Legoland FL trip report

[dalmatian7]

EDIT I am going to try to organize all the Legoland trip report or ticket threads with links here. Please be patient with me, also if you have posted a review PM me to have it added here.

HOTELS -
https://www.disboards.com/threads/legoland-beach-retreat.3618615/

TICKETS -
https://www.disboards.com/threads/30-legoland-tickets-is-this-for-real.3419462/page-9



HI All!!!! We were in Orlando 9/2-9/9. We added on Legoland as part of a larger WDW vacation. For this portion of the trip it was Me, DH and our DD6. Our DD is a big Lego Movie, Lego Batman, Lego Star Wars, Lego Freemaker Adventure fan. We just discovered Ninjago on Amazon this spring. She "discovered" Legoland in the previews for The Lego Movie. While this was supposed to be our first "onsite" trip since 2013 with my family, we added Legoland to the beginning of our trip for her.

I had a hard time planning this part of the trip because I am used so much information being available on everything Disney and I had a hard time finding Legoland info. I hope this trip report can help someone else answer the questions I had, especially about the park and tickets. Please note, I am not a picture taker so...yeah... no pictures in this report.

The Start
Our party of three (DH, me, DD 6) arrived at MCO on 9/2 and rented an Alamo rental to drive to Winter Haven. We chose Alamo so we could return it at the Car Care Center on Disney property. I originally booked this rental in April. I also joined the Alamo email list. I received an email for a free upgrade about two weeks later. I rebooked the rental. Then just on a whim in June, I went back in to see what prices were and they were much lower. I then rebooked it in June at a much better rate and used the savings to upgrade to a small SUV and still save money over the second booking. When we got to the Alamo counter, they had no small SUVs left so we got an upgrade to a standard SUV. We chose a Nissan Pathfinder from the row. We also rented a booster for DD6. If we had not rented the booster we would have saved more but I didn’t feel like lugging one from home for only three days of use. If we were using the car the entire trip, I probably would have brought a low booster from home. All told with taxes and booster rental, the total was $96.

Our hotel was the Holiday Inn Express, Winter Haven because we used points to stay there. It was about an hour and ten minutes from the airport with minimal traffic on a Saturday afternoon. The Holiday Inn is 4 miles on the same street as Legoland and has a slight tie in with Legoland. There were some Lego decorations in the lobby and a sign that you could purchase discounted tickets there. When we checked in, we received our “kids eat free” vouchers. We never used these and you should note that supper is not served on Sunday evenings, but there is breakfast buffet all seven days. There is a Red Lobster and an Outback in the hotel parking lot. There is also easy driving to multiple sit down restaurants, fast food, and grocery stores including Publix and Wal-Mart.

Our room was perfectly fine for what we needed. You could hear people talking in the hallway pretty easily but it was never a problem in the night. The entire bathroom is one room but there is a ton of counter space for getting ready. The room was clean but getting close to being in need of an upgrade. My DH stays at Holiday Inn Express across the country and he said the style was one of the older ones.

Our room was on the 4th floor. The view was of a sports stadium for a school or the city. We could hear the train also.

We never used the pool because of lightning, but it looked to be an okay size for the hotel.

 

[dalmatian7]

Legoland Tickets

Legoland has multiple discounts going at any time so you really should never pay full price. I did not purchase our tickets until the day before we left. I did investigate the PTA option, but because of the heat on our trip, we decided to purchase the water park option and it was not showing available for any dates on the PTA discount site. We also had the coupon out of the Lego Batman Movie, for “Kids get in Free” discount. This can also not be upgraded to the waterpark option (at least online, not sure about at their ticketing office). However, when I typed “Legoland” into my browser when I was going to purchase tickets, a Groupon advertisement for a discount came up. It was for 40% off one adult and one child ticket. It came to $127 for an adult and child ticket with the water park. So I bought that and then bought one full price ticket for the other adult ($113) directly from Legoland. In hindsight, I wish I knew the hotel had a discount to purchase the third person ticket. I left home with a print out of my Legoland website purchase (with a barcode) and a printout of my groupon purchase (which also had a barcode I believe).

When we arrived at the gate for Legoland, there was a customer service area with a sign for “Vouchers”. I got in this line. I was glad we got to the park early at this point, because this took forever. There were people getting annual pass pictures, people with other vouchers, etc. I was only two back in line when we arrived and waited at least 10 minutes before the person ahead of me went. I think I was probably a full 30 minutes in line including being waited on. By the time I was done, the line was long behind me and the park was just a few minutes from opening.

When it was finally my turn, the “Model Citizen” took the groupon voucher, read it, and then had to get a manager. They then manually logged the voucher on a sheet of paper, typed in a code I believe, and gave me two paper tickets (they look like slightly larger movie stubs); he said I didn’t have to do anything with the bar-coded paper from the Legoland website. That was my ticket.

There seems to be a bit of a discrepancy in Legoland ticket rules though. At this service area, there were a lot of signs that they needed hard copies of tickets, voucher printouts, but the website printout stated you could show them the screen of your phone. My recommendation would be to have a hard copy with you.

Also, once we went through the gate, I made sure I had my two ticket stubs and my printout placed securely in my bag because they would also be our entrance tickets to the waterpark area.

 

[dalmatian7]

Legoland Touring Preparations

The other thing that drove me nuts about planning this was the lack of a good park map online. The official website was really small and hard to read, and that seemed to be all any other site had also. Once we got there, and got a paper map, I realized this map was almost as bad. A good graphic design clean up would do wonders here.

One of the few reviews I found on the Dis said that the food was pretty subpar. My DD is incredibly picky, and I wasn’t thrilled with starting off the trip with a huge pile of fast food (we just don’t eat like that). We decided we would pack in a lunch. I went to the Publix nearest our hotel that morning and bought two deli hoagies (Publix brand meat), waters, sliced apples, snap peas, carrots, go-go squeeze, and a deli size bag of chips. We had brought from home a small soft side cooler and lots of gallon and sandwich Ziploc bags. We also had some cereal and granola bars with us. This made for a great lunch for us, with leftovers of the veggie sides. Even if you don’t stay in Winter Haven, you can order Publix sandwiches online and there is a Publix within a half mile of the park gate. Can you tell I have a thing for Publix? I did want to try the apple rings at Legoland, but we never got to that because of the weather (more on that later).

Legoland Rope Drop

The day we went to Legoland (9/3) Sunday of Labor Day weekend, the park did not open until 10am. While this is late for us because we are early risers, it did make the morning not rushed at all. We left our hotel a few minutes after 9am and made the drive to the Legoland Parking Lot. I believe it was $15 to park. We did not do preferred parking, but we were only a cars away from the covered preferred parking area. We walked from there to bag check, and then the customer service area next to the main entrance gate, to take care of the ticketing mentioned above. Once I was done with the ticket issues, we all got in line (maybe 20 people back) and waited about 15 minutes to the opening. They do a very small little presentation (you learn how to wave like a Lego person). There was a separate bag check and early entry line for hotel guests. This is a very sunny area to wait and we were melting already. I have to say waiting in this area, I was surprised at how small the Legoland Hotel looked. Maybe that is deceiving from this vantage point. I believe hotel guests got in one hour early that day. Once the park opened, that entrance became general entry.

 

[dalmatian7]

Our touring strategy

Our DD had seen the driving school online and it looked like something that would build a long line, so really our only plan was to walk right to there. This park is very meandering and a tad bit confusing, but the signage is frequent and helpful. We were able to walk right onto driving school. The time stamp on DH’s photos from this point is 10:18 am. There was no employee in the first room where they take the picture when we arrived so we did get one with our own camera. I don’t know if they allow this when they are there. I was glad we did because we were a little disappointed in the price of the license ($19) so we just took the paper card they gave us and we have our own picture. DD did a great job driving. The only weird thing was the ride wasn’t full, but they left all the cars on the course, so the kids were a little confused if they could just drive around the empty cars (they were not moved to one side of the lane) because the video explicitly said “no passing.”

During her drive we took a quick glance at the map and decided we would just start working our way from this point in the park (about as far as you could go without entering the water park) back towards the entrance on the outside rides, see where we got, eat eventually, and then once we couldn’t stand the heat, head to the indoor stuff and the water park.

From this point we did flying school (one ride wait), boating school (slow load 15 minute wait), Ninjago training (an outdoor play area slightly covered), Ninjago ride (walk on, thank goodness because it was so loud in the holding area), Coasterasaurus (10 minute wait), Safari Trek (slow load 15 minute wait), got in line for the Royal Joust (kid only ride) but it went down, and The Dragon roller coaster (10 minute wait).

At this point we grabbed a nice umbrella table out of the way by the Kingdom Cones ice cream stand and the Forestman’s Hideout (closed because it was wet from overnight rain). We enjoyed our lunch from Publix and relaxed in the shade for a few minutes.

We then backtracked to Pharaohs’ Revenge (an outdoor play area), Lost Kingdom Adventure (5 minute wait), walked through miniland and tested the buttons that make them perform actions (I found these mini builds more impressive than I thought I would), Project X technic roller coaster (20 minute wait but the best coaster there). We were pleasantly surprised at how uncrowded the park was for a holiday weekend. At this point we were melting, so we headed to the water park. It was here we found the crowd.

 

[dalmatian7]

The Waterpark

The entrance to the waterpark is poorly thought out. It is a covered area that includes people entering and exiting the park on one end, the left side as you enter is the bathroom/changing rooms and the lockers. The right side as you enter is a counter service whose line spills into this area also. The far end is the beginning of the water park. There just ends up being a lot of people under here waiting in line or for people in the bathrooms.

We rented a small locker and were able to fit two adult pairs of sneakers, one kid pair, three tee shirts, and three pairs of shorts, under clothes, my park bag with wallet/phones/gum, and a backpack with three thin rain jackets. The opening was small, but the lockers are deep. The aisles in the area were very small and narrow and it was best to just send one person from our party back with all the stuff and to gather all the stuff when we were done. One thing we also didn’t think about was we had our stroller with us. We ended up leaving it with a few other strollers towards the cabanas in the little kid area. We left our soft side cooler in it that had the remainder of lunch and water inside.

The other thing we didn’t have were towels. Our past experience is with the Disney water parks and we have always just rented towels there. We could find no option for this at Legoland. I didn’t even see anywhere like a gift shop to buy a towel. Like I said this area was very congested so maybe we missed it. There was a machine you could pay to stand in to dry out near the locker area. Since DD hates hand dryers, I figured this really wasn’t an option.

DD first tried out the kiddie area and DH and I waded to our knees to watch her. A few times of that and we convinced her we should explore the rest of the park. She had seen from the Legoland preview on the Lego Movie that you can float and build, but the line was really long for the lazy river so we said we would come back. We walked over the bridge to the wave pool. The wave pool was really packed so we continued to the large climbing structure that dumps water on you from above. We tried out a few of the slides there. They are tall but none seemed really fast, so they are great for her age and her experience with water slides (none) but she can swim. We then moved over to the speed slide which I wasn’t interested in. DH and DD were going to do the twisty one, but she was just short of the 48” measurement. We did get in line for the tube slides in this area but after about 10 minutes of not moving in the line that was on the ground, let alone the line on the slide structure we decided we would walk back and check out the line for the lazy river. This line was on the long side but the single rider was moving quickly so that is what we hopped in. In about 10 minutes we were in the river doing the float and build. This was fun and a nice addition to floating. Unlike Disney, there aren’t any sprays from the side and you could do this without really getting your hair wet if you tried. It was really hot at this point so we cruised around twice. Once we got out, we let DD go back to the kiddy area while we stood in the water to dry out our upper halves. After a few minutes, we collected her, the stroller, and grabbed our stuff. We waited while DH changed then her and I went to tackle the line in the ladies room. Again not thinking, I was lucky to have a plastic shopping bag in the stroller to toss the wet suits into.

 

[dalmatian7]

The rest of our Day

Once cooled off we headed back into the park and ended up at the Imagination Zone. We tried out some of the learning labs here. It is very loud inside but very air conditioned so we chilled out and played with DD. We probably spent at least 30 minutes trying out the building and creation zones. After this, I wanted to visit the Cypress Gardens area of the park. Very beautiful. We got some pictures with the Banyan Tree and walked the whole area. I only wish I had been able to visit the park in its glory days, for how precise and thought out the landscape architecture and views are in this area.

On our way to the Cypress Gardens area, we had passed the arena for the Pirates Cove water skiing show and it was just getting started when we left the gardens so we checked that out. Typical silly story but great waterskiing tricks (I actually own a vintage pair of Cypress Gardens water-skis that I still use). When we first walked by the stadium I noticed past the stunt ramps there was a rock wall out in the lake and that boats were on it. Once we got in the stadium you could see the houses on the other side of the lake and those people were just boaters that came over to see the show. This is so different from the isolation of WDW.

It was after this we decided to try out the AquaZone Wave racer (a spinner type ride). Since, I have an issue with spinners and it was two people per ride vehicle. I decided to skip this. While I was waiting for DD and DH, the skies opened up and even with a rain coat I was soaked (our stroller was safely in its rain cover, best money ever spent). DD and DH were in a covered waiting area so they made out ok. It was probably 20 minutes before we could even meet up together it was raining so hard. When it finally quit we decided it was time to head towards some indoor shopping (my shoes were sopping wet). We were going to hit the Lego Friends area, but suddenly the entire park was “down”. We browsed the Lego Friends store, then walked out and would have liked to have tried the two story carousel, but it was “down”. Since it was now around 4:30 with a park close of 7pm, we hit the main Lego Store near the entrance, made a few purchases and called it a day. When we got back to our hotel, there was not a drop of water on the ground. Gotta love Florida.

 

[dalmatian7]

Side Trip

We usually like to eat at local restaurants, but hadn’t done much planning prior and the two chain restaurants within walking distance were too easy of a choice instead of gambling on something else. Both were good meals.

I did see “Andy’s Drive In” referenced by others, and we had driven past it on our way in so we did decide to check it out. They still have their original neon sign. Holy Milkshakes Batman. I got a “regular” hot fudge milkshake. It was huge but oh so good. I don’t think any of us actually was able to finish what we ordered. They also have a sit down restaurant but it isn’t open on Sunday evening. Prices were great for how much you got.

Also, as we were leaving on Monday morning we saw signs for a waterskiing museum. I think this might need some more investigating at another time.

Final Thoughts

Where to start….. Legoland…. it isn’t WDW, and I went in knowing that so I wasn’t disappointed. I would put it about equal with Hersheypark in PA but for a younger age category. They are trying to do themeing and in some places it is great, and in others not so much. The park was clean, and the restrooms were clean. The employees were okay. Some were just there, some were a little more engaged, but it was definitely a younger crowd similar to what I would find at any seasonal park.

Pluses –

1. The park is generally clean and so are the restrooms

2. I thought the Lego Sets weren’t any more expensive then I would find from any retailer. We bought a DC Girls set, that I had never seen in any stores near us, but I thought the price of it was reasonable. I found it on Amazon for about $5 less then we paid. 3.

3. It is an easy day touring and there are plenty of activities and rides to keep younger kids engaged.


Negatives

1. Walt Disney’s best idea was to purchase all that property because not seeing the outside world does wonders for the experience. There is a very shabby looking Shergill Grand Hotel that you can see from quite a few areas in the park. You can also see the parking areas.

2. Be wary that there are quite a few rides that are kiddo only or a tight squeeze for parents (Safari Trek). Another thing that I forget to appreciate at WDW. Our DD is six, and actually pretty adventurous when it comes to rides but still does that kiddie stuff too. She had a great day. She got to do all the stuff she had seen advertised plus some. I think my nephew 11 would have been bored because he enjoys the more thrilling ride.

3. Weather brings shutdown. With so many rides outdoor, rain brings the park to a complete halt. There were plenty of warnings in entry signage but I really didn’t think about it. The vibe we got when the rain stopped at 4:30 with a 7pm close was that they were pretty much shutting down for the day. Maybe that was just the employees we encountered in that area.

4. No characters. While character meets aren’t a complete priority for us, we do enjoy them. We saw zero characters at Legoland. I am not sure if we missed them in an indoor area or if it is rare to run into them.

Will we be there again? DD says yes. I would rather go to Sea World, but depending on when we get back to central FL again, we might try it again because there were some things we missed and she had a great time. I feel like she is only a few years from aging out of this park. I think no matter how warm it is, we would skip the water park area, it took a lot of time for just a little relief. I would either plan on staying at the Legoland Hotel and doing a mid day break or just doing as many indoor activities as possible. However, if we had not had the rain, we probably could have ridden a few of the rides we missed and still left before closing.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I hope this info helps anyone planning a trip.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Thanks for sharing! I am in research and plan mode for our Orlando 2019 trip and DH wants to go to Legoland.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Thank you for your detailed report! My son (soon to be 6yo) is a huge Lego fan and we plan to go to Legoland for one day during our upcoming Disney trip in February. Your report is extremely helpful, much appreciated.

 

[BamaBrad]

This is very helpful! I'm planning a trip in March and I hate that Touring Plans doesn't do Legoland!

Would you recommend buying a FastTrack pass for one or more rides?

 

[dalmatian7]

Would you recommend buying a FastTrack pass for one or more rides?

This is a tough one. The only ride we waited a long time for was the Project X rollar coaster. Some of that I think has to do with the ride vehicle/load area, some with the fasttrack pass being available (the only time I saw it used by anyone was here), we rode it midday, and there was also a larger Wish trip group that boarded ahead of us. For us the crowds just weren't there. Now some of that was the pull into the waterpark because of the heat. I am not sure what March would be like. To me the $$ for the FastTrack all day was way too high. The one time $5 one might be worth it.
The Groupon ticket purchase did not give me any add on offers. I don't know if you use a promo code on the actual legoland page if you can add on these either.
Maybe someone else can elaborate on the kinds of crowds to expect in March.

 

[BamaBrad]

This is a tough one. The only ride we waited a long time for was the Project X rollar coaster. Some of that I think has to do with the ride vehicle/load area, some with the fasttrack pass being available (the only time I saw it used by anyone was here), we rode it midday, and there was also a larger Wish trip group that boarded ahead of us. For us the crowds just weren't there. Now some of that was the pull into the waterpark because of the heat. I am not sure what March would be like. To me the $$ for the FastTrack all day was way too high. The one time $5 one might be worth it.
The Groupon ticket purchase did not give me any add on offers. I don't know if you use a promo code on the actual legoland page if you can add on these either.
Maybe someone else can elaborate on the kinds of crowds to expect in March.

Yeah I'm not paying an extra $340 for my family to skip lines.

 

[glassslippergirl]

Side Trip

4. No characters. While character meets aren’t a complete priority for us, we do enjoy them. We saw zero characters at Legoland. I am not sure if we missed them in an indoor area or if it is rare to run into them.
.

In case you do go back, times and locations for character interactions are listed on the times guide that you can get when you enter the park. The Lego Movie characters meet in front of the theater, where they have a 4D movie. They usually are out for a certain amount of time each hour. DS talks all the time about his meetings with Emmet and Benny;they really interact well. Ninjago characters also do regular meet and greets, I think by their new ride. There’s also some characters they keep for special occasions like Princess Unikitty and Lego Batman.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

In case you do go back, times and locations for character interactions are listed on the times guide that you can get when you enter the park. The Lego Movie characters meet in front of the theater, where they have a 4D movie. They usually are out for a certain amount of time each hour. DS talks all the time about his meetings with Emmet and Benny;they really interact well. Ninjago characters also do regular meet and greets, I think by their new ride. There’s also some characters they keep for special occasions like Princess Unikitty and Lego Batman.

Thank you, ds will go crazy for them so I will take special note of when they will be out.

 

[dalmatian7]

Thanks for filling in what I missed on characters. I guess we just missed them all day. I had a times guide I thought. I will have to go back and look at what I grabbed to see if I missed reading the info. I guess we have to go back now.

 

[DISfirstTimer]

Thanks for the great report. Your right, it is hard to find information on LEGOLAND. I'm debating on staying on site or getting a nearby hotel. Does anyone have a report of staying on site?

 

[DISfirstTimer]

Our party of three (DH, me, DD 6) arrived at MCO on 9/2 and rented an Alamo rental to drive to Winter Haven. We chose Alamo so we could return it at the Care Center on Disney property. I originally booked this rental in April. I also joined the Alamo email list. I received an email for a free upgrade about two weeks later. I rebooked the rental. Then just on a whim in June, I went back in to see what prices were and they were much lower. I then rebooked it in June at a much better rate and used the savings to upgrade to a small SUV and still save money over the second booking. When we got to the Alamo counter, they had no small SUVs left so we got an upgrade to a standard SUV. We chose a Nissan Pathfinder from the row. We also rented a booster for DD6. If we had not rented the booster we would have saved more but I didn’t feel like lugging one from home for only three days of use. If we were using the car the entire trip, I probably would have brought a low booster from home. All told with taxes and booster rental, the total was $96.

We plan to add LEGOLAND on to the front our first Disney vacation. I'm finding it cheaper or the same price to rent at MCO for a week through Alamo as opposed to renting from MCO for one day and returning to Disney Car Center. Did you experience this? It is cheaper to return back to MCO when we are done and then hop on the Magic Express but I don't know if I want to do all that to save $. Plus it might be nice to have a car while on site at Disney.

 

[dlavender]

Thanks for sharing!

Info for Legoland is hard to come accross.

DS really wants to go, but I don't know if it will be worth it.

 

[DISfirstTimer]

3. Weather brings shutdown. With so many rides outdoor, rain brings the park to a complete halt. There were plenty of warnings in entry signage but I really didn’t think about it. The vibe we got when the rain stopped at 4:30 with a 7pm close was that they were pretty much shutting down for the day. Maybe that was just the employees we encountered in that area.

Rain shuts down the park?!?! Oh no. I guess I will wait until the last moment to purchase my tickets. Our schedule only allows for one possible Legoland day and I'd hate for it to be wash out and have wasted all that money.

 

[dalmatian7]

We plan to add LEGOLAND on to the front our first Disney vacation. I'm finding it cheaper or the same price to rent at MCO for a week through Alamo as opposed to renting from MCO for one day and returning to Disney Car Center. Did you experience this? It is cheaper to return back to MCO when we are done and then hop on the Magic Express but I don't know if I want to do all that to save $. Plus it might be nice to have a car while on site at Disney.

I really only ever priced renting from MCO and returning to the Car Care Center. Number one reason was I didn't want to lose time driving in from Winter Haven back to MCO, returning a car, getting to ME and then getting to the resort. My DH suggested this plan but I knew DD6 (okay and myself) would be too excited to be doing so much sitting around. I even toyed with just one person returning the car to MCO, but figured with travel time this would take at least 2 hours to complete. Time is money to me on vacation. So a little more to not have to go all the way to MCO was worth it. We didn't use our rental at WDW. While I was checking into the WL, DH returned it. I think he was back in under an hour and there had been a long line and he had to inquire about a rental for a work day.

Rental cars are hit or miss. You can see that I booked and rebooked three times. Did you sign up for whatever club Alamo has? I think that helps to generate some codes. I was booked at a small car first and only upgraded once I had a decent code. Just keep checking back. Personally, I like to have something booked and then I change it if I find a better deal. We traveled right after our busiest month of the year for our own work/volunteer efforts. I needed to get things checked off my list and the amount paid was within what I had budgeted.

Rain shuts down the park?!?! Oh no. I guess I will wait until the last moment to purchase my tickets. Our schedule only allows for one possible Legoland day and I'd hate for it to be wash out and have wasted all that money.

I think the big difference with Legoland and WDW is the small amount of all indoor rides/attractions. I was surprised they weren't running the carousel after the rain, but I don't know what their procedure to reopen it is. There was a lot of signage about weather, that I don't remember ever seeing at ticket windows at WDW (but I also don't go to ticket windows often). There was even a placard sign near bag check. Maybe someone who has gone more often can offer more insight to this?? Unless I found a steller ticket deal, I wouldn't buy them too far in advance.