summerw
DIS Veteran
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- Oct 23, 2011
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We went to Legoland May 23-24, staying in a Pirate room at the Legoland Hotel for one night. I used the Wild at Work link from the Legoland discounts thread here on the boards. Awesome thread. Saved us money on our hotel and 2-day tickets. They didn't ask for proof of membership or anything either.
We arrived, coming from Orange County, around 8:30am on the Thursday before Memorial Day. The guard at the entry was very nice. This was the only "security" type person we ever saw and the booth appeared to be empty after 5pm. She gave us a VIP lanyard for our son to get in the early entry line, although we never used it and I don't actually remember them checking if we were hotel guests. I headed to the front desk and our room was ready! The valet (free valet parking) was also the bell hop, and he had our stuff up to our room very quickly. We freshened up and headed out the side doors (off the back of the play area to a patio which has doors that are right next to the front gates). However, you can't use these doors to come back into the hotel. We kind of milled about for a few minutes looking for the early entry line before my husband asked, and they directed us to the left of the aquarium where an employee was scanning tickets and stamping hands.
They let us in right at 9:30 and we headed toward Sky Cruiser since I'd heard that gets long. We were the first on. It provided a nice view of the park, but unless I had small children that couldn't ride any coasters etc, I think I'd skip this one in the future. Since we were next to it and I wasn't taking the hilly path back up here later, we did the Kid Power Towers. The restraints on this are VERY small and I've never thought that about a ride at Disney. I also wasn't a fan of the how the ride shuts off and jerks you down. I was mid-pull pulling myself up, and it almost yanked my arm out of the socket. Didn't love it.
After that we walked on Coastersaurus and they let everyone go around twice, at least both mornings we rode they did. I'm going to compare the coasters to Disney rides in case that helps anyone. Coastersaurus is very similar to Gadget's Go Coaster in Toontown (or Barnstormer if you're a WDW-er). The ride at the front is MUCH slower than the whip you get in the back of the train. Outside of one good turn in the beginning, it's pretty mellow.
Next we headed to the Lego Technic coaster. This is similar to Goofy's Sky School a lot of whipping around turns, one really quick, not too long, drop and some up and down type hills too. I found it a little rough, like I do Goofy's. My son who loves Goofy's made my husband ride two more times while I found a bathroom and looked at the map a little more. I didn't love the bathroom situation at Legoland. They were often behind things and not that easy to find. However, they were clean.
Afterward we headed up to Castle Hill to ride the Knight's Tournament and the Dragon. I didn't ride Knight's Tournament because after how sick I was with the Forbidden Journey ride at Universal, I was skipping anything with those arms. My son who has loved every coaster we've been on so far wasn't a fan. My husband loved it though and went back to ride level 5 a couple of times. Next we headed to The Dragon. This was my favorite ride in the park, by far. It's basically a Lego version of a Fantasyland ride meets Big Thunder on a smoother track. First you go on a cute little tour of the castle, then you ride the coaster portion which is very similar to BTMRR. No big drops, mostly banked turns. I think the last turn is a little faster than BTMRR, but it's so smooth it was just more fun.
Since on the walk between the Lego Technic and Castle Hill we'd had to pass Land of Adventure where my son begged to stop, I'd promised him as soon as we finished the coasters, he could decide what we did the rest of the day. That meant we were going to the face painting booth in Castle Hill. My husband went to ride Knight's Tournament a few times while DS4 was getting his work done. They were very fast and I think the design he chose was $17. They had a cute wand-making station that was $6. Cheap wands but a cute entertainment. This is in contrast to the many annoying games and other extra-expense activities throughout the park. There were a lot of boardwalk-style games situated next to the paths to the next land so you have to pass them, mini golf and rock wall climbing. The games people were kind of pushy and every land meant having to tell DS no again.
We stopped for apple fries at this point. DS and DH loved them. I was ok with them. Honestly, I'd rather just have apple sticks. The flavored whipped cream (we had vanilla, although she said they were trying out carmel too) was very good.
My son also also rode the Joust (he was just ok with it) and we walked through the Enchanted Walk. The parks near us have just as interesting of walkways, although I think they had a bird song soundtrack going. Unfortunately, Hideaways, the cool looking playground equipment/ fort-type area at the edge of Castle Hill is very cute and it was killing my son that it was closed. :-(
We headed back toward Land of Adventure and DS played in Pharaoh's Revenge, rode the slides on Dune Raiders a few times and did the Beetle Bounce and Cargo Ace without much wait. We all rode the Lost Kingdom Adventure which is a target-shooting game. I definitely noticed from multiple rides that it doesn't always register your hits. The line was longer than any we'd encountered yet and was even longer when we went back the second day.
Next up was the Imagination Zone. The Aquazone Wave Racers were closed both days we were there. DS and DH rode Bioncle Blaster (the teacups). We skipped Mindstorms because he is too young and the rest of Imagination Zone because there are so many places to just play in the park, stopping off for playing with legos or video games seemed a waste of time/money.
By this time we were hungry, and it being DH's birthday, I let him pick lunch. He chose the Knights' BBQ. They have pictures and a description of the restaurants on the back of the park map. This wouldn't have been my choice of restaurants, but I like to try any kind of new place. I ordered while they played at the tables which are outside with good umbrella coverage. We got an adult chicken meal and I'm pretty sure chicken nuggets for my son. I think his meal was almost $9 and included the nuggets, fries, raisins and a drink. I think ours was around $15 for a half chicken and baked beans. I didn't get a dessert because they just had cookie/brownie type stuff that didn't look that good. I remember they also had cole slaw and potato salad that looked good but seemed really pricey to me, like $3 for 2 oz or something. We didn't try the ribs or cornbread either but they looked good. They have a station with 2 types of BBQ sauce and ketchup. The food was ok. I thought the beans were way too peppery but DH liked them. DS liked his food for sure. The chicken was pretty good. Overall it was a decent meal, but more expensive than Disney and I definitely didn't think the quality or portions were better or bigger.
Next we walked through Miniland USA. I really expected to love this. The whole area needed to be swept and dusted. I think the Lego Malificent dragon at DTD is very cool. I was not blown away by Miniland. It had some cool powered items push a button and the boat moves or whatever, but I was content to walk through pretty quickly.
Since we were close, we did the Coast Cruise. The boat driver gave some interesting facts about the legos and how many each of the larger structures had, but mostly it was a slow drive in the hot sun where you only saw maybe one or two things you couldn't see from the pathways.
The rest of the afternoon I will call "Walking in Humid Hills While Going in Slow Circles." Excluding Pirate Shores, the rest of the park is mostly different ways of going in a slow circle or a play area. We went to FunTown next and did the Fire Academy. This was fun, but maybe only because we won. Definitely whoever has two adults to man the pumps is the mostly likely victor. I thought the Adventurer's Club (which is a little walk-through fun house with different scenes, like snow and desert) was very cute and DS asked to go through 3 different times. The rides in this area weren't the most exciting, but FunTown is cute.
We waited our longest wait of the day at the Jr Driving School. Six cars per 2-3 minute round, that takes 5 minutes to load and unload and if someone comes through the handicap exit with their 3 kids, you'll be waiting another 8 minutes. I would do this early in the day as well. DS liked it a lot and they gave him a driver's license.
I think the Skipper School is where DS4 got the second sunburn of his life. You are on the water with no shade and the ride is decently long, and if your 4-year-old driver gets you stuck, it can take even longer. Definitely apply sunblock before this one and the Coast Cruise.
DS and DH rode Sky Patrol and we skipped Flight Squadron since we'd been in slow circles enough. If it seems like I'm skipping a lot of rides and letting DH go with DS, often there is only room for 2 or maybe 1 adult and 2 kids. I didn't see the point in taking one more spot on any of these slow-loading rides so I could go around and around, and since DS and I go to Disneyland alone a lot when DH is working, I was letting him have the extra ride time. I think DH would have been fine without riding them too, if he weren't riding with DS. I got lots of pics of them on rides.
Next we spent at least 45 minutes in Playtown. DS wanted to fix my leg in the hospital and everything else the town offered. He even ended up skipping the train because he was so focused on playing here. There were lots of groups of moms chatting, and thankfully it was still fairly empty because it was a very large area in which to keep an eye on DS.
We rode the Safari Trek next which was cute (but VERY slow loading) and walked through the Water Works area. A lot of the instruments were broken and I don't think the water spouts were going. We also stopped by the Dino Dig area. DS loved it. Finally we headed over to Pirate Shores to get wet before heading back to the hotel. The weather was warm, but a very chilly breeze had picked up and was gusting off and on. DS played in the Soak N Sail area for a while. We tried to lure him to some of the rides the area, but he wanted to stay there so between the weather and his big smile, we let him. He rode the kiddie slides, shivering, many many times.
The park closed and we headed back to our room where I grabbed a hot shower and DS and DH headed to the pool. They weren't there long as the pool was pretty cold and the wind was still going. The valet/ bell hop said many people comment on how cold the pool is. After hot showers for the rest we headed to Claim Jumper for DH's birthday dinner choice. We both had one of the steaks where DH loved the sauce and I really enjoyed my baked potato. We headed back to the room and DS had a ball in his bunk beds and the room in general, and we turned in early.
The next morning we headed down to Bricks around 8:15 for breakfast. We were seated very quickly and headed in for food. There is a kids' buffet with lots of good kids' choices, including good bacon and french toast sticks and mini waffles. I loved the omelette station which was very fast for a busy morning and the guacamole they offer on it is awesome. I hated the breakfast potatoes and the smoothies. The waitress kept walking by but never brought the water I asked for, and I finally had to ask someone else. Overall definitely overpriced but worth it for the convenience.
We were at the gates by 9:30 and they let us in to the left side of the park again. We rode Coasteraurus with a 30-something person line. I guess everyone had the same idea and the park was definitely already more crowded than the day before.
After we headed to the Volvo Driving School were the wait was short, but still 2 rounds I think, so about 15 minutes. As we passed Fairy Tale Brook, we noticed it was open this day so we hopped on. It was cute, but considering it was just closed for "annual maintenance," it was VERY dirty with cobwebs etc.
By then it was after 10 so we headed over to Lego Tecnhic and rode that. I headed up to ride the Dragon and then wait to ride it again with the family. I walked on, dropped my sunglasses under the tracks and was greeted upon pulling back in with my found glasses. Thank you to the kindly staff member. I got a call from DH that DS was dying to do the Lost Kingdom Adventure, so they waited 20 minutes for that and I rode the Dragon again. Love that ride. By then it was almost 10:30 so we bolted back to the hotel to check out.
I asked Bell Services on the way up to come for our bags and they let me know it would be about 40 minutes. I informed the front desk and they said not to worry about checking out late since it was their fault. After they came, we headed back out in our suits (with clothes over) to the park and rode the Dragon together before heading to the Water Park.
We probably walked into the Water Park around 12:30. It didn't seem particularly crowded but there were very few chairs around the kiddie area and none were available. Finally we found what looked to be the last two in the area near the slides. The water was a bit cold for me, but DS and DH rode to slides for a bit and then we headed over to the lazy river which was warmer. They had single tubes for toddlers who don't want the hole in the middle and doubles for everyone else. It was nice, not too long, only 2'6" deep. We headed to lunch after that, and warm up in the sun. We ate at the burrito/pizza place there. Pretty expensive again but I was excited about the "locally grown foods" sign, hoping for fresh veggies and they were. I ordered the California Chicken Burrito and my son had the kid's pizza. The pizza was good. I liked everything in the burrito except what I think was the sauce that had a smoky pablano chile kind of flavor. Not my thing but everything else in the burrito was very good.
After lunch we played around a bit more and then headed over to Pirate Shores where we thought we'd be able to talk DS into some of the rides there. Nope, he wanted the Soak N Sail area and played there until he was blue and chattering. After that we headed out of the park with a quick stop in the Big Store for something for DS whose birthday was in two days. They had some really cute lego ice cube tray shapes.
One thing we loved around the park were the musical Lego groups. There was a mariachi band, a pirate band, rocks singing "we will rock you" and something else. I thought they were pretty funny.
That's it for our trip. We had an amazing time in both the park and hotel, and I know both my boys had wonderful birthdays. Here are a few tips or my answers to questions I see people post a lot.
Here's a list of the rides I think can get longer waits, in no particular order. We didn't do Mindstorm or a few others so I didn't include them.
Lost Kingdom Adventure
Volvo Driving School
Sky Cruiser
Coastersaurus
Lego Technic
The Dragon
Knight's Tournament
Skipper School
As far as strollers and bags the stroller situation is very easy. They have marked stroller parking (although not always in the most obvious place) and are very lax about just leaving it anywhere reasonable. I would definitely bring a stroller for little ones as even though the park is pretty small, it's on a big hill. Our bags were fine in the stroller all day and some of the rides have cubby holes for you to leave your stuff in while you ride (right next to where you sit in the exit side, usually, so safe).
One drawback of the rides is the safety regulations are all over the place. I feel like you need a degree to keep straight the height min and max, how many per seat, which side the little ones sit on and on and on. I think this would be a hard park for a single parent with smaller children who are in the height min and max red zones to coordinate riding with who and when.
I've read this from many other posters, and it's very true. The lines at Legoland are deceptive. Many do not have pre-boarding areas, and if they do, they are badly managed. The lines take way longer than you would think. I go to Disneyland a lot but always plan my time so as to avoid lines. I think our trip might have been less enjoyable, for me at least, in a more crowded park. Waiting 30 minutes for a lot of those rides would feel really weird to me.
As far as what age to bring children, there are basically 4 coaster-like rides, all with 42 or under height requirements. The rest of the rides are very much the type smaller kids would enjoy. I would think unless yours is a big Lego fan, probably 10 might be getting too old for some kids. And if they're under 48 inches, make sure you have enough adults to coordinate ride requirements with more than one kid. I really think the target age here is 4-8, or under 4 if you can coordinate ride partners for older kids or don't mind just riding kiddie rides.
The park is, even more than Disneyland, a locals park where moms take their kids for the afternoon. I noticed a jump in lines around noon and again around 3 and lots of moms chatting all of the parks. Thursday was definitely way less crowded than Friday (although Friday was part of Memorial Day weekend) and we rode every ride we wanted to, which was all of them except 2 and some play areas, Mindstorm and the movie on Thursday.
Post away if you have any questions about the park or hotel. I am also going to paste below the review I wrote for Trip Advisor in case there were some tips I forgot to include. I put pics on Trip Advisor if anyone is interested--I just posted today so it might be pending.
Review from Trip Advisor
Things we liked
1 The separated kids area in the room. I read another post complaining it wasn't very private. I thought it was great for being "one" room and my son loved having his own tv and bunk beds and the whole area. He just turned 4 and has never slept in a bunk bed before, but I thought it was safe enough that we let him sleep on the top one.
2 The step stool in bathroom for kids it was a little slippery on the floor though (no rubber on bottom of wooden legs on tile floor) and heavy and my husband stubbed his toe on it---ouch! And the toilet seat cover that has the built in child seat so little ones don't fall in. We have one at home so we LOVED this.
3 The decor was cute (we got a regular pirate, not premium). There's a note in the room about how the lego statues are worth between $95 and $950 and you will pay for them if you break them.
4 Proximity to park closer than your car could be parked works for me.
5 Getting early entry we got in at 9:30 for the 10:00 opening both days we were there for a one-night stay. Only the right side of the park was open to us. Be sure to go to the hotel line to the left of the aquarium--there are no signs or anything so ask if you can't find it. I don't think you can even see it from the front of the park because it's hidden by the aquarium building.
6 The employees were so nice everywhere we went in the park and hotel. We even got into our room before the park was open on check-in day! it probably helped we were checking in the Thursday before a holiday weekend, so I'm sure they were not at capacity the day before. They could not give us late checkout, but I'm sure the Friday of Memorial Day they were at capacity so I hadn't expected it. They bell hop/ valet was super nice about our 3000 bags and a cooler. Valet parking is free but self parking is super close anyway.
7 The disco elevator, whoopee cushion in the floor next to elevator and lego statues that talk were all hilarious and made my son laugh a lot. I think he tried the whoopee cushion about a thousand times. Boys.
8 The omelette bar at Bricks Restaurant was fast and delicious, the guacamole they put on it was big and tasty and the little square cups they put fruit in were super cute. I was pleasantly surprised that even though we ate there just before park opening on the Friday of Memorial Day, we were seated quickly and they had 2 omelette chefs so we didn't wait long for anything. The bacon was decent too.
9 Free on-demand tv, including cartoons, is great for the little ones. I was happy to find they had Disney Jr etc there.
Things we did not like
1 The design of the lobby/elevators/restaurant situation. You walk in to the lobby which is kinda small but fine and hang a right toward the elevators, following the one and only sign in the hotel telling you where anything is. The elevators are a bit down and about halfway you start to wonder if you're going the right way. You turn right just after the elevators to go to the pool, but there's no sign there telling you that, so hopefully you just guessed the pool should be coming up and turned. Also, to get to the elevators/guest rooms you have to pass both Bricks and Skyline which are across from each other. Imagine breakfast time with everyone trying to eat and get to the park and check in or out and there's ONE narrow hallway for all of this. BAD planning there. A lot of congestion and having to pause while you herd through.
2 The play area is super cute, part pirate ship, part castle. However there's no place you can sit where you can see your small children if they go in the different "rooms" of it, and the doors to the outside are right off the back end (or inside of the castle), so if you do sit in one of the lounge chairs to watch them (which are "outside" the castle/ship), they could totally escape out the back. The fact that the area is not nearly big enough for the number of kids compounds this. We avoided it after the first play time until it was mid-day and there were hardly any kids not in the park.
3 The smell coming from Bricks Restaurant is yuck. Ever since having babies I can smell things miles away. Whatever spices they cook with in the kitchen just weren't doing it for me and you have to walk by the restaurant every time you come in the doors. The service at Bricks sucked. The front desk guy was good, but I had to ask for water 4 times from our waitress. She was kinda cranky too. I love breakfast potatoes but I HATED theirs. They definitely contributed to the odd smell. I was so excited they had smoothies because my son loves them. Gross. Don't be excited at all. I think they used some mix I never understand that. Is just plain frozen fruit and apple juice really that much more expensive?
4 The tub of legos in the room to play with was DISGUSTING. I'd let him lick the toilet about the same point I'd let him play with those.
Things that are both bad and good or indifferent
1 The desk told me they have discontinued the treasure hunt because it was giving kids such a hard time (or if you read previous posts, maybe because the safe was malfunctioning?) You still get the welcome gift of some chocolate coins and lego figures.
2 When we checked in, the girl told me she was taking a minute to get me "a really great room." I had no expectations but that sounded good. We walked in to a view of the a/c etc. We couldn't see anything but that. However, it was painted in lego colors and had some lego statues of maintenance workers so it was super cute. I don't need a view and actually preferred just being able to leave the drapes open since we couldn't see ANYTHING except the ducting etc. It was just odd she thought that was a really great room. She was really nice though.
3 They have express checkout where you just leave your key etc. We came back from the park around 10:40 and called for bell services (you can't arrange ahead of time). They had a 40 minute backlog. I talked to the front desk and it was no problem we'd be checking out after 11 since it was their fault because of bell services. So we waited a bit, but I didn't mind the few minutes of quiet before heading back to the park.
4 We brought a cooler so we didn't use the mini fridge. It was one of those cubes that's about half the size of a regular dorm mini-fridge.
5 Be sure to follow the hotel's directions directly to the hotel. Easier and lots of restaurants off the exit that way (McDonald's just to the right for a quick pre-park breakfast).
We arrived, coming from Orange County, around 8:30am on the Thursday before Memorial Day. The guard at the entry was very nice. This was the only "security" type person we ever saw and the booth appeared to be empty after 5pm. She gave us a VIP lanyard for our son to get in the early entry line, although we never used it and I don't actually remember them checking if we were hotel guests. I headed to the front desk and our room was ready! The valet (free valet parking) was also the bell hop, and he had our stuff up to our room very quickly. We freshened up and headed out the side doors (off the back of the play area to a patio which has doors that are right next to the front gates). However, you can't use these doors to come back into the hotel. We kind of milled about for a few minutes looking for the early entry line before my husband asked, and they directed us to the left of the aquarium where an employee was scanning tickets and stamping hands.
They let us in right at 9:30 and we headed toward Sky Cruiser since I'd heard that gets long. We were the first on. It provided a nice view of the park, but unless I had small children that couldn't ride any coasters etc, I think I'd skip this one in the future. Since we were next to it and I wasn't taking the hilly path back up here later, we did the Kid Power Towers. The restraints on this are VERY small and I've never thought that about a ride at Disney. I also wasn't a fan of the how the ride shuts off and jerks you down. I was mid-pull pulling myself up, and it almost yanked my arm out of the socket. Didn't love it.
After that we walked on Coastersaurus and they let everyone go around twice, at least both mornings we rode they did. I'm going to compare the coasters to Disney rides in case that helps anyone. Coastersaurus is very similar to Gadget's Go Coaster in Toontown (or Barnstormer if you're a WDW-er). The ride at the front is MUCH slower than the whip you get in the back of the train. Outside of one good turn in the beginning, it's pretty mellow.
Next we headed to the Lego Technic coaster. This is similar to Goofy's Sky School a lot of whipping around turns, one really quick, not too long, drop and some up and down type hills too. I found it a little rough, like I do Goofy's. My son who loves Goofy's made my husband ride two more times while I found a bathroom and looked at the map a little more. I didn't love the bathroom situation at Legoland. They were often behind things and not that easy to find. However, they were clean.
Afterward we headed up to Castle Hill to ride the Knight's Tournament and the Dragon. I didn't ride Knight's Tournament because after how sick I was with the Forbidden Journey ride at Universal, I was skipping anything with those arms. My son who has loved every coaster we've been on so far wasn't a fan. My husband loved it though and went back to ride level 5 a couple of times. Next we headed to The Dragon. This was my favorite ride in the park, by far. It's basically a Lego version of a Fantasyland ride meets Big Thunder on a smoother track. First you go on a cute little tour of the castle, then you ride the coaster portion which is very similar to BTMRR. No big drops, mostly banked turns. I think the last turn is a little faster than BTMRR, but it's so smooth it was just more fun.
Since on the walk between the Lego Technic and Castle Hill we'd had to pass Land of Adventure where my son begged to stop, I'd promised him as soon as we finished the coasters, he could decide what we did the rest of the day. That meant we were going to the face painting booth in Castle Hill. My husband went to ride Knight's Tournament a few times while DS4 was getting his work done. They were very fast and I think the design he chose was $17. They had a cute wand-making station that was $6. Cheap wands but a cute entertainment. This is in contrast to the many annoying games and other extra-expense activities throughout the park. There were a lot of boardwalk-style games situated next to the paths to the next land so you have to pass them, mini golf and rock wall climbing. The games people were kind of pushy and every land meant having to tell DS no again.
We stopped for apple fries at this point. DS and DH loved them. I was ok with them. Honestly, I'd rather just have apple sticks. The flavored whipped cream (we had vanilla, although she said they were trying out carmel too) was very good.
My son also also rode the Joust (he was just ok with it) and we walked through the Enchanted Walk. The parks near us have just as interesting of walkways, although I think they had a bird song soundtrack going. Unfortunately, Hideaways, the cool looking playground equipment/ fort-type area at the edge of Castle Hill is very cute and it was killing my son that it was closed. :-(
We headed back toward Land of Adventure and DS played in Pharaoh's Revenge, rode the slides on Dune Raiders a few times and did the Beetle Bounce and Cargo Ace without much wait. We all rode the Lost Kingdom Adventure which is a target-shooting game. I definitely noticed from multiple rides that it doesn't always register your hits. The line was longer than any we'd encountered yet and was even longer when we went back the second day.
Next up was the Imagination Zone. The Aquazone Wave Racers were closed both days we were there. DS and DH rode Bioncle Blaster (the teacups). We skipped Mindstorms because he is too young and the rest of Imagination Zone because there are so many places to just play in the park, stopping off for playing with legos or video games seemed a waste of time/money.
By this time we were hungry, and it being DH's birthday, I let him pick lunch. He chose the Knights' BBQ. They have pictures and a description of the restaurants on the back of the park map. This wouldn't have been my choice of restaurants, but I like to try any kind of new place. I ordered while they played at the tables which are outside with good umbrella coverage. We got an adult chicken meal and I'm pretty sure chicken nuggets for my son. I think his meal was almost $9 and included the nuggets, fries, raisins and a drink. I think ours was around $15 for a half chicken and baked beans. I didn't get a dessert because they just had cookie/brownie type stuff that didn't look that good. I remember they also had cole slaw and potato salad that looked good but seemed really pricey to me, like $3 for 2 oz or something. We didn't try the ribs or cornbread either but they looked good. They have a station with 2 types of BBQ sauce and ketchup. The food was ok. I thought the beans were way too peppery but DH liked them. DS liked his food for sure. The chicken was pretty good. Overall it was a decent meal, but more expensive than Disney and I definitely didn't think the quality or portions were better or bigger.
Next we walked through Miniland USA. I really expected to love this. The whole area needed to be swept and dusted. I think the Lego Malificent dragon at DTD is very cool. I was not blown away by Miniland. It had some cool powered items push a button and the boat moves or whatever, but I was content to walk through pretty quickly.
Since we were close, we did the Coast Cruise. The boat driver gave some interesting facts about the legos and how many each of the larger structures had, but mostly it was a slow drive in the hot sun where you only saw maybe one or two things you couldn't see from the pathways.
The rest of the afternoon I will call "Walking in Humid Hills While Going in Slow Circles." Excluding Pirate Shores, the rest of the park is mostly different ways of going in a slow circle or a play area. We went to FunTown next and did the Fire Academy. This was fun, but maybe only because we won. Definitely whoever has two adults to man the pumps is the mostly likely victor. I thought the Adventurer's Club (which is a little walk-through fun house with different scenes, like snow and desert) was very cute and DS asked to go through 3 different times. The rides in this area weren't the most exciting, but FunTown is cute.
We waited our longest wait of the day at the Jr Driving School. Six cars per 2-3 minute round, that takes 5 minutes to load and unload and if someone comes through the handicap exit with their 3 kids, you'll be waiting another 8 minutes. I would do this early in the day as well. DS liked it a lot and they gave him a driver's license.
I think the Skipper School is where DS4 got the second sunburn of his life. You are on the water with no shade and the ride is decently long, and if your 4-year-old driver gets you stuck, it can take even longer. Definitely apply sunblock before this one and the Coast Cruise.
DS and DH rode Sky Patrol and we skipped Flight Squadron since we'd been in slow circles enough. If it seems like I'm skipping a lot of rides and letting DH go with DS, often there is only room for 2 or maybe 1 adult and 2 kids. I didn't see the point in taking one more spot on any of these slow-loading rides so I could go around and around, and since DS and I go to Disneyland alone a lot when DH is working, I was letting him have the extra ride time. I think DH would have been fine without riding them too, if he weren't riding with DS. I got lots of pics of them on rides.
Next we spent at least 45 minutes in Playtown. DS wanted to fix my leg in the hospital and everything else the town offered. He even ended up skipping the train because he was so focused on playing here. There were lots of groups of moms chatting, and thankfully it was still fairly empty because it was a very large area in which to keep an eye on DS.
We rode the Safari Trek next which was cute (but VERY slow loading) and walked through the Water Works area. A lot of the instruments were broken and I don't think the water spouts were going. We also stopped by the Dino Dig area. DS loved it. Finally we headed over to Pirate Shores to get wet before heading back to the hotel. The weather was warm, but a very chilly breeze had picked up and was gusting off and on. DS played in the Soak N Sail area for a while. We tried to lure him to some of the rides the area, but he wanted to stay there so between the weather and his big smile, we let him. He rode the kiddie slides, shivering, many many times.
The park closed and we headed back to our room where I grabbed a hot shower and DS and DH headed to the pool. They weren't there long as the pool was pretty cold and the wind was still going. The valet/ bell hop said many people comment on how cold the pool is. After hot showers for the rest we headed to Claim Jumper for DH's birthday dinner choice. We both had one of the steaks where DH loved the sauce and I really enjoyed my baked potato. We headed back to the room and DS had a ball in his bunk beds and the room in general, and we turned in early.
The next morning we headed down to Bricks around 8:15 for breakfast. We were seated very quickly and headed in for food. There is a kids' buffet with lots of good kids' choices, including good bacon and french toast sticks and mini waffles. I loved the omelette station which was very fast for a busy morning and the guacamole they offer on it is awesome. I hated the breakfast potatoes and the smoothies. The waitress kept walking by but never brought the water I asked for, and I finally had to ask someone else. Overall definitely overpriced but worth it for the convenience.
We were at the gates by 9:30 and they let us in to the left side of the park again. We rode Coasteraurus with a 30-something person line. I guess everyone had the same idea and the park was definitely already more crowded than the day before.
After we headed to the Volvo Driving School were the wait was short, but still 2 rounds I think, so about 15 minutes. As we passed Fairy Tale Brook, we noticed it was open this day so we hopped on. It was cute, but considering it was just closed for "annual maintenance," it was VERY dirty with cobwebs etc.
By then it was after 10 so we headed over to Lego Tecnhic and rode that. I headed up to ride the Dragon and then wait to ride it again with the family. I walked on, dropped my sunglasses under the tracks and was greeted upon pulling back in with my found glasses. Thank you to the kindly staff member. I got a call from DH that DS was dying to do the Lost Kingdom Adventure, so they waited 20 minutes for that and I rode the Dragon again. Love that ride. By then it was almost 10:30 so we bolted back to the hotel to check out.
I asked Bell Services on the way up to come for our bags and they let me know it would be about 40 minutes. I informed the front desk and they said not to worry about checking out late since it was their fault. After they came, we headed back out in our suits (with clothes over) to the park and rode the Dragon together before heading to the Water Park.
We probably walked into the Water Park around 12:30. It didn't seem particularly crowded but there were very few chairs around the kiddie area and none were available. Finally we found what looked to be the last two in the area near the slides. The water was a bit cold for me, but DS and DH rode to slides for a bit and then we headed over to the lazy river which was warmer. They had single tubes for toddlers who don't want the hole in the middle and doubles for everyone else. It was nice, not too long, only 2'6" deep. We headed to lunch after that, and warm up in the sun. We ate at the burrito/pizza place there. Pretty expensive again but I was excited about the "locally grown foods" sign, hoping for fresh veggies and they were. I ordered the California Chicken Burrito and my son had the kid's pizza. The pizza was good. I liked everything in the burrito except what I think was the sauce that had a smoky pablano chile kind of flavor. Not my thing but everything else in the burrito was very good.
After lunch we played around a bit more and then headed over to Pirate Shores where we thought we'd be able to talk DS into some of the rides there. Nope, he wanted the Soak N Sail area and played there until he was blue and chattering. After that we headed out of the park with a quick stop in the Big Store for something for DS whose birthday was in two days. They had some really cute lego ice cube tray shapes.
One thing we loved around the park were the musical Lego groups. There was a mariachi band, a pirate band, rocks singing "we will rock you" and something else. I thought they were pretty funny.
That's it for our trip. We had an amazing time in both the park and hotel, and I know both my boys had wonderful birthdays. Here are a few tips or my answers to questions I see people post a lot.
Here's a list of the rides I think can get longer waits, in no particular order. We didn't do Mindstorm or a few others so I didn't include them.
Lost Kingdom Adventure
Volvo Driving School
Sky Cruiser
Coastersaurus
Lego Technic
The Dragon
Knight's Tournament
Skipper School
As far as strollers and bags the stroller situation is very easy. They have marked stroller parking (although not always in the most obvious place) and are very lax about just leaving it anywhere reasonable. I would definitely bring a stroller for little ones as even though the park is pretty small, it's on a big hill. Our bags were fine in the stroller all day and some of the rides have cubby holes for you to leave your stuff in while you ride (right next to where you sit in the exit side, usually, so safe).
One drawback of the rides is the safety regulations are all over the place. I feel like you need a degree to keep straight the height min and max, how many per seat, which side the little ones sit on and on and on. I think this would be a hard park for a single parent with smaller children who are in the height min and max red zones to coordinate riding with who and when.
I've read this from many other posters, and it's very true. The lines at Legoland are deceptive. Many do not have pre-boarding areas, and if they do, they are badly managed. The lines take way longer than you would think. I go to Disneyland a lot but always plan my time so as to avoid lines. I think our trip might have been less enjoyable, for me at least, in a more crowded park. Waiting 30 minutes for a lot of those rides would feel really weird to me.
As far as what age to bring children, there are basically 4 coaster-like rides, all with 42 or under height requirements. The rest of the rides are very much the type smaller kids would enjoy. I would think unless yours is a big Lego fan, probably 10 might be getting too old for some kids. And if they're under 48 inches, make sure you have enough adults to coordinate ride requirements with more than one kid. I really think the target age here is 4-8, or under 4 if you can coordinate ride partners for older kids or don't mind just riding kiddie rides.
The park is, even more than Disneyland, a locals park where moms take their kids for the afternoon. I noticed a jump in lines around noon and again around 3 and lots of moms chatting all of the parks. Thursday was definitely way less crowded than Friday (although Friday was part of Memorial Day weekend) and we rode every ride we wanted to, which was all of them except 2 and some play areas, Mindstorm and the movie on Thursday.
Post away if you have any questions about the park or hotel. I am also going to paste below the review I wrote for Trip Advisor in case there were some tips I forgot to include. I put pics on Trip Advisor if anyone is interested--I just posted today so it might be pending.
Review from Trip Advisor
Things we liked
1 The separated kids area in the room. I read another post complaining it wasn't very private. I thought it was great for being "one" room and my son loved having his own tv and bunk beds and the whole area. He just turned 4 and has never slept in a bunk bed before, but I thought it was safe enough that we let him sleep on the top one.
2 The step stool in bathroom for kids it was a little slippery on the floor though (no rubber on bottom of wooden legs on tile floor) and heavy and my husband stubbed his toe on it---ouch! And the toilet seat cover that has the built in child seat so little ones don't fall in. We have one at home so we LOVED this.
3 The decor was cute (we got a regular pirate, not premium). There's a note in the room about how the lego statues are worth between $95 and $950 and you will pay for them if you break them.
4 Proximity to park closer than your car could be parked works for me.
5 Getting early entry we got in at 9:30 for the 10:00 opening both days we were there for a one-night stay. Only the right side of the park was open to us. Be sure to go to the hotel line to the left of the aquarium--there are no signs or anything so ask if you can't find it. I don't think you can even see it from the front of the park because it's hidden by the aquarium building.
6 The employees were so nice everywhere we went in the park and hotel. We even got into our room before the park was open on check-in day! it probably helped we were checking in the Thursday before a holiday weekend, so I'm sure they were not at capacity the day before. They could not give us late checkout, but I'm sure the Friday of Memorial Day they were at capacity so I hadn't expected it. They bell hop/ valet was super nice about our 3000 bags and a cooler. Valet parking is free but self parking is super close anyway.
7 The disco elevator, whoopee cushion in the floor next to elevator and lego statues that talk were all hilarious and made my son laugh a lot. I think he tried the whoopee cushion about a thousand times. Boys.
8 The omelette bar at Bricks Restaurant was fast and delicious, the guacamole they put on it was big and tasty and the little square cups they put fruit in were super cute. I was pleasantly surprised that even though we ate there just before park opening on the Friday of Memorial Day, we were seated quickly and they had 2 omelette chefs so we didn't wait long for anything. The bacon was decent too.
9 Free on-demand tv, including cartoons, is great for the little ones. I was happy to find they had Disney Jr etc there.
Things we did not like
1 The design of the lobby/elevators/restaurant situation. You walk in to the lobby which is kinda small but fine and hang a right toward the elevators, following the one and only sign in the hotel telling you where anything is. The elevators are a bit down and about halfway you start to wonder if you're going the right way. You turn right just after the elevators to go to the pool, but there's no sign there telling you that, so hopefully you just guessed the pool should be coming up and turned. Also, to get to the elevators/guest rooms you have to pass both Bricks and Skyline which are across from each other. Imagine breakfast time with everyone trying to eat and get to the park and check in or out and there's ONE narrow hallway for all of this. BAD planning there. A lot of congestion and having to pause while you herd through.
2 The play area is super cute, part pirate ship, part castle. However there's no place you can sit where you can see your small children if they go in the different "rooms" of it, and the doors to the outside are right off the back end (or inside of the castle), so if you do sit in one of the lounge chairs to watch them (which are "outside" the castle/ship), they could totally escape out the back. The fact that the area is not nearly big enough for the number of kids compounds this. We avoided it after the first play time until it was mid-day and there were hardly any kids not in the park.
3 The smell coming from Bricks Restaurant is yuck. Ever since having babies I can smell things miles away. Whatever spices they cook with in the kitchen just weren't doing it for me and you have to walk by the restaurant every time you come in the doors. The service at Bricks sucked. The front desk guy was good, but I had to ask for water 4 times from our waitress. She was kinda cranky too. I love breakfast potatoes but I HATED theirs. They definitely contributed to the odd smell. I was so excited they had smoothies because my son loves them. Gross. Don't be excited at all. I think they used some mix I never understand that. Is just plain frozen fruit and apple juice really that much more expensive?
4 The tub of legos in the room to play with was DISGUSTING. I'd let him lick the toilet about the same point I'd let him play with those.
Things that are both bad and good or indifferent
1 The desk told me they have discontinued the treasure hunt because it was giving kids such a hard time (or if you read previous posts, maybe because the safe was malfunctioning?) You still get the welcome gift of some chocolate coins and lego figures.
2 When we checked in, the girl told me she was taking a minute to get me "a really great room." I had no expectations but that sounded good. We walked in to a view of the a/c etc. We couldn't see anything but that. However, it was painted in lego colors and had some lego statues of maintenance workers so it was super cute. I don't need a view and actually preferred just being able to leave the drapes open since we couldn't see ANYTHING except the ducting etc. It was just odd she thought that was a really great room. She was really nice though.
3 They have express checkout where you just leave your key etc. We came back from the park around 10:40 and called for bell services (you can't arrange ahead of time). They had a 40 minute backlog. I talked to the front desk and it was no problem we'd be checking out after 11 since it was their fault because of bell services. So we waited a bit, but I didn't mind the few minutes of quiet before heading back to the park.
4 We brought a cooler so we didn't use the mini fridge. It was one of those cubes that's about half the size of a regular dorm mini-fridge.
5 Be sure to follow the hotel's directions directly to the hotel. Easier and lots of restaurants off the exit that way (McDonald's just to the right for a quick pre-park breakfast).
