The Experience
Introduction
Polar X-plorer is a custom Zierer ESC coaster from 2012. This is a family-thrill coaster and was for many years - perhaps up until Maximus and the Galacticoasters - the most thrilling and dynamic coaster at any Legoland park. The entire Polar project was very ambitious, as not only did it include the park's biggest and most thrilling coaster, but it also featured a real penguin enclosure that guests could experience at the end of the ride. While the penguins unfortunately left the park, early in 2023, Polar X-plorer still stands strong as the park's most thrilling ride.
One for the parents
One thing that becomes apparent as you traverse Legoland and try the different coasters is that this park is very much geared toward families and younger children. This results in a lot of cramped trains and tight fits (at least for two grown men), which makes it all the sweeter to sit down in the Elevated Seating Coaster (ESC) trains and finally experience some room and comfort. This is the first sign that this is a ride actually aimed at a broader audience, where parents and adults alike don't have to squeeze in just to get on. A huge shoutout to the best trains in the park!
What's in the cave?
While it's not the biggest or most well-kept secret in the world, here is your spoiler warning!
While Polar X-plorer is still very much a family coaster, it features a decently thrilling start to the ride with a big swooping drop and several twists and turns offering solid lateral or positive Gs. You may even experience some weak floater airtime as well. However, it's the middle section that is the main selling point of the ride. You dip into a cave where you come to a stop before a screen showing a LEGO minifigure picking ice. All of a sudden, you drop 16.4 ft down to a lower platform. This is a really exciting and thrilling moment, as the sensation of dropping feels just like most major drop towers do (just a lot shorter, obviously). It's a great way for a ride to stand out and deliver thrills without making the ride itself taller or faster.
While Polar X-plorer is still very much a family coaster, it features a decently thrilling start to the ride with a big swooping drop and several twists and turns offering solid lateral or positive Gs. You may even experience some weak floater airtime as well. However, it's the middle section that is the main selling point of the ride. You dip into a cave where you come to a stop before a screen showing a LEGO minifigure picking ice. All of a sudden, you drop 16.4 ft down to a lower platform. This is a really exciting and thrilling moment, as the sensation of dropping feels just like most major drop towers do (just a lot shorter, obviously). It's a great way for a ride to stand out and deliver thrills without making the ride itself taller or faster.
Press Auto-Complete
Up until this point, Polar X-plorer has impressed heavily, with modern and comfortable trains, a nice drop, and a fast-paced family-thrill layout with okay forces to boot. Then, it peaks with an exciting element in the cave, leaving you ready for an equally exciting part two. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be far-fetched to believe that the project ran out of budget, as the ride just kind of ends. It "ends" in the sense that the coaster is still quite far away from its station but has no ambition whatsoever to do anything other than simply return.
What basically happens is you roll down and out of the cave onto one long, straight piece of track featuring the world's most useless bunny hop, which the train crawls over before turning into a tunnel where the final brake run is. This probably offered a very nice end to the ride back when you still had the penguins to entertain you, but now it really does feel like an elongated nothingburger, and it's a shame that the ride couldn't do something more exciting than this. In a perfect world, the ride would have used the drop track as an elevator lift to go back up, perhaps even slightly higher than where you entered, and then plunged into a second drop with more twists, turns, or even a long helix. But alas, this is what we got, and that's okay.
What basically happens is you roll down and out of the cave onto one long, straight piece of track featuring the world's most useless bunny hop, which the train crawls over before turning into a tunnel where the final brake run is. This probably offered a very nice end to the ride back when you still had the penguins to entertain you, but now it really does feel like an elongated nothingburger, and it's a shame that the ride couldn't do something more exciting than this. In a perfect world, the ride would have used the drop track as an elevator lift to go back up, perhaps even slightly higher than where you entered, and then plunged into a second drop with more twists, turns, or even a long helix. But alas, this is what we got, and that's okay.
Conclusion
Polar X-plorer is a decent family-thrill coaster that stands out in Legoland Billund's lineup by offering bigger, more comfortable trains, along with a strong first half featuring good pacing and decent forces all around. The ride then performs an exciting drop track maneuver inside a cave and then... it dies, slogging its way back to the station at roughly 5 mph and not doing anything else, which is made worse by the fact that there are no penguins to look at anymore. Luckily, the first half of the ride is very strong and highly re-rideable, and we guarantee there is something to enjoy here, even for the hardcore enthusiasts.
Gallery
Polar X-plorer Gallery
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Strengths & Weaknesses
| Some nice theming | |
| Comfortable seats and restraints | |
| Exciting first half | |
| The Cave | |
| Fairly Short | |
| Non existing ending |
Information
Technical Specs
Specifications
Sit DownCustomSemi EnclosedDrop Track
TypeSteel
Length1633,8 ft
Height62,3 ft
Speed40,4 mph
Inversions0
Duration111 sec
Notes
Legoland Billund used to have Gentoo penguins and Polar X-plorer would offer a view into their enclosure, however, the penguins were removed from the park in 2023.