Legoland Trip Review with a 2-year old Duplo fan

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When I started to plan our trip to LegoLand, I was surprised at how little information was available, so I wanted to do a trip review of our visit to LegoLand Florida.

Background info: DH and I are both teachers in Jacksonville, Florida, and LegoLand offers a FREE Teacher Annual Pass! DS, who loves Duplos, is only 2, so he is free. My MIL lives about 20 minutes from LegoLand and had a free voucher, so she met us there. So between the four of us, we paid $0 for admission, plus we had a free place to stay.

I love all things Disney, but told myself that I would go into this trip not comparing everything to Disney, because when you start making those comparisons, nothing else can win! LegoLand is no Disney World, but we still had a lot of fun!

Once DS grew to 36 inches, I started to plan our LegoLand (LL) trip - this seemed to be the key height for many of the park's rides. We chose the Saturday of Veterans' Day weekend. After eating a hardy breakfast at home, we left Jacksonville early Saturday morning and drove to LL in the car. We hoped DS would take a nap in the car, but we had no luck with that - the timing didn't work out, and he was too excited to see LL. We arrived in town about 10:30, picked up my MIL, and drove in together to save on parking. We had prepaid for parking ahead of time, so we only paid $12 instead of $14 at the gate. We packed up the stroller, I triple-checked to make sure I had all the necessary documentation for our Teachers Passes and we headed to the gates.

The LL Web site was unclear about where exactly to go for the Teachers Pass, and luckily the Guest Services line had no wait. The woman behind the counter pointed me to one of the long lines of people, which was in the hot sun. DH and I took turns going to the restroom and waiting in line while MIL entertained DS. After about 15 minutes in line, we reached the counter, presented our documentation and received a pass for entry. They said we needed to go to Guest Services inside the park to exchange it for an actual Annual Pass.

 

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DS did not want to ride in the stroller after a three-hour car ride so we all walked in the gates. The first thing he saw was this awesome Lego dinosaur that he wanted to pet.

Then he found a giant Lego that he climbed on. Then we saw the sign that said “No Climbing.” Oops.

We did find something meant for climbing though – a huge indoor Duplo playground in the Duplo Valley area. This was perfect for toddlers, especially ones who just came from a long car ride or had spent too much time in the stroller.

It was also in the AC, so it could be a break from the heat. I also noticed a separate room with rocking chairs and microwave, which would be nice for little ones who need a quiet place to relax. Everything looked just like Duplos too. They had things to climb on and slides and Lego tables to play. DS could have spent the whole day in here. But we had more Duplo fun ahead. Right outside the Playground Barn are the tractor and train rides. These are basically the same thing – a little kids ride that goes around in a circle. But the tractor ride said it had a 15 minute wait and the train was 30, so we stuck with the farm theme.

The tractor ride (and I later found out the train ride too) are the most inefficient amusement park ride ever designed. The rides are cute and LL does a nice job with the farm theme. The animals all look just like they came out of the Duplo farm set. But the loading/unloading process made me really appreciate Disney (I told myself I wouldn’t compare, but how can you not?) One person has to open all the gates for the people to get out and then once those people file out, the new people file I, and the same person checks their seat belts. Then another cast member starts the ride from inside the barn. DS kept busy pushing different buttons that caused the animals inside the ride to make animal noises.

The design of the actual tractor is also inefficient. For example, the mom in front of us had three children – and they took up three tractors! There is only room for one child in the front row and two adults in the back. So each of the three kids had their own tractor and the mom rode with one of them. There are only four tractors on the ride, so one family took up 75% of the ride. This seems ridiculous in terms of having the most people possible experience the ride. We decided to let MIL enjoy this one with DS so DH and I could snap some good pics. I realized that it’s actually better to watch a little one enjoy the ride where you can see their facial expressions. DS loved it. He distracted DS from the train (because it was the same design) and a water play area.

 

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He skipped the World of Chima because DS doesn’t know what that is and it was too chilly for a water ride, and we headed to the Lego Kingdoms area. He saw Merlin’s Challenge and I wasn’t sure if it would be too fast for DS. It looks like a carnival ride where the cars just go around a circle, but it goes pretty fast. He watched a round and said he wanted to do it. It was a walk-on ride, so DH took him. DS loved it – he was laughing and pointing at the Merlin statue in the middle the whole time.

Our next stop was Lost Kindom Adventure, which is a laser shooting ride. There was about a 5-10 minute wait. This ride, and several others in LL had an awesome Lego table area that kids can access from the start of the line and exit when their parents reach the end of the waiting area. DS liked playing here and was actually mad when it was time for the ride because he was building a pretty awesome tower.

He played with the laser gun and liked looked at all the fun Lego men in the ride. He was really sad when the ride was over and started to cry when it was time to get out of the car.

DS wanted no part of getting back into the stroller, so instead he found Pharoh’s Revenge. It’s a two-story climbing atraction where kids on the second level can shoot foam balls to the first level. MIL took him in there – it seemed pretty chaotic, but DS had fun running around and picking up balls and then shooting them.

Next we headed to Safari Trek, which was a super cute car ride around where you see animals made of Legos. The cars only had room for one adult and one child, so one of use would have to ride in our own car, which had no view of any other car – DH and MIL opted out. After the ride, we were ready for a snack. I had read about Waffle Spears in this area, but sadly could not find any or anyone who knew about them, so we grabbed a Gatorade instead to pair with some snacks we brought from home and headed to the lake for the waterskiing show. On the way, we saw Lego Batman and Robin! Awesome!

 

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The Pirates’ Cove area is from the original Cypress Gardens and they have waterski shows there just like the original park. They have a big pirate ship next to the stadium and some of the water skiers are Lego men. There is stadium seating available, but we opted for a seat in the grass instead. A lot of people pulled up their boats from the lake to watch the show. Since DS is 2, he wasn’t very interested in the story line (which was something about pirates taking over the ship), but he liked seeing the boats and the stunts. We didn’t stay the whole time, but enjoyed the break.

We skipped the Cypress Gardens (the actual botanical gardens from the original park) and instead walked back toward the front through Miniland USA – major US landmarks recreated with Legos. There are lots of buttons to push that cause different reactions, but DS didn’t appreciate the Lego handiwork as much as his snack. This area would be really cool to spend a lot of time walking through with an older kid though.

Once we got back to the front DS rode the carousel a few times aboard a Lego horse and we ate some Apple Fries – let me highly recommend this snack! They are granny smith apples deep fried with a cinnamon sugar coating and a whipped cream dipping sauce. Delish!

Next we headed to the movie theatre to watch a 3D movie. The plot line wasn’t too thrilling – again, this is no Disney, but DS was excited since this was his first movie. He spent most of the time playing with his 3D glasses and saying, “Mommy, I watch a movie!” It was about 15 minutes long and had all the special effects of a 4D movie, with the water shooting and bubbles and 3D images. It was a nice way to relax in the AC and take a break.

After the movie, we rode on the carousel again and then I noticed a character meet area. We walked along a path with some fun Lego stuff to look at and some beautiful views of the lake. DS liked to have a quiet area of run around and it was separated enough that he could do that without the typical amusement park fears of him running off. This area is used for special events, but there were none that day, so we enjoyed it.

The trail winds around into a mansion where we met Emmett from the Lego movie.

 

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The meet and greet exit was right by the carousel, so DS had to ride that again. While he rode, I walked over the Duplo Valley to check out the wait time for the train and there was no one in the tractor or train line. As I walked up, the tractor was just at a standstill with no one in line and no one on board. So we grabbed DS and he did a few rounds on the tractor. He actually rode twice without getting off because the line was so short.

Then we rode the train. Again, this was super inefficient because two adults cannot ride together. DS wanted to “drive” so DS, DH, and I took up three cars – we didn’t feel bad because there was no wait, but this seems a little ridiculous. And children cannot ride alone unless they are 48 inches (34 inches + can ride with an adult), but I digress. The train ride through Duplo world was cute.

The lack of nap was wearing on DS and we felt like we had seen everything. It was about 4:30 p.m. at this point, and we headed home. It was definitely worth going (again, free makes my perspective a little different), and I think boys who love Legos would really enjoy a day here. There are some big ride coasters and other rides here too that looked fun for the older crowd. Just don’t compare it to Disney