Any Legoland tips?

[CJK]

Are there any Legoland experts out there? I was looking for some touring tips and info on what is the best way to buy tickets. I think I read that it's cheaper to buy tickets online before you go? Cheaper than AAA/CAA? Thanks for your help!

 

[java]

My kids got buy one adult get a child free in their Lego magazine last month, perhaps you can find some of those. I think I read they had another promo on their website like that too.

 

[MattM]

Hardly an expert, but in terms of buying tickets, there are a number of places you can get discounted tickets. Chick-Fil-A, Domino's I know for sure are hosting discounts, and I believe something with Pepsi too?

Legoland is really a neat little park. Don't expect/compare it to Disney, you will be disappointed. If you take it for what it is, you'll really enjoy it. Depending on where you're staying in the Orlando area, expect a 30-45 minute trip tops.

If you can, be sure to stop in Winter Haven and eat at a local restaurant or look around in a local store too!

 

[momto2js]

The one thing you NEED to know is that EVERY kid under 48 inches tall needs an adult with them. There are very few rides that don't require them to have an adult and the ride cars are so small that only one adult and one child can fit. If you have more small kids to adults in your party it will be a long day of trying to decide who gets to ride first and who has to wait. In my case, I took my 3 and 5 year olds alone and spent the day approaching strangers that had older kids that could ride alone and asking if they would ride with one of my kids. When they first opened they had extra ride operators that would ride with the extra kid, but our last trip this was not the case. It is a major problem for a park that markets itself as a park for younger kids.

Along the same lines, if you have a baby or toddler, it is better to save the money and have one parent stay in the hotel with the baby. There is little to NOTHING for a child under 34 inches to do except for sit in the stroller with an adult. It is an expensive day for the adult staying with the baby.

We got a kid free with adult purchase offer and I think that is about the right price for the park. I don't think we would pay full price, honestly. They say no outside food or drinks, but they don't check bags and the line for food were pretty long. I took heavy snacks and water with us and then we went to Chili's in Winter Haven for dinner on the way out.

If you ask my kids, they had a great time. If you ask me, it was a LOT of work and headaches. So, my best advice is to make sure you understand the height requirements!!

 

[Lisa0620]

Check out this link for tickets:

http://www.mousesavers.com/legolandflorida.html

scroll down to "Lego Magazine." We used the McDonald's promotion which has expired, but I got the info from Mousesavers and it worked great for us. When it prints out it is an 8.5X11 sheet for each member of your party. It has a bar code that can be scanned at the gate. (It actually has a "ticket" printed with a bar code that can supposedly be cut out and used at the gate, but when I pulled those out they tried to send us to the long line at guest services. I was glad I also had the full 8.5x11 sheets folded up in my purse and they scanned the top barcode at the turnstyles w/o a problem.)

We went Easter week, so it was busy! I had read a couple of hints on line about Legoland CA, and we found they worked well here too:

"Driving school" is the Dumbo of the park, do it first or not at all.

Turn the opposite way of the Duplo area because most people will go there first.

Save Miniland for after the rides

Don't save shopping until the end, because that's what every else does and the stores are slammed. (We went to the stores after lunch and I think they will hold packages for you at the front, but our car was close so DH just ran our bags out to the car.)

Bring some plain minifigures to trade with the "model citizens" (CM's) who have them attached to their name badges.

Sign up older kids for Lego Mindstorms when you enter the park. (Older son wasn't interested, so we didn't pursue this.)

We did the driving school first and I can see why it gets backed up. The kids loved it so it was worth rushing all the way there. Then we did the rides clockwise, without any real waits until we hit the royal joust. I think by then the DUPLO crowd had gotten that far going counterclockwise so the wait was over 30 minutes. We walked by around 3 in the afternoon and the waits at Royal Joust and the whole DUPLO area were non-existent, so it would have been better to wait until afternoon for those rides. We had lunch at the Marketplace which was fine (but not great.) After lunch we went to the build and test area and Hero Factory. This was by far my kids' favorite part of the day. We had to wait about 10 minutes for build & test and at least 20 for the Hero Factory. No food or drink allowed in either, so don't make the mistake I did of buying apple fries and a drink right before thinking I could relax while they played! Very little seating for adults in the build and test and none in the "Hero Factory" which is a too small room with stations around the perimeter for kids to build heros out of random parts (my kids were old enough to understand that we would take a picture, but not get to take them home and were okay with that.) We did the Brickbeard pirate show. Cute, but kind of amateurish compared to Seaworld caliber shows. I wouldn't sweat it if you can't fit it in. We did the playground areas last - the Pharoh themed ball thing and the forest area. Again, no real effort at seating for the parents, you kind of "take one for the team" here, it's all about the kids. The plan was to check out Miniland and then do the 4D movies on the way out. It was 93 degrees and humid, so we couldn't really enjoy Miniland. We reached a point where we admitted it just wasn't fun anymore and decided to leave. The kids opted out of the movies and were ready to go around 5-ish. There were plenty of things that we missed like the Lego City Fire show and Cypress Gardens. I think a second day at $15 might have been worth it, but the kids decided they'd rather have a break day. It was an enjoyable day, worth doing for Lego fans for sure.

 

[cannonboys]

After seeing the website, I was a little worried that my oldest son age 11 would be bored with his little 6 yr. old brother. Not at all!! The only surprise was that the ride there was longer and out in the middle of nowhere, but WELL WORTH IT!!!

We ALL has the best time! We went last week 4/11 and it opened at 9:30. Got there right at opening and were VERY impressed. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL, well planned out, not spread out and plenty to do for all ages. They even had a pirate show where the kids got to see skiers doing tricks and flips and even lego guys dressed in costume skiing.

The roller coasters were great. It's definitely an all day event. Get there early.... We were able to score buy 1 get 1 free tickets at lego.com.

BTW, you can bring in your own snacks and water. They didn't check our bags, nor did they say anything. Water and Sodas are $2.50 each! We bought hot dogs for $3.00 or combo chips and drink $6.00 (not bad prices).

 

[LAMountJoy]

My kids can't wait for our visit to Lego Land FL this summer.... part of the whole Disney trip, of course! They're making autograph books for all the Disney characters and wanted to include Lego characters. Are there any characters around to sign autographs????

I did hear about the mini-fig trading with CM. Is this worth it?

Any other tips about visiting? Thanks!

 

[dobtia]

We went yesterday on 6-4 and had a great day.

Just like going to Disney park for us, get there early. We were first in line and got into the park about 25 minutes early. We had a run of the park for about an hour and half to two hours. Heck we got to ride Coastersarous twice without getting out of the train. (one down side is that they only run one train on several of the coasters) The rides are pretty good for kids. The Aqua Racers is a really cool water ride. The only thing we did not get to do was the Driving School because we waited to long and the line got long.

There was a testing and building area that my son spent almost an hour in. They have it set up so you can build cars and test them on hills. You can also race them against other kids. It is also the area where they sign up for the shows that kids can be involved in. We did not do the class because it was later in the day.

The prices were not so bad and compared to other tourist type places.

There were several school groups that showed up as the day went on, but it did not make things to crazy to deal with.


Trading mini figs: We did not know about this until we got there and were talking to other guests in line. My son loves to trade pins. We bought several mini figs in one of the stores and he traded all day long. It was really fun.

Shows: We watched the ski show. It was cute and fun to watch (have to remember it is not Disney). We never got to the 4D shows as we stayed pretty busy for the day.

 

[klineyqueen]

Thanks for the info! Going there in August.

 

[jdcthree]

Great tips! I didn't realize you could trade minifigs with the employees. You can bring minifigs from home, right? Do all of the employess have them on their name tags?

 

[LAMountJoy]

Everyone I've heard about says that trading mini-figs with the workers is a lot of fun.... here's a way to do this without spending tons of $$$:

I went to ebay and bought a mixed lot of mini-figs that I knew my kids wouldn't really care about. Since in stores you can buy 1 mini-fig for $2.99, my pack of 10 for $8.00 was a great deal! Now we have plenty that we can trade when we visit Legoland soon!

 

[vassar36]

on some Life cereal boxes now they have the buy one adult ticket get a free kid ticket to legoland

 

[tiredandhappymomof3]

I am also wondering if there are characters that walk around legoland to sign autographs and pose for pictures?

 

[RCMommy]

My kids can't wait for our visit to Lego Land FL this summer.... part of the whole Disney trip, of course! They're making autograph books for all the Disney characters and wanted to include Lego characters. Are there any characters around to sign autographs????

I did hear about the mini-fig trading with CM. Is this worth it?

Any other tips about visiting? Thanks!

There are minfigs characters but I don't know if they could sign. We snapped a photo with one but didn't ask for an autograph. Some of the actors after the firetruck show might sign autographs?! My son took a few of his 'boring' minfigs to trade with employees and he was happy with his trades.

 

[RCMommy]

I did a google search for Legoland Orlando tickets to see what promo codes I could come up with.

We were able to score the Pepsi promo (buy an adult - get child free) Some codes I found worked, others did not. I had read that the Pepsi has expired (back in January) but it worked for me.

Try a search and see what you come up with.

 

[bobbi565]

The coupon is good for park entry only, and not the combo ticket that includes the water park. We bought park tickets at the front gate and just paid for water park tickets at the entrance to the water park. There is absolutely no difference in prince doing it that way, and there wasn't really a line for tickets at the waterpark. There's soooo much to do, if you spend a few hours at the waterpark, there's no way you'll even scratch the surface in one day. We did a day after our WDW trip last month, and hardly saw any of it (especially after having to leave over an hour early because of thunderstorms)! We're planning two days next summer after out DCL cruise! Beautiful park!

 

[Miz Diz]

We were there Memorial weekend, on Sunday. The park was not crowded at all. The only downside to our visit is that it rained twice. The first time, they shut all the rides down, except 1 because it is indoors. They kept the rides down 20 minutes or so after the rain stopped. It wad not lightening. At 5:00, it started raining again and the rides were shut down, so we left.

 

[LAMountJoy]

[QUOTEThere's soooo much to do, if you spend a few hours at the waterpark, there's no way you'll even scratch the surface in one day. [/QUOTE]

So.... if we can only go for 1 day, is it worth it to get the waterpark tickets? We would like to because it looks like a great park, but we really want to see all of Legoland too!!!

 

[bobbi565]

[QUOTEThere's soooo much to do, if you spend a few hours at the waterpark, there's no way you'll even scratch the surface in one day.

So.... if we can only go for 1 day, is it worth it to get the waterpark tickets? We would like to because it looks like a great park, but we really want to see all of Legoland too!!! [/QUOTE]

It's a huge park with so much to see and do. If your kids enjoy the waterpark and spend a few hours, then unless there are no lines and you race through the rest of the park, you will need at least two days.

The waterpark is a lot of fun, and even with the Joker Soaker closed the day we were there for maintenance, DS spent around three hours playing there! The park hours were 10 - 6 the day we were there, but we didn't get a chance to do half the things we wanted to!

 

[arbarks]

Could use some advice on trading minifigs. We're planning a one day trip this November and I was just looking on ebay for minifigs. Trying to figure out how many I should get for the kids. They love trading pins at WDW (they will usually trade about 40 pins each trip) but didn't know if they would have as much opportunity to trade at LL. Any advice? I was thinking of getting the kids 10 each but was afraid that wouldn't be enough. Any advice? TIA!