Getting to Legoland--HELP!

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Okay, we're getting close now so I need to decide how to do this! This is totally new territory for us as we've always just stayed onsite and relied entirely on Disney transportation, never had a car or left property.

We're staying at POFQ but plan on going to Legoland for one day during the week. We're trying to decide which is easiest--rent a car for one day or use the Legoland shuttle. From what I can figure, the price is pretty close to the same for either option. We do plan on being at Legoland pretty much from open to close for just one day.

Please let me know if I've considered everything here:

If we rent, I'd probably get the car early in the morning the day we're going. Come back to the resort from the car care center, pick up the family, drive to Legoland, pay to park, spend the day, drive back to the resort. Instead of rushing back, I'd probably keep the car overnight and return it first thing the next morning. We've got a later day planned the next day anyway, so that wouldn't be an issue. We've never driven in the area at all and are totally unfamiliar. We would be able to leave our water park stuff in the car until we need it.

If we use the shuttle, we'd get a taxi to the outlet mall that morning, shuttle leaves at 9:00. I understand there are taxis waiting at each hotel, so no need to schedule ahead of time. Take the shuttle, store our stuff in a locker at Legoland water park. Shuttle leaves at park closing to return to outlet mall. I'm not sure if there are usually taxis there at the mall or whether I'd have to call or schedule ahead of time. We'd be locked in to one time going and one time returning for the day, but plan on opening and closing the park anyway.

Rental would be the cost of the car plus parking and gas.

Shuttle would be cost of the taxi to and from and the shuttle.

Which sounds easier for a total newbie??? Any experience with either option?? Thanks for any help!

 

[zilp]

Honestly, I would take the shuttle. Sounds a lot easier to me, especially since it is a one day rental. Talk with the front desk to estimate how long it will take you to get to the outlet mall. This way you can make sure you will get there in plenty of time (taking into account morning traffic etc).

Also, talk with the front desk about reserving a taxi, they can usually have someone waiting just for you and perhaps they can schedule to pick you up at the outlet mall too. The planner in me would like to know that a taxi will be available for me when I need it .

Have fun, we really enjoyed Legoland.

 

[dsneprincess]

We drove from WDW to Legoland last August for the first time. It was not a tough drive, but we had the rental car for the week anyways. There is clear signage & traffic was not heavy. We arrived at park open, big lots, no parking issues.

Here is my big Robles with your assumptions: Legoland is a line, not a spoke & hub design. Water park is at the furthest end from the entrance and parking. I would plan on taking your water stuuf and carrying it with you. We did not do the watermark and honestly did not have time to do it in 1 day! Legoland was not busy at all the day we were there (it was the 1st day of school for the area), but load/unload is slow going. The rides are NOT high capacity, fun, interesting and unique, but not a lot of riders per ride on most of them. It was almost 3 by the time we made it to the watermark entrance, so we decided not to enter at that time.( you can purchase the tickets for the watermark at the back of the regular park, entrance to the watr park area, so we planned on doing that, but ended up not doing.)

Anyway, if you left your stuff in a rental car or locker (which I didn't see, but doesn't mean they aren't there!) at the entrance, it would be a pretty long walk to get your stuff and aback. Alternatively, you would have to walk through entire park,enter watermark, get locker, exit watermark and retrace route to attractions.

We loved Legoland, but I could see where the day could have been extremely disappointing, if crowd levels were higher. We rode everything & saw the waterski show & I walked Cypress Gardens. We stayed until close & just had enough time to "do it all" except we didn't do the watermark.and we waited in NO lines. When I did a survey on way out, they asked if I was able to experience 1-2 attractions. I didn't find that encouraging for most days of visiting. Let me know if you have any other questions, sorry for the length of reply!