Legoland FL Review from a Disney fanatic

[PixiePoppins]

If you're driving and would drive directly to Legoland, keep in mind it's about 45 minutes from Disney property. You get off I-4 at Route 27 and go about 20 miles, but it's a long 20 miles - lots of stop-lights and heavy truck traffic. So factor that into your decision.

If you have the time and the money isn't a factor, the park is lovely. The Lego figures and models are amazing and certainly were a fascination for my kids, who love Legos. Heck, my husband and I loved the models! We had a nice time and we're glad we went, it is just not something we'd go back to repeatedly and as I said at first, I wouldn't go and pay full-price.

Thanks, Claire! That does make me lean towards it more. I can get the buy one, get one tickets right now, so we may give it a try. I'll probably go back and forth for a few more days, but have to decide by the end of the month to get the coupon code deal. Thanks!

 

[MattM]

One small bone re: the pool. It was pollen, not scum. Scum sounds so much more gross. As any Floridian knows, you cannot win the fight against pollen this time of year.

*Gets off soapbox* haha

Here's the main things the Disney die hards need to remember when they go to Legoland Florida.

LEGOLAND IS NOT DISNEY

There, I said it.

But they don't claim to be Disney, either. It's a great little park in its own right. And as the OP said, the fact that your small child can ride every ride in the park is a big deal to a lot of parents.

True, the prices are a little steep. My advice? Stop by a Chick-Fil-A on your way to the park, and get a $10 off coupon code. I think Domino's Pizza has them as well.

For lodging, the OP says she stayed at the Hampton Inn in Lake Wales, and that is your best choice in terms of niceness of the hotel and location to Legoland. While Im sure more chain hotels will open on Cypress Gardens Blvd (the road you take into Winter Haven/Legoland) soon, the Hampton Inn in Lake Wales is your best bet until then.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Thanks, Claire! That does make me lean towards it more. I can get the buy one, get one tickets right now, so we may give it a try. I'll probably go back and forth for a few more days, but have to decide by the end of the month to get the coupon code deal. Thanks!

You're welcome! Hope you have fun!

One small bone re: the pool. It was pollen, not scum. Scum sounds so much more gross. As any Floridian knows, you cannot win the fight against pollen this time of year.

*Gets off soapbox* haha

Here's the main things the Disney die hards need to remember when they go to Legoland Florida.

LEGOLAND IS NOT DISNEY

There, I said it.

But they don't claim to be Disney, either. It's a great little park in its own right. And as the OP said, the fact that your small child can ride every ride in the park is a big deal to a lot of parents.

True, the prices are a little steep. My advice? Stop by a Chick-Fil-A on your way to the park, and get a $10 off coupon code. I think Domino's Pizza has them as well.

For lodging, the OP says she stayed at the Hampton Inn in Lake Wales, and that is your best choice in terms of niceness of the hotel and location to Legoland. While Im sure more chain hotels will open on Cypress Gardens Blvd (the road you take into Winter Haven/Legoland) soon, the Hampton Inn in Lake Wales is your best bet until then.

We're Florida residents, we know pollen, believe me! I didn't see it, but if my husband said, "scum" it was probably more than just regular pollen. Regardless, it was clear that the pool was not ready for the season.

I completely agree with you - it's not Disney and doesn't claim to be. The problem is that it has Disney pricing. In my OP I said we had a nice time, but I did want to point out both good and bad aspects of the park, and part of the bad is that I think it's over-priced for what it is and that I wouldn't consider going if we didn't have some sort of discount. Of course, the same could probably be said of WDW -- we go with the military discounts or Florida resident discounts or AP discounts. We haven't paid full-price for a vacation there .. ever. However $10 off Legoland's price would not be enough of a discount to woo me back. It should cost around $50 for adults and maybe $40 for kids.

It *is* a great little park and hopefully it will get enough guests for them to consider expanding it and adding some bigger attractions that will appeal to older children and adults. Just this week a church friend asked me how we liked Legoland and asked if she and her husband (no kids) would enjoy it and I had to tell her "probably not." Looking at the neat models is not enough for adults, IMO, and the attractions are definitely oriented to younger kids.

 

[MattM]

Claire,

You're points are spot on. I hope my post wasnt taken as a retort to yours. That was not my intention at all. It was more rather a general post about a lot of common quetsions/statements I've seen here regarding Legoland.

You're absolutely right about their pricing. I think they're going to have to re-evaluate if they want to stay competitive long term. At only a few bucks cheaper than Disney, it definitely doesnt seem like you get as much (think daily/nightly parades, shows, fireworks, extended hours, etc). I mentioned the Chick Fil A coupons only as a helpful tip to those who may not have known.

Anyway, sorry if it came across the wrong way!

 

[tgenius]

Here are my 2c on this one.

We went to Legoland on Monday morning, and were thoroughly disappointed; So much so we left after only two hours!

Now a background.. I have a 2 year old, and all he could ride were the really kiddie rides (and barely even then) that you would have at a local fair. The playground area is cute, but nothing your local park wouldn't have... so if you have very young toddlers, it is absolutely not worth it.

The Lost Adventure game was pathetic in my opinion, didn't look very professional looking and looked like it was just thrown together.

Legoland is not disney, but reiterating what everyone says, the cost is ridiculous for what you get.

 

[momto2js]

And as the OP said, the fact that your small child can ride every ride in the park is a big deal to a lot of parents.
.

Just to be clear the above is not necessarly true. LL is fine and a nice little park if you have you have a 1/1 ratio for kids and adults under 48 inches. If you are outnumbered by your smaller kids you are completly out of luck. For a park that markets to the preschool crowd, you would think there would be a car or two at each attraction that could carry one adult and at least 2 kids, but there isn't. I don't know many folks that would be interested in the model mom program that only have one kid.

If you have a preschooler and a baby and you are alone forget it!! No babs in arms allowed on ANY of the rides. My three year old was riding splash mountain one day and the next could not ride the jousting ride because he had to be 4. It is a nice park and my kids had a good time. However, I spent most of the day approaching strangers that appeared to have older kids or more adults than kids to find extra riders for one of my kids. We worked it out most of the time but it took a lot of work. This needs to be made more clear in the advertising. I had no idea the first time how big an issue it would be.

 

[MattM]

^ To be clear, I was referencing height requirements, not logistics.

 

[Lisa0620]

We went during Easter week with our boys 10 and 7. They are Lego fanatics and ride wimps, so it was right up their alley. We had the buy one get one free tickets that you purchase and print from home, so the price was okay. Our kids' favorite things were the Build and Test where you make and race little cars and the Hero Factory where you build your own Hero (don't get to keep it.) Their version of "pick a brick" was by weight and was sooooooo much more expensive than getting the cup at the Lego store in DTD. (They did not have more interesting items, either.) The build a minifigure store was super tiny, you can do just as well at DTD with that too. It was 93 degrees the day we went and we had saved Miniland for last, which was a shame b/c it was just too hot to enjoy it. We got there at 9:30 and left before 5, but didn't get to do the movies or Cypress Gardens which I had hoped to do. The kids saw the ads for the water park everywhere while we were there, so I'm worried they'll want to go back and experience that after it opens next time we do Disney. For the drive and the price, I felt like it was a once and done experience. We'll see.

 

[eeyoremommy]

The entire second grade from DS's school went this spring. We were able to get tickets for $25. Unfortunately, it happened to be the week of spring break for one of the neighboring counties as well. It was hard to do everything for some of the reason PPs mentioned on page 1 (not enough cars running for the number of people). DS is not a big roller coaster person, so he was fine with the dragon coaster there (the only one I could get him on). He wants to go back, but we will do that only if we get a really good deal on the tickets. I can't imagine having a season pass or going very often. The other thing I didn't like coming from the west was that there was no good way to get there. Coming from Orlando is probably a little better. I would rather go to Disney or even Busch Gardens with an annual pass than Legoland. With improvements, I might reconsider, but the cost does not equal the value.

 

[StarbuxNY]

I know this thread is a little older, but I wanted to thank you so much for this! It has been tough to find any info on legoland!

We are heading to Universal for 5 days as all 3 kids are HP fanatics but the younger two (9 year old twins) LOVE legos. DS9 gets the Lego Club magazine and always saves the coupons - lol. Because 4 days is plenty for USF and we aren't going to Disney this trip, I purchased tickets for one day at Legoland. I did get the two children's tickets for free.

The waterpark will be open when we go so we are going to try that too. (for future reference - extra $12 on top of tickets if you already purchased them)

Anyway, if anyone remembers where they found the touring plan I would love it if you'd post it!! Thanks!!

 

[sksjasams]

I would love a link to the touring plan too, if anyone remembers where it was or subscribed to it... Thank you!

Just wondering about these buy1get1 tickets...can you please tell me where they are available, and also if they work for adult/adult tickets or just adult/child tickets? My DS is too old for the child ticket, and even he thinks its too expensive to go there unless we can find a good deal. We will need 3 tickets, so if we could find a buy1get1 deal and some other dollar off one ticket, that would be super.

Thank you for all your help!

 

[StarbuxNY]

Hi sksjasams,

I got my B1G1 tickets by following the information on this page:

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

- Just a note: it says you can get up to two free child tickets when purchasing two adult tickets, but I had to do separate transactions. That did not work for me.

Unfortunately, they are only free for the kids tickets, no adult/adult combo.

Also, someone else mentioned a May 31st 2012 expiration date: I purchased mine last week for a June trip, and they expire May 8, 2013 so it appears they give you one year to use them.

Still hoping for the touring plan too!

 

[MrsNnr]

We have also been to Legoland, twice. If it wasn't for the free tickets we got (both times) we wouldn't have gone back the second time. The park is super small, rides are super short, and they are extremely overpriced. The first time we went was in December, we took our DD and my husband rode all the rides with her that she was tall enough for. (I was pregnant with our DS). The second time we went was in March. We took my SIL, BIL, and nephews, DD and husband. This time we all rode the rides. Had a good time but again and my in-laws agreed, not if we have to pay for it.

 

[StarbuxNY]

Thanks MrsNnr - so in your opinion, is a "touring plan" even necessary?

Are there any rides that you guys recommend heading to first because they will get busy later on?

TIA!

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

This is the touring plan I referenced in my original post:

http://www.legolandphotos.com/board/thread.php?Thread=5555

We used it almost exactly and encountered short lines all morning. As I said at first, getting there at opening is critical. We hit all the coasters first and had short lines for them all. The only glitch we had was that Lost Kingdom Adventure was down when we went by there early on and we had to go back after lunch and by then, the line was probably a 30-minute wait. I definitely recommend hitting the coasters and the "schools" early because they are all slow-loading and as the day goes on, the line builds faster than they can accommodate riders.

ETA: I'll also add that I would eat early because the lines really build there, too. I walked past the pizza buffet place in the early afternoon and there was still a line waiting to get in.

 

[StarbuxNY]

Claire, this is perfect!! This site is fantastic - with multiple pictures of each ride! THANKS!

 

[sksjasams]

Thank you StarbuxNY for the discount info and link! I will have to keep checking mousesavers for possible adult ticket discounts.

Thank you Claire for posting the link about the touring plan and also all you other great information - thanks for sharing!

 

[kittylady1972]

Great info and links here as well! Thanks!

We are doing our first trip to Legoland in just about three weeks. Kids are going to have a hard time believing that we are in Florida and aren't doing ANY Disney parks at all! My 7yo is a LEGO fanatic though so he's going to love this place. It's a total surprise for him and the rest of the kids.

Sounds like my kids being all 48 inches at least should be okay on just about everything...maybe even without an adult? Luckily we have some extra adults going with us, and we also did the B1G1 free tickets which helped solidify our decision to check it out!

Will definitely report back on our experience going on what I think will probably be a Friday in June!

 

[SkinsFan76]

Was there yesterday with my five y/o. Park was not crowded at all and we didn't have any waits over a few minutes. We did follow the tour path but skipped the roller coasters because my son isn't tall enough (and doesn't like them yet). Seemed like the tour path is pretty accurate to avoid the crowds. Park is nice overall. Food service was super slow. Trading minifigures was my son's favorite part though. He isn't shy, so he had no problems approaching every person who worked there and asking to trade. The park is small, but good size for little kids. We really had done everything by around lunch time. Then went back and did the playgrounds and my son traded with everyone. With the BOGO this is a great deal and something different from the Disney area. W/O the deal, I would struggle with the price and drive from Disney area even though my son is obssessed with Legos.

 

[huffjoann]

we are looking forward to our trip to LL in a week, we are doing this after our Disney cruise, I did get the BOGO adult/kid ticket so I was happy for that. I know it is geared towards kids and while DD is'nt a lego fanatic she is excited to do LL for some reason and I am thrilled it won't be the huge ordeal DW is. My expectations are for efficient ride loading/unloading, clean park and benches in between. I am not doing LL for the "overall experience" you get at Disney so I think if you take it for what it is, its all good