She's Six at Legoland, a Disney Family's Mini Trip Report (With Lots of Pics)

[GrandCalifornian]

This is our report on our Legoland Day, September 20, 2015. As we have in our other trip reports, Paul will write his portions in Blue and Melissa in Orange.

Last weekend we broke out of our Disney bubble to visit Legoland California in Carlsbad.

As frequent Disnelyland visitors, this was our first theme park trip "out of the bubble" and we weren't too sure what to expect.

We have visited other theme parks here in California but this was our first outside Disney with Allie.

She was really excited about it though, and we figured she would be a good age to enjoy the rides there.

Since it is now considered off peak season the park hours were only from 10:00 to 5:00 so we knew we wanted to be there when the park opened

The late opening helped since the park is about an hour and a half from our house. Allie said she wanted to get up at sunrise, but she had a different opinion when we woke her up that morning.

The birthday girl is not a morning person at all but we got her out of bed and dressed and we were soon on our way to breakfast.

We stopped at McDonalds for pancakes (one of Allie's favorite breakfasts) and then headed to the park. We had one stop on the way at a Kinko's because Melissa had purchased and printed our tickets earlier, but couldn't find them that morning.

The tickets vanished into thin air. Still don't know what the heck happened to them. Anyway after a quick stop at Kinkos we made our way to the park and were there right before it opened.

We didn't pay the extra for preferred parking, but could see the park entrance from our car. It was actually a shorter walk than the tram usually is from the Disneyland parking structure.


We were only about 2 or 3 rows away from the preferred parking area. After a quick potty break outside the gates we headed inside.

They opened the main gates a little early and let us in to the entrance plaza area. We could go in a couple shops and so Allie checked out the Minifigure Market. She likes building the custom minifigures at the lego stores at Disney, but was disappointed that they didn't have any girl faces at this one. We told her we'd come back, as now it was 10:00 and the rides were open.

We grabbed a map and tried to figure out where to start.


We meandered to the left and found our first ride.

It was the safari ride, and was a good way to set the expectations for the park. You ride in small electric "safari vehicles" to view animals made from Legos.


The wait wasn't too bad, maybe 15 minutes, and the ride was short but Allie really liked it.

The safari ride was pretty cute and it surprised me how much Allie enjoyed it. Next up was face painting.


While not an actual attraction it is one of Allie's favorite things and since it was her birthday it was hard to say no.

She did this for the first time during our WDW trip last year, and now does it whenever she can convince us to say yes. The lady did a good job, but they have a slightly complicated retouching policy that is a little Different than Disney's "show us the receipt and we'll re-do it all day." Next in the loop was a fairy tale boat ride, which Allie got excited about so we did it. It was pretty cute, and the characters from some common fairy tales were shown made from Legos.


The only thing that confused me was why was the wolf dancing with Little Red Riding Hood at the end?


I guess everyone reconciled and was friends in the end. Allie wanted to hop right back on and ride it again, but we told her we'd come back later in the day.

She confided in me before we got in the park that she was afraid that there would be no rides that she would want to ride because she would be too scared so it was nice to see that she was actually enjoying this new experience.

Next up was the Lego Friends Heartlake City, and Mia's riding school. This carousel was pretty cute, as the horses were shaped like Lego horses.

Allie got a picture with one of the characters. We aren't really familiar with which one is which and I'm not sure Allie figured out it was supposed to be one of the Lego friends, she just wanted a picture on the horse.


The carousel was definately cute, the horses are chunky and there isn't much clearance between them for standing. Being 6 months pregnant I barely fit between two just to slide past to get a picture.


After the carousel we headed for a roller coaster type ride that Allie had seen and wanted to do. The Sky Cruiser has a fairly flat track and you peddle (like a bicycle) to have some control over the speed.


The waiting area was HOT though. There was some shade, but plants blocked the breeze and it got hot. It was Animal Kingdom in July hot, and felt just as humid.

We were melting and I hoped the heat wasn't going to be the theme for the day. While we were in line we decided that as soon as we were done there we needed to find some icecream.

The ride was fun, but probably not quite worth the wait, and definitely not worth the up to four hour wait that we had heard about for it at peak times. We headed straight for a place that was supposed to have soft serve, but found out the machine was not working.

It was slightly disappointing but the "cast member"? pointed us in the direction of hard scooped icecream so we headed over to the "Fun Town Market" restaurant next door.


After our snack and a bit of a cool down we did the factory tour where we watched a few machines make and decorate bricks.


Some of the machines were not running, but Allie liked watching the ones that were.


Then she found they had a better selection of minifigures, so she put three together and we bought them.


She was excited to point out the age of 6+ on the package.

It was a nice little break for me to sit and rest for a minute and it was relatively cool inside. After she was done building minifigures we asked if she wanted to do the Fun Town Police and Fire Academy. She wasn't interested so we walked by Driving School to see if she wanted to drive the cars. She said she was worried she'd loose us because it was something she had to do herself and she didn't want to be by herself.

I could relate to that, so even though she was old enough for the cars (you have to be 6) we moved on and Allie decided she'd try the helicopter ride. It was pretty cute, the individual helicopters go straight up and down, and you can control how high and the rotation of them.


After the helicopters Allie and I went to Skipper School, a drive your own boat ride I had read about online.


I found a nice bench in the shade to watch. This ride is hysterical to watch because the kids get to drive the boats. They arent on a track and tend to get turned around backwards.

Allie insisted on driving, and we had fun. I kind of wish Disney had a ride similar to this, as we missed out on the Motor Boat Cruise at Disneyland. Some of the kids spent a long time on the ride, because they kept getting stuck and other boats got by them. Allie was happy that we "won" by finishing ahead of them.

She has a bit of a competitive streak.

Next we did some more park exploring, and made our way over to the castle themed area. There weren't any rides here that Allie wanted to do, but we did spend some time in the climbing tower play structure with rope bridges and slides.


It isn't as elaborate as the one at California Adventure, and a portion of it was boarded up and closed, but they did do a good job of marking which paths went which direction, and Allie led me through the whole thing.

It was another good spot for me to rest. I was getting tired and sore and hot and definately hungry.

By now it was almost 2:00, so we planned to finish the loop around the park and head to the aquarium, where we figured we could get lunch at the restaurant and be cool inside. On the way we saw there was no wait for the big boat ride through the center of the park, so we decided to ride it. After taking Allie for a potty break we hopped on the boat.


The skipper could have made it a lot more interesting, but he just told us how many bricks were in each feature in a monotone voice before heading on to the next thing. Perhaps we are spoiled by the wit of the Jungle Cruise...

This is definitely a ride where the skipper makes the difference and frankly ours was less then stellar. After we hopped off the boat we headed over to the aquarium to cool off and grab lunch.

Continued in next post.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Never having been to the aquarium before we didn't realize that the restaurant was basically the "dump shop" at the exit of the tour. We did bypass the aquarium and go straight to it, but were disappointed by the lack of air conditioning. It was basically a small food court and the refrigerator cases were warming up the dining area.


Allie got chicken strips and we ordered cheeseburger sliders and we sat down with our cokes to try to cool down a bit. We were both glad they had Coke, and nice Diet Cokes with ice did help us cool off.

It was a nice space and has an aquarium with fish that we sat and watched but it was far from cool. It was pretty disappoining. By the time lunch came we were no longer HOT but I was still not completely cooled off.
The food was a big surprise though and was super tasty. My only complaint is that the kids juice boxes aren't served cold. Allie was grossed out by this, as she should be, so I just got her a cup of ice and poured it over that. While this probably wouldnt work for a two year old it was a good solution for her.


The burgers were quite tasty, and I have had some at Disney that I didn't enjoy as much, so they really exceeded my expectations there. After eating we headed back downstairs and went through the aquarium, since we had gotten a better deal by purchasing the tickets that included aquarium admission.

Downstairs was much much cooler and we had fun walking through checking out the fish.


The aquarium was set up like an old Ikea, where there was one path through it that led you around through a prescribed path.


There was some humor and lego tie-ins as well, like this display I didn't notice but Melissa got a picture of. You can tell which crab wears sunscreen.


There was also a neat part where you went through a tube with sharks and rays swimming around.


Then later you got to look down on the same tank.


It was a nicely done little aquarium and a nice break from the rest of the park.


It was fun, although I was glad we didn't pay any more to do it. Our timing worked well to do it in the middle of the day, then return to the park.

After we were done at the aquarium we walked through the big store and checked out some lego sets.


Then Allie decided she indeed wanted to ride a ride we had passed earlier and didn't want to do. I parked myself on yet another bench in the shade while Paul took Allie on Aquazone Wave Racer.


This was a neat ride. I had seen in the pictures of it that normally bystandars can spray water at the riders as they go around the base in their ride vehicles. This day the water was turned off, so it looked like we wouldn't get wet. You actually ride standing up in this little pod and you can control how far out it swings from the base as it goes around skimming across the water. Our feet got splashed, but we did stay dry.


Allie enjoyed it so much that after telling Melissa how fun it was we ran around and rode it again.

After that we headed over to check out Miniland.


I was really impressed by this. I expected everything to be lego mini-figure sized, but it was actually a larger scale than that. There is amazing detail in the scenes that depict Washington DC, New Yourk, San Fransisco, and Las Vegas, but my favorite part was the incredibly realistic RVs that were parked in the sand near a motocross race.


It was really neat to see all the different models.


Allie enjoyed pointing out all the people and the different things that were going on in each scene.

Since it was after 4:00 by now we were a little rushed, but I would definitely plan on spending more time in this section. There are lots of details you can find if you take the time, and Allie was definitely into it.


We had promised Allie we could ride the safari ride and Fairy Tale boats again, so we decided to head over there. We had quite a bit of ground to cover, and there wasn't a direct route from where we were at, so Melissa said she'd walk slowly and Allie and I could run ahead to make sure we got on.

It was getting later in the day and pretty close to park closing. I couldn't keep up with those two and I wanted to make sure she got to ride her two favorite rides again. I found a bench in the shade to wait for them to get off the Fairytale boats. While I was waiting I heard an announcement that there was going to be a stage show starting soon over in Heartlake.

We met up with Melissa after riding the fairy tale boats (which came to the same conclusion as before with Red Riding Hood dancing with the wolf) and then we went to catch some of the Friends show.


It had singing and dancing, so she enjoyed it, but we left early so she could hit the Safari ride before closing.

I once again found a bench and waited for them to finish. When Allie got off the Safari ride she was super excited because she found a snake we had missed on the first time.


We had just a few minutes left until the park closed, so we checked out the area where you could dig for dinosaur bones. It was closed, but looked like a nice activity. We did stop for a picture of Allie in a Lego Lion's mouth.


Then we made our way up to the entrance area and headed out. We might have been willing to loop through the shop one more time if it were air conditioned, but we were ready for cool air and the place to find that was back at the van. Allie did run into the aquarium gift shop to buy a stuffed mermaid she had seen earlier, and then after a last picture we were done.


The AC in the van felt so good and we were all three ready for some cold water.

Allie had said she wanted birthday cake on her birthday, so I had figured out that there was a Nothing Bundt Cakes store just across the street, so we headed over there and Allie got her choice of mini Bundt cakes. She chose Lemon, and I got one for Melissa and me to share too. The store was in a Costco parking lot, so I ran in and got four cold waters from the vending machine. We sat in the van's air conditioning and cooled off while we enjoyed our water and cake.

It was an unconventional place to enjoy her birthday cake but even she wasn't excited about finding a place to sit outside. We were all still cooling off and enjoying the rest time in the van.

Overall we had a great day, and Legoland probably surpassed our expectations. Allie loved it and had a great birthday, so it was a success. With just a little more air conditioning (or perhaps a cooler day) it would have been even better, but that's ok, we can appreciate Disney for that every time we walk into a nice cold gift shop or restaurant.

Yes, maybe next time we go back it'll be in February.

Or maybe for Marshall's fifth or sixth birthday?...

That would be about right.

I did enjoy it though, and I bet we wind up back there before then.

It was fun even at 6 months pregnant.

We hope you enjoyed following along, and that this gives you a picture of what's at Legoland. It was certainly worth the trip, and made for an enjoyable alternative to (although not substitute for) Disney.

 

[endy]

Nice review. Makes me want to go again. It's been likely 6 maybe 7 years as my DS is now 19. The Fairytale ride was always my favorite ride and I see some shiny new lego figures. I see new to me stuff in the Miniland pictures and love the RV park.
You didn't try the apple and cream things from up top of the park? The best! Or the dragon roller coaster? It's not a big coaster and the lego figures on the inside are great.
Glad you had a great day.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Nice review. Makes me want to go again. It's been likely 6 maybe 7 years as my DS is now 19. The Fairytale ride was always my favorite ride and I see some shiny new lego figures. I see new to me stuff in the Miniland pictures and love the RV park.
You didn't try the apple and cream things from up top of the park? The best! Or the dragon roller coaster? It's not a big coaster and the lego figures on the inside are great.
Glad you had a great day.

Thanks! We did have a fun day. We saw the apple things and head read about them, but at that point we were more looking for lunch and we never made it back up there. Allie had said she didn't want to ride any roller coasters, so the Dragon and Technic ones were ruled out. I was glad she was willing to do the Sky Cruiser at least. Maybe we'll hit them next time if her brother turns out to be more adventurous.

 

[4Mickeys]

Looks like your daughter had a great birthday visit! Reading you talk about melting made me laugh - it reminded me of our visit in September 2014 on a 104 degree day! We felt that way too - in fact by the time we got back to our Anaheim hotel on the bus my legs were so swollen from the heat and walking!

Glad you enjoyed it

 

[stephanie22]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! We are going for a day during our upcoming trip and I've had the hardest time fing information and pictures of the park. This was very helpful, and made me feel a little more excited for the Legoland part of our trip.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Looks like your daughter had a great birthday visit! Reading you talk about melting made me laugh - it reminded me of our visit in September 2014 on a 104 degree day! We felt that way too - in fact by the time we got back to our Anaheim hotel on the bus my legs were so swollen from the heat and walking!

Glad you enjoyed it

Thanks, we hope you enjoyed reliving your trip. (Except for maybe the melting part...) Hopefully it was a nicely air conditioned bus, otherwise that mush have prolonged the agony.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! We are going for a day during our upcoming trip and I've had the hardest time fing information and pictures of the park. This was very helpful, and made me feel a little more excited for the Legoland part of our trip.

Great! No problem at all. We had trouble finding good pics and reports on Legoland too, so we knew we wanted to share. We would totally enjoy going back, especially now that we know more of what to expect. Hopefully the weather will be a little cooler for you too. Have a great trip!

 

[mrsw94]

Thanks so much for sharing!! Like others, it's been hard to find good info! We are headed down for 2 days at Legoland and then 4 days at Disneyland in just over 2 weeks!

A few questions if you have time to answer....

-Can you bring food into the park? We are used to Disneyland and bringing in lunch for the kids, but I'm not sure if they'll make us toss it.

-Does the store have anything different than what you'd find in a regular Lego store or Target?

-Is the parking very far from the Water Park area? We are planning on spending some time in the water park, but I don't really want to lug all our stuff around all day!!

Thanks so much!!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Thanks so much for sharing!! Like others, it's been hard to find good info! We are headed down for 2 days at Legoland and then 4 days at Disneyland in just over 2 weeks!

A few questions if you have time to answer....

-Can you bring food into the park? We are used to Disneyland and bringing in lunch for the kids, but I'm not sure if they'll make us toss it.

-Does the store have anything different than what you'd find in a regular Lego store or Target?

-Is the parking very far from the Water Park area? We are planning on spending some time in the water park, but I don't really want to lug all our stuff around all day!!

Thanks so much!!

No problem, we are glad to help. Your trip should be great, you must be excited.

There are signs when you enter the parking lot that say you can't bring food into the park, but there is no bag check and we had no problem bringing water bottles and some snacks.

The store was a little disappointing. The only thing it had that was at all unique was Legoland T shirts. The Lego sets are the usual and priced at the regular prices. We actually like the selection and variety at the Downtown Disney Lego store more.

The water park is at the back of the theme park, so you have to walk through most of the theme park to get to the water park entrance. Since the parking is so close the overall walk isn't terrible, but there are lockers at the water park entrance that people used. There are also lockers at the front of the park, but they are close to the parking.

Feel free to ask anything else, it should be a great trip.

 

[mrsw94]

Thanks so much!! That is a great help!! I'm in crazy planning mode, so I'm sure I'll have more questions!! I'm very glad we are doing Legoland first. I think the kids 7 & 13 will like it. Legoland is more for our 7 year old son, but our daughter is a good sport and a great big sister, so I think she'll enjoy it. We are all REALLY excited for both!!

 

[Wood Nymph]

Allie's birthday at Legoland looked like a lot of fun. I would think that those two boat rides would be the most fun. I can see where this park would appeal to younger kids, but older ones would be bored.

BTW - I noticed that Allie isn't wearing glasses this time. Does she still have to wear them?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Thanks so much!! That is a great help!! I'm in crazy planning mode, so I'm sure I'll have more questions!! I'm very glad we are doing Legoland first. I think the kids 7 & 13 will like it. Legoland is more for our 7 year old son, but our daughter is a good sport and a great big sister, so I think she'll enjoy it. We are all REALLY excited for both!!

Yes, it will be a fun trip and everyone should enjoy it. You will definitely be saving the best for last.
We're glad to hear that your daughter is a great big sister. We will have the same age and gender split, and so far Allie is very excited about being a big sister.

Allie's birthday at Legoland looked like a lot of fun. I would think that those two boat rides would be the most fun. I can see where this park would appeal to younger kids, but older ones would be bored.

BTW - I noticed that Allie isn't wearing glasses this time. Does she still have to wear them?

The boats were fun. Allie liked the fairy tale one a lot, and the one where she could drive was cool. The spinning one was her favorite though, and mine too.
There are a couple of roller coasters, but they still aren't as exciting for bigger kids. Anyone can appreciate the cool stuff they built with Legos though.

As for the glasses, they are currently missing. She got a nice new pair this year, but we can't find them at the moment. Fortunately her prescription isn't that strong and she does ok without them. As soon as we replace them we'll probably find the others...

 

[texasgingerbread]

Thanks for the trip report. We have been debating if we would be disappointed after going to Disney. Appreciate your insight. We have two 6 year olds.

 

[Jaina]

Thanks for your report! We are planning to go next week, and trying to figure out if we should do one day (Monday) or two days (Saturday and Monday). Our kids are 9, 7.5, 5, and 1.5, and the older three aren't afraid to ride anything. They are all obsessed with all things Lego. Do you have any idea if they have any kind of rider switch like Disney? Little guy isn't tall enough for anything with a height requirement. Were there already people in the park from the on-site guests? How early did they open the gates? After being such a Disney-crazed person (which we can't currently afford) I feel like I'm going into this place blind...

 

[GrandCalifornian]

By the way, we found Allie's glasses today. Yay, $200+ we don't have to spend...

Thanks for the trip report. We have been debating if we would be disappointed after going to Disney. Appreciate your insight. We have two 6 year olds.

You are welcome. It is a great park for kids that age, but it isn't Disney. That's ok though.

Thanks for your report! We are planning to go next week, and trying to figure out if we should do one day (Monday) or two days (Saturday and Monday). Our kids are 9, 7.5, 5, and 1.5, and the older three aren't afraid to ride anything. They are all obsessed with all things Lego. Do you have any idea if they have any kind of rider switch like Disney? Little guy isn't tall enough for anything with a height requirement. Were there already people in the park from the on-site guests? How early did they open the gates? After being such a Disney-crazed person (which we can't currently afford) I feel like I'm going into this place blind...

You're welcome. The weather should be cooler, and hopefully you miss the rain early in the week.
There should be lots for all of the kids. They do have a rider swap thing where each parent can ride with the older kid while they take turns with the younger one. Everyone has to wait in line together though. There are a lot of rides that require shorter kids to have an adult ride with them. Some people didn't really want to go with the kids on the little rides, but they have to up to kids that are about 50 inches tall.
They did have early access for the hotel guests. I believe it opened up an hour early for them. The rest of us got to go in the front gate about 9:45 and then out of the "beginning" area right at 10:00, but the hotel guests were already riding the rides. There wasn't a huge opening rush though.
The park is not Disney, but there is some cool stuff for all ages to appreciate. The single day ticket probably isn't as good a value as Disney, but they have great multi-day and annual pass deals. Just like Disney, you can apply the cost of a single day ticket towards a pass (they call it membership).