“This place better not burn down before I get my entrée!" – A DLR Feb16 TR (8/25 Wrap-up & new TR)

[skier_pete]

We got up the next morning and slowly packed up to go to Legoland. I think we got there around 10:30 AM, not completely sure.

DD was the one that prompted us to go to Legoland because she had fond memories of it from 2012 when she was 9. The gist is though – she didn’t care for Legoland anymore, so she almost instantly wanted to leave. She basically refused to ride anything and was just generally ornery about 85% of the day. This put me in a foul mood, because we had purposefully cut short our Disneyland stay so that she could get to go to Legoland, so I was in a foul mood all day - an unfairly foul mood really. I will take the blame for much of this. I spent the trip trying to keep everyone happy by doing all the extra running around, and I think exhaustion was also hitting. Just overall it was not a good day. Keep that in mind as you read on.



Here’s what DD looked like most of the day…



Independent of that, as a general rule – never visit Legoland immediately after visiting Disneyland. It just doesn’t even remotely compare. First off, Legoland is really designed mostly for the 8 and under set, but the few rides for older kids DD wouldn’t ride either. We finally forced her on a few. We did the storybook ride – and it was so terrible.

Once you get over the coolness of these big brick displays you realize they are essential static displays, with the “animatronic” feature being that one arm or leg moves. It just seemed so lame compared to Disney.





There was this one thing where you had to pump a firetruck as a team across a track, and then put out a “fire” and then pump it back. DW and I again forced DD to do this, because it looked like fun. It was –kinda – but there were about 25 people in line, yet somehow it still look about 25 minutes to get on it.




At some point here DW was taking a picture of a mariachi band lego display, and we had moved about 20 feet away. Somehow, she had decided we had gone in some other direction – and when we turned around she had disappeared. Of course she wasn’t answering her phone, so I started trying to find her. When I finally did (on the lego tour) I was all worked up because I was already in a bad mood – and I pretty much blew my top. I usually am not like this – but I was a particularly foul person today. Eventually we hashed this all out and got something for lunch. The food was decent where we ate, and we moved on to the next section of the park. The pirates land looked fun, but mostly involved rides where you got wet, and unlike earlier in the week, it was now very cool and we didn’t want to get wet. After DD refused to go on ride after ride (why were we here again?) we made it to the mini-land area. This is to all of us the coolest area of the park. I’ll just share some pictures. I took a lot of them here, but will only share a few.

Star Wars Mini Land:






Washington DC:



Weren’t we just here:



I don't think I captured it in any of the pictures - but at one point there was this small (maybe 6" long) lizard running through the San Francisco mini-land. I pointed to it and told DD "Look out, It's GODZILLA!" She thought this was the funniest thing ever, and kept repeating the joke the rest of the day.




DD liked driving the mini-boats.



The Queen


NYC


I think @khertz was the one that told us about this guy on the potty in NYC. I challenged DD to find him.



We wanted to see the brand new (less than a week old) Lego Movie 4-D adventure. It was based on the Lego Movie, which we all had really enjoyed. It was kind of amusing, and I loved that Patton Oswalt voice the new character. (President Business’ brother who not surprisingly turns out evil.) But it was in this theater with concrete steps for benches, and the effects were so primitive, again just did not compare favorably to Disney. Oh, and we had another family blow-up while waiting for this. I don’t remember about much, but I’ll blame myself again. What fun we had at Legoland.

I was determined to try at least ONE of the coaster rides, so we went and tried the Teknik coaster.





So – let me reel it back a little. We didn’t really enjoy legoland, this was mostly because DD was being such a poop, and led to me being in an incredibly foul mood. That said, the park is a nice theme park if you have younger kids (again I would say 8 and under) and if you don’t hold it up against the Disney yard stick. When we came here in 2012 DD had just turned 9, and we didn’t do it at the same time as we did Disneyland.

On our way out I saw my favorite thing of the day – the sign to the bathroom:


At this point, I think we had all had enough and headed to our resort. We were staying at a nearby timeshare – I think the Hilton Maribrisa – we had a 1-bedroom room that was pretty nice – again it didn’t hold up favorably to the VGC, but it was nice enough. The original plan had been to spend Friday at Disneyland as well, and then come down here for the night, spending the following day at Legoland. When we switched to the SoCal pass, and added SeaWorld, we decided to still stay in this location as it was already reserved with a no-cancel policy.













We ended up cooking in the room, though even here we ran into a bunch of problems with getting gas for the car and shopping – but at least we weren’t fighting anymore! I forgot what we made – some sort of pasta/shrimp/garlic meal. It was pretty good. We were happy to call it a day at this point and hope that tomorrow would be better.
Next up – I want to see the Penguins!

 

[rteetz]

I kind of wish Legoland did a little more geared to older kids and teens. I think they definitely could but they just don't.

I can see why you would be in a foul mood.

They do seem to have some pretty cool Lego displays though.

Those bathrooms signs are pretty great.

 

[ALEXandFAB]

never visit Legoland immediately after visiting Disneyland. It just doesn’t even remotely compare. First off, Legoland is really designed mostly for the 8 and under set

Couldn't agree more.

We did the storybook ride – and it was so terrible.

Terrible?

This is actually one of my favorite rides at Legoland . Wonder what that says about me? (Don't answer that. )

After DD refused to go on ride after ride (why were we here again?)

How frustrating

Star Wars Mini Land

That's our favorite part of the park!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Never do Legoland after Disney. And never do it with kids older than 9.
It's still a nice park.....but it really doesn't hold a candle to Disney.

We hit it twice. Once when DS was 7 and it was the perfect age for him. He was truly into lego at that stage so he was in heaven all day.
We did it again when he was 9. It was lame at that age.

 

[TexasErin]

I'm enjoying your report! Great pix!

What is BSM? Is it some kind of Disneyland-related website?

 

[skier_pete]

I kind of wish Legoland did a little more geared to older kids and teens. I think they definitely could but they just don't.

I can see why you would be in a foul mood.

They do seem to have some pretty cool Lego displays though.

Those bathrooms signs are pretty great.

Well - I think LEGOland decided it's target audience and aimed squarely at it. There are some mild thrill rides there, but mostly DD won't go on those either.

Terrible?
This is actually one of my favorite rides at Legoland . Wonder what that says about me? (Don't answer that. )

DW really liked it a lot too - I just think for a park that can cost upwards of $85 a day to enter the standard should be a little higher than THIS.

Never do Legoland after Disney. And never do it with kids older than 9.
It's still a nice park.....but it really doesn't hold a candle to Disney.

We hit it twice. Once when DS was 7 and it was the perfect age for him. He was truly into lego at that stage so he was in heaven all day.
We did it again when he was 9. It was lame at that age.

Yeah, I sort of knew DD wouldn't like it. The annoying part was she was the one that stubbornly insisted she wanted to go. Then as soon as we get there, she wants to leave. And of course says she never wanted to go in the first place. Yay - teen girls!

I'm enjoying your report! Great pix!

What is BSM? Is it some kind of Disneyland-related website?

I used BSM I am probably referring to the Backstage Magic tour we took in 2013. This was an Adventures by Disney tour that takes you through Hollywood and also backstage at the Disney parks. It's quite an amazing tour as a Disney fan. There's a link in my signature to our tour if you want to read more - though at the request of the DIS team I leave out a lot of the more spectacular details.

 

[kelmac284]

Nice update. For some reason i never get notifications from the Dis in my email so I have to find where I left off. Bummer that your legoland day was a bust. I agree the miniatures are the coolest part. We have only been once and it was YEARS ago. My daughters are 15 and 16.5 and we went when they were like 3 and 4 so that gives you a clue. We enjoyed it then but I never felt the need to go back. I would love to see just the miniatures but certainly would never pay the admission price just for that. Anywho anxious to hear your Seaworld day. That is another one that I have only been to once with my kids when they were probably 6 and 8 or something. We had planned to go last year but my mom doesn't really like it so we did the Wild Animal Park instead.

Anyway looking forward to your next installment!

 

[khertz]

I think @khertz was the one that told us about this guy on the potty in NYC. I challenged DD to find him.

YES!!! I'm glad y'all spotted him!!


I agree with your assessment of Legoland overall. I was just not impressed, especially comparing it to Disneyland. However, DS was absolutely their target audience. He LOVED it. Probably more than Disneyland, judging by how often he talks about it and asks to go back.

I can relate to your terrible mood too. That's how DH and I felt on our DL trip when DS just didn't want to do ANYTHING. It was beyond annoying. Cutting off a day at DL to add LL and having her not interested in it had to be really upsetting. Hopefully the rest of the trip went ok!

 

[franandaj]

Not having kids, I've never been to Legoland, but I've heard that it's mainly for the younguns. Sorry that family dynamics caused a meltdown (or two), but exhaustion can rear it's ugly head, especially on vacation when everyone is over exerting themselves.
I hope your day at Sea World is better.

 

[magichusky]

Just caught up- great TR! You guys really powered through and got so much accomplished! Bummer about Legoland- nothing really compares to Disney. My two little nieces are visiting next week and we'll be doing both Legoland and Disneyland. We will do Legoland first and will search for that guy on the potty- they'll love it!

Looking forward to reading about Sea World!

 

[skier_pete]

Nice update. For some reason i never get notifications from the Dis in my email so I have to find where I left off. Bummer that your legoland day was a bust. I agree the miniatures are the coolest part. We have only been once and it was YEARS ago. My daughters are 15 and 16.5 and we went when they were like 3 and 4 so that gives you a clue. We enjoyed it then but I never felt the need to go back. I would love to see just the miniatures but certainly would never pay the admission price just for that. Anywho anxious to hear your Seaworld day. That is another one that I have only been to once with my kids when they were probably 6 and 8 or something. We had planned to go last year but my mom doesn't really like it so we did the Wild Animal Park instead.

Anyway looking forward to your next installment!

Sea World will hopefully be coming up shortly - it's definitely a step up from Legoland, but a step down from Disney.

YES!!! I'm glad y'all spotted him!!


I agree with your assessment of Legoland overall. I was just not impressed, especially comparing it to Disneyland. However, DS was absolutely their target audience. He LOVED it. Probably more than Disneyland, judging by how often he talks about it and asks to go back.

I can relate to your terrible mood too. That's how DH and I felt on our DL trip when DS just didn't want to do ANYTHING. It was beyond annoying. Cutting off a day at DL to add LL and having her not interested in it had to be really upsetting. Hopefully the rest of the trip went ok!

One of the few times DD was engaged all day and there was no fighting. It was NOT a fun day. The good news is we never have to go back, which is fine by me.

I do have to comment here - when we went in 2012, our favorite part of the park even then was the water park. Because it was winter that part was closed. I sort of KNEW going in this wasn't going to go well.

Not having kids, I've never been to Legoland, but I've heard that it's mainly for the younguns. Sorry that family dynamics caused a meltdown (or two), but exhaustion can rear it's ugly head, especially on vacation when everyone is over exerting themselves.
I hope your day at Sea World is better.

Definitely isn't worth a trip down for you and Fran. I mean, the lego-mini lands are pretty cool, but I wouldn't pay for a day there just for that. The rest of it - well it doesn't have the Disney appeal.

Just caught up- great TR! You guys really powered through and got so much accomplished! Bummer about Legoland- nothing really compares to Disney. My two little nieces are visiting next week and we'll be doing both Legoland and Disneyland. We will do Legoland first and will search for that guy on the potty- they'll love it!

Looking forward to reading about Sea World!

They may well like Legoland better - I would think it would be a great place for little ones.

Powering through at Disneyland is sort of what we have to do - we never seem to get more than 3 days there. We were actually talking about this just yesterday, that we'd like to do a trip out to Disneyland that would let us have a good solid 5 days there. I still don't think it justifies itself to longer than that - but to have long enough to be able to really see and experience most of the park would be great. I don't know when this will be, though. We are hoping to get out there for D23 in 2019, but we'll be lucky if we can take a day or two for the parks along with D23.

 

[skier_pete]

So the last day of our SoCal pass got us into Sea World – it was roughly I think a 40 minute drive from our hotel to Sea World – we didn’t rush of feel the need to get there for any sort of “rope drop”. However, Sea World is mostly a whole bunch of shows, with a few rides strewn in between – many of which no-one in our party other than me would go on. So I think it was around 10:30 AM or so that we got to the park. We decided to pay the $5 upgrade for premium parking since we were arriving rather late. Even though it was a Saturday, it wasn’t particularly crowded. When we got there, a few things were listed as closed, including “Altantis” – the ride I most wanted to ride. Grrr.



The other show that was not open was the Dolphin Show, which was disappointing as well. We mostly wanted to see the killer whale show, seeing as how they are going to phase these out.

We entered the park and decided we would check out the Chinese Acrobats – it was Chinese New Year and this was a special show going on. DD wanted to see the penguins first, but we insisted. We headed towards the back of the park. On the way we stopped to see the Sea Lions. You could pay $2 and get a tray of small fish to feed them. The Sea Lions obviously loved this, as did the patrons.



Then we went to the theater for the acrobats. The show was as good as you would expect, with some pretty impressive feats:





I do a similar exercise to this to stretch my back









They have a pretty impressive penguin exhibit. A few were outside, but most were in a glass enclosed indoor exhibit, so that they can better regulate their habitats.





The inside one you rode by on a conveyor belt, and then afterwards you could walk up in the back and watch them at your leisure. There was a keeper talking while we were there – probably a good 20 minutes that we spent there.











(I actually took a TON of pictures at Sea World, but just sharing the best.) Once we left the penguins, there was the artic edge exhibit right next to it. We thought we had time before our lunch plans, so we went over to this. DM skipped the ride – which is a simulator ride that takes you on helicopter ride to the artic. Picture a combination of Star Tours ride vehicle with the Mission: Space movie, only significantly cheaper looking than either of those. I’m pretty sure we rode this in Florida years back. The ride exits you into the arctic edge exhibit which has belugas and polar bears. Very nice habitats here, and the exhibit is all themed to the arctic base that you travel to on the ride, in fairly impressive fashion.



I have what appear to be pictures of manatees here as well. Maybe it’s actually a walrus now that I think about it.



To be continued in the next post...

 

[skier_pete]

Next up, DW had wanted to pay for something special on the trip. With our Club 33 visits at DW and with Fantasmic being down (we were thinking the dessert party there) I had suggested to her that we do the lunch with Shamu. This ran something like $35 a person, but you got a buffet meal, and then a talk from one of the trainers while the killer whales were swimming nearby.

We had pre-ordered the seats, and supposedly seats were assigned by priority. We were seated in the front row – right on the glass – so only probably about 6 feet from the water. We were allowed to get some food before the trainers came out. Here was the spread, or at least most of it:



















There was also a meat carving station which I guess I didn’t get a picture of. The demonstration was pretty good. A nice talk by the trainers, and also they had the whales swim by and fed them, as well as at one point had them do one jump, and also come out of the water. Once the trainers were done talking, they were available to answer questions. There were maybe 6 trainers around most of the time, and really you could ask them anything.

This was the view from our seats.





This was not right at our seats, but maybe 15 feet away.







Even though she seemed to like the show, DD didn’t want to get her picture with the orcas. DW and DM didn’t have such restrictions. These are good shots to see how relatively close we were to the water.





I have to say, I was a little disappointed that the demonstration portion of the “show” was extremely brief. Other than the one jump and the one breach, it was mostly the orcas swimming around and occasionally the keepers feeding them. I admit I wasn’t expecting that like they were going to have us go out and do tricks with the whales or anything, but maybe just a little more to the show.

That said, I would still heartily recommend the Lunch with Shamu program. For $35 you get a very good, extensive and filling lunch, AND you get up close to the killer whales much more so than you would ever get to during the regular show. You also get the opportunity to ask as many questions as you want, so for someone with kids of the right age, I think this is a great event and well worth the price. (Note it was regularly $40, but I found an on-line code that gave a $5 discount.) – especially compared to what Disney charges for similar events – they charge $40 for just a character buffet.

Next up - Mantas, Dogs, and more whales....and maybe Atlantis?

 

[rteetz]

I've never been to any seaworld park but would like to at least once.

The lunch with shamu looks like a really good time despite the brief show. It looks like you had a good time and the food was good.

 

[franandaj]

That looks like a nice show. I was going to say that it was pretty carb heavy, but the meat station would round that out.

I didn't realize when you said the Acrobat show that it would be real Chinese acrobats. That was similar to the show we saw outside of China in Epcot when they did some crazy acrobat things.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Nice morning at SeaWorld. Lunch with Shamu seems like good value. Love the pictures with the whales in the back.

 

[khertz]

It's been a LONG time since I've been to Sea World in Orlando, but I remember enjoying it a lot. Love penguins! They are so cute! And the arctic exhibit looks really nice. Too bad the one thing you wanted to ride was down.

The lunch spread looks great, and WOW that is close to the whales! Definitely would have been even better if they had interacted with them more while you were eating.

 

[VandVsmama]

Enjoying your trip report! My ODD is 10 and has asked to go to LEGOLAND. After seeing your TR about LEGOLAND, I don't feel so bad about skipping it on our next trip! I'd rather do an extra day at DL!

 

[NJlauren]

Seaworld looked like a good day!

I'm so torn on if we will do this on our trip or not, but I do get a discount on tickets so I'm thinking it may be worth it.

 

[skier_pete]

Fallen terribly behind – but time to wrap this sucker up. After the meal I wanted to ride the Manta coaster. DM went and did a little wandering around. I think DD and DW went to see a Dolphin Demonstration (the main stadium was down.)


Manta Ray pool near the ride.


Manta in Orlando is a suspended coaster. The manta here was an upright coaster – but it was a very low to the ground coaster. It was here I really experience how noticeable the difference between Disney and Seaworld is. The ride was short, but took a good 15 minutes to load. Part of the reason is that they basically had one employee loading the entire coaster. They were loading people haphazardly, leaving lots of empty seats. I actually said “Hey I’m a single – I take one of those!” and was able to cut ahead about 3 rides. However, they never looked for single people willing to fill the seats. Maybe this was because it was a fairly slow day.
The ride was sort of so-so. It had a few corkscrews – but was really low to the ground and didn’t do that much. I wouldn’t go out of my way for it again.
I also found out they’d reopened Atlantis, so before the next show started, I boogied over there. Similarly, they were loading without filling in all the seats, so I found someone to pair up with. (Again, lines were short, though.)



I remember riding the one in Florida about 10 years ago. It was a combination dark ride/roller coaster/flume ride. This version skipped the dark ride part, and much of the coaster part. You went up a lift hill and did the first “plunge”. Then it enter an elevator, and the car is lifted straight up in an elevator shaft with a few minor lighting effects. At the top, there is a short coaster element followed by a final Splashdown.



I liked this ride better – but the version in Florida is definitely superior.
Next up, I met the rest of the family at the Animal Stage Show – this was a cute show as you would expect. The dogs and cats (and pigs and horses and birds) did neat tricks. It was funny and cute and good for the kids.







Next up we hit the Seymore and Clyde show. The Sea Lion show has been “Seymore and Clyde” since I was a little kid, even though they are always changing up the actual show. This is another goofy show. The pre-show was one of the actors came out and did a bunch of silly dance/lip-sync routines. After that the actual show was a bunch of TV show parodies. We liked it. DD laughed a lot.






The final show was the Shamu Stadium show. They were only doing this once a day so it was pretty crowded. A few comments before my pictures – which might possibly get me the wrath of PETA.

It is a total shame these shows are going away. The old show with the trainers in the water was so much better than this version – but I will admit I thought they were NUTS in that show, and it was probably good it ended. I think that Orcas should be in the wild, and they probably shouldn’t be BRED in captivity, but there will likely always be ones that are injured or stranded and need to be taken in. So instead of having shows that teach people about these amazing animals, we’re going to just keep them in tanks with no shows. Brilliant.

And all that PETA is doing is stopping Seaworld – the place that treats these animals the BEST. There are still many marine parks that will continue to have Orcas – and those won’t have nearly as nice facilities. Just dumb all around.

Anyways, enough of a rant – enjoy my pictures. I think they came out pretty well:













And that was it, we went back to our car, drove back to San Deigo, then checked out the next day, drove back to Arizona, and finally the following day flew back to New York – two long and uninteresting days of travel.

Next (last post) Trip round up and new link!