lego model – a giant sized X-Wing Fighter based on the Lego set. It’s massive!

We enjoyed three wonderful days in the park, as did many Danish dogs! How lovely that people are allowed to bring pets along – check out this cute fella…

I took along my own dog – the one from the Post Office’s #holidayfeeling competition. He wandered happily round a few of the Miniland scenes.

We had the most fantastic time in Denmark, and when I tweeted about our trip I was delighted to get a reply from one of my Brighton neighbours @edwd1492, who won a trip to Billund back in 1986 and tweeted me this clipping from the Brighton Argus!

I reckon Legoland Denmark will be a dream prize for kids (and their parents!) for many years to come!

I can’t find any Billund comps at the moment, but if you fancy winning a hotel stay plus family tickets to Legoland Windsor, check out this Mumsnet prize draw (closes 12th September).