A Short Seaworld Legoland Review

[nunzia]

We just returned from a combo Sea World/LegoLand trip. We went with our daughter, her ex and 2 grandkids, boy who is 7 and girl who is 4. Boy is dolphin fanatic. My daughter's ex FIL joined us for the second Sea World day and LegoLand.
We stayed at Comfort Suites Mission Valley, booked through Getaway Today which was a nice deal and easy. The package also included the $7.00 a day parking at the hotel, so that was an added bonus. Hotel was fine, lots of kids, clustered with a mess of other tourist hotels and had lots of good dining options nearby. They had a decent breakfast which always included an egg and meat option (this ran out quickly but was always restocked). The front desk has a sheet of paper they hand out with directions to area items of interest and we found this very helpful. We had a less than 10 minute drive to Sea World and about 30 minute to Lego Land.
Sea World was wonderful. We hadn't been in a long time and they've added alot of neat things that everyone really enjoyed. There is also an Elmo area now for littler ones and a big roller coaster in an area we never made it to even having 2 days. We did the Animal Spotlight tour which was well worth it with plenty of dolphin time. All the shows were fabulous, the new Blue Horizons dolphin show was a little light on dolphin, but still very entertaining and also included a pilot whale. The second day DD and DGS did a Dolphin Encounter (not in the water since you have to be 10 to do that) and it was a great experience for him (they take pictures and they are very good at making up packages you can't resist. You are also free to take pictures from the same place the Sea World photographer takes them, but naturally hers were much closer since she had a giant lens) The whole encounter takes place in the big dolphin pool, so is not backstage at all. The Animal Spotlight tour goes backstage.
Food was really flavorful and prices about on a par with Disney. Crowds were light, but shows did fill up. Parking was $12.00 a day. Everyone really enjoyed the whole Sea World time.
We did Legoland on a Saturday so maybe that taints the experience, so apologies to any big LegoLand fan who goes to the park and has different experiences. The park was open from 10-6, and we got there right at opening. The landscaping is beautiful and all the Lego creations are witty and amazing. The first ride we attempted, the dinosaur roller coaster, set the tone. Immediately upon the park opening this ride had a 45 minute wait. My DGD was tall enough to ride so everyone but myself and DH got in line. By my observations it looked like they one car running, which held 16 people fully loaded. No wonder the line was huge. It's a cute little coaster, a little cheesy, andwas enjoyed, but not compared to the wait. This was our experience all day. Huge lines, small payoff. Very short rides that are not worth the wait and are barely carnival quality. Our impression was that there were lots of nice play areas for kids, but really not much for parents and kids to do together, like a big ornate playground. Also, considering their obvious market of pretty little kids, there is a surprising number of rides with height restrictions which I found odd. We stood in a very long line for their version of Buzz Lightyear and had constant instructions/warning blasted along the que the whole time. I was really expecting a rip roaring ride. It was kind of pathetic..little squares for your not working very well laser gun to hit while you scooted slowly along a pretty bland track. Another super short ride. The highest praise anyone gave for the whole park was: it's OK. The kids were talking about Sea World when we left after day and have not mentioned it since. They do have the photo package thing down..lots of rides take your picture and they had a special going where after you bought the first picture, all the others were only $7.00. Great idea..Disney should try it.
Food was pretty awful. I had a hot dog (not the Nathan's one) and after three bites tossed it as it had an odd taste. I tried the park speciality, fried green apple fries with vanilla cream and they were pretty good. However, the place to buy them, which sells ONE thing, took 20 minutes to serve 4 people. The whole place is hugely inefficient. With a ticket price close to Disney's I was surprised at the quality of the experiences. I can see that this would be a nice place for locals who just wanted to let their kids get wet and play around all day, but for a theme park experience I didn't enjoy it and won't go back.

 

[mhalpern]

Thanks for your review. We plan on going to both of those parks in mid July. I don't have very high expectations for Legoland but we decided to give it a go before my kids get too old. They might be already since DD is 11 (going on 21) and DS is 9.

How much time do you think we need at Sea World? We are thinking about taking the bus from Anaheim instead of renting a car. However I'm not sure how early the bus heads back and I want to make sure we have enough time.

 

[kristie73]

Thanks for your review. We plan to do Sea World one day and Disneyland for 3 days. I debated for some time about Legoland, but ultimately I decided since we are doing the amusement park of Disneyland and California Adventure that Legoland will be too much. Your notes on Legoland confirmed my decision. I have ages 3 and 7 year old boys. I think we can wait another year or two and go another time. I had decided that since my 3 year old isn't quite tall enough for several rides in Legoland, that we'd hold off going this time.

 

[ktlm]

I completely agree with your review of Legoland. We were there last Friday. DD(4) had fun, but the grown-ups were not impressed. The place is only open from 10-5 (even though the price is very close to DL which was open from 8-12- so more than twice as long for almost the same price). Most of our waits were 10 minutes or less- I can't imagine with the waits that you ran into that you would have had time to do much of the park. Mhalpern, I would say that your 9 and 11 year old may already be too old for Legoland. Aside from the new waterpark, it seems geared to the littler kids. The rides are very "kiddie". I have a friend who took his 6 year old son last week when they were in town for a wedding. His 8 and 10 year old boys did not make the trip because they were at camp. He says he was glad he did not have the older boys with him, because he thought they would have been too old for most of the park and extremely bored even though they are big Lego fans. The food choices were extremely limited. If you are used to DL/WDW, Legoland is a big step down. It is cute for the little ones and they will enjoy it, but don't expect too much from the adult perspective.


Kristie73, take a close look at those height requirements. We found that most of the requirements were for a child to ride alone. As long as a parent was with them, we did not see many rides that a 3 year old would not be tall enough to ride. My 4 year old met every requirement to ride with an adult with her by a long shot. There was only 1 ride in the parks she could not do. That was the Volvo Driving School track that was for kids age 6-13. They had a separate track for the 3-5 year olds.

 

[nunzia]

Thanks for your review. We plan on going to both of those parks in mid July. I don't have very high expectations for Legoland but we decided to give it a go before my kids get too old. They might be already since DD is 11 (going on 21) and DS is 9.

How much time do you think we need at Sea World? We are thinking about taking the bus from Anaheim instead of renting a car. However I'm not sure how early the bus heads back and I want to make sure we have enough time.

We spent 2 days in Sea World and got to do pretty much everything we wanted, but agreed later it would have been nice to see a few shows a second time. Now, we did have the 2 tours so this took extra time, and they did close early one night, and we left before closing on Friday night, (I think they have a night time show on weekends, so we did miss that.)
As far as the LegoLand ride gauges, yes they have many that have ride alone, ride with someone, etc., but our 4 yo DGD is pretty tiny and could not ride alot of the stuff she wanted to at all, even with an adult. We really didn't attempt several rides becuase of earlier disappointment and huge lines.