If you had told me last year that I would be going to both Disney World and Legoland in the same year, I would have called you crazy. I’m not sure that I even knew that Legoland existed 12 months ago.

Here we are though, visiting Legoland less than 6 months after a weekend at Disney World.

That I didn’t even bother writing about our trip to Disney tells you how much value we place on travel to theme parks. In that case, Katy found herself in Orlando for work so we figured it was an easy way to tick the Disney box by having Ella and I join her for a weekend of princesses and giant mice. Ella certainly did enjoy her princess time.

Similarly, since we were in in Denmark and driving within an hour of Legoland it only seemed fair to stop and let Ella have a look. Besides, I was more excited about this one than I was going to Disney.

 

The upside of visiting both Legoland and Disney within such a short period of time is that it’s pretty easy to make some head-to-head comparisons.

Disney is definitely the bigger of the two, but at 4 years old, the size and pace of Legoland was a better fit for Ella. She really enjoyed all the rides she went on and with another 10 centimeters in height, she would have been able to go on almost all the rides at Legoland.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Legoland in Denmark is a lot more Danish and Disney in Orlando is a lot more American. The result is that the crowds at Legoland were a little less aggressive, not to mention a little more svelte.

The one place that Disney came out on top was the food. The options at Legoland were far less numerous and, surprisingly, there were fewer healthy, vegetarian, and picky-kid friendly options.

Both are ridiculously expensive, though in Legoland’s defense the whole country of Denmark is expensive.

Branding

Another interesting comparison point is branding. While Lego is omnipresent at Legoland, all of the rides feature components made of Lego, it didn’t feel as much like a product push as Disney.

Despite this, Ella is overdue for a move from Duplo to regular Lego so we made a point of stopping at the Lego store on the way out to buy her a little kit. Well, we meant to buy a “little” kit and ended up getting a larger Lego classics kit than planned.

 

All-in-all, I’d definitely give Legoland a higher grade than Disney, but I’m still optimistic we won’t be back at any theme parks for at least a few trips.

Up next we make our way to Viborg to visit with some friends we made while travelling in Jordan, Sanne Maj and Kasper.