Legoland Vs. Knott's Vs. Beach Day

[Edelweiss]

We are going to Disneyland and plan to do 3 day Park Hopper Passes. We have a 4th day of our trip that we are trying to decide what to do. My son loves Legos and LEGOLAND seemed like the obvious choice. I am hesitant because I heard it costs a lot of $$ and you don't get much for your money ( from a friend who had been there recently)

Knott's seems like a fun option. I've heard a lot of nice things about them.

Or do we just forget it all and go to the beach? We will be there in Oct and I don't know how agreeable the weather will be that day, so that's like a Plan C in my book.

Thoughts??

Thank you!

 

[luvsmickey1968]

We personally love Legoland and I don't know how anyone could say that there is not much to do there. We have never been able to do everything we wanted to in one day!
We did not go last year do to the fact that my children are a little old for it now and I really missed it!
It is a clean, nicely landscaped park with lots of attractions and an incredible amount of things made of Lego and as a mother, I love it there!
In my opininon, there is more to do there for your son and your other children, than at Knotts! The fact that he loves lego makes me certain he will love Legoland!
Knotts is a lot of fun too but I think it has more for older children and people who like rollercoasters! They do have some original attractions like their log timber ride, mine train, stage coach etc. but in my opinion, Camp Snoopy for the younger ones has rides that you can find at a carnival just differently themed.
My son could spend the whole day at the Legoland Driving School! I mean where else can you drive your own car on streets with stop signs and everything! Also loved driving your own boat, the small rollercoasters, the Fire Brigade thing and looking at all the Lego!
Your three year old is going to be the hardest to satisfy but both parks will have difficulty doing that
I think you need to look at both of their websites and see what attractions your children can enjoy do to height restrictions and their preferences and decide on the basis of that information!
However, I vote for Legoland!

 

[PHXscuba]

I think it really depends on your son's age. Knotts for little kids is a lot of Peanuts-branded carnival rides, plus a few fun family rides and shows. Knotts for big kids (tall enough to ride all/almost all rides at 52 inches) is great rollercoasters. In between ... Frustrating whne they wan to ride the cool-looking rides and can't. I haven't been this summer since they opened a few new things. They are trying.

Legoland is great once they are tall enough for most everything (36 inches? Haven't checked height requirements lately) until about age 10/11, depending on how into Legos a child is. I think as long as the child is open to experiencing a different kind of theme park, they would like Legoland. It's very well themed and a lot of fun. It is much farther from Anaheim than Knotts.

So that's my 2-cent opinion, based solely on age/height. Best of luck.

PHXscuba

 

[Edelweiss]

Thank you for your responses! I really appreciate the feedback. I really heard some good things about LEGOLAND and then one friend didn't like it at all and that made me start to wonder about it. Of course, I should not let one opinion affect me.

I've heard Knotts is cheaper and closer to Disneyland. That had some major appeal to me. But my Lego obsessed son would probably enjoy LEGOLAND more to be quite honest.

So time to start researching LEGOLAND a little bit further I think

 

[momjeeps]

I too have been debating Legoland also. DS8 loves Legos. He asked to go to LL last November when we went to WDW for the first time. But I wasn't willing to sacrifice a Disney Day and it would have added a lot of cost.

With a new trip planned for July 2014 to DLR I'm thinking again about it. The older two of our kids went when they were little. (We lived near there back then.) I just have a hard time justifying the cost of taking all six of us. But I think if we don't do it next summer it's really the last opportunity for the DS9 to be at a good age to truly appreciate it. Meanwhile, DH would really like to do Knotts because of childhood memories.

 

[PHXscuba]

I too have been debating Legoland also. DS8 loves Legos. He asked to go to LL last November when we went to WDW for the first time. But I wasn't willing to sacrifice a Disney Day and it would have added a lot of cost.

With a new trip planned for July 2014 to DLR I'm thinking again about it. The older two of our kids went when they were little. (We lived near there back then.) I just have a hard time justifying the cost of taking all six of us. But I think if we don't do it next summer it's really the last opportunity for the DS9 to be at a good age to truly appreciate it. Meanwhile, DH would really like to do Knotts because of childhood memories.

Any chance you could split up and take younger child/children to Legoland for the day and send the older kids with dad to Knotts? There is a public bus from the DL area to Knotts if you had a car to get to Carlsbad.

Speaking as a fellow mother of 4 (age span of 9 years), it's hard to fit in everything everyone wants! My DS8 would love to go back to Legoland (we went when he was 3) but my older kids are really too big.

PHXscuba

 

[momjeeps]

Any chance you could split up and take younger child/children to Legoland for the day and send the older kids with dad to Knotts? There is a public bus from the DL area to Knotts if you had a car to get to Carlsbad.

Speaking as a fellow mother of 4 (age span of 9 years), it's hard to fit in everything everyone wants! My DS8 would love to go back to Legoland (we went when he was 3) but my older kids are really too big.

PHXscuba

I had thought about that. If we fly it would leave time for both. Lots to think about.

 

[GenGen22]

We are going to Disneyland and plan to do 3 day Park Hopper Passes. We have a 4th day of our trip that we are trying to decide what to do. My son loves Legos and LEGOLAND seemed like the obvious choice. I am hesitant because I heard it costs a lot of $$ and you don't get much for your money ( from a friend who had been there recently)

Knott's seems like a fun option. I've heard a lot of nice things about them.

Or do we just forget it all and go to the beach? We will be there in Oct and I don't know how agreeable the weather will be that day, so that's like a Plan C in my book.

Thoughts??

Thank you!

We have been to LL & Knotts and we went when DS's were DS8 & DS10 and we are not sorry we went at all. I don't think it's expensive at all. Any park you go to Knotts or LL are gonna cost about the same. Acyillat DL is the most expensive one of them all imo. Honestly I believe that LL has a lot more to do than Knotts does by far. Especially for the younger ones especially if they love Lego's. I say don't miss the opportunity before he gets too old for it. Our boys still to this day ask us to go but we have to tell them that they are too old for it now. We all had a very good time and positive experience there. As far as knotts goes we also like knotts but there are a lot of roller coasters there. You might want to wait until your kids are older before going to knotts. You can get discounted tickets if you look for them like at Costco, AAA etc.

 

[lafoster]

We just did Legoland as part of our trip last month. I was a little hesitant because I had seen some negative comments, but we really enjoyed it. DS 7 said it was the favorite part of the trip for him (beating out DL ) We went on a Monday and it wasn't too crowded. We used BOGO coupons from the back of a small package of Legos that was out at Christmas at Target which made it a lot more affordable (thanks from a tip on DIS thread!).

 

[chabelita545]

My DS7&10 loved Legoland. We are going again at their request this August when they will be 10&13. Up to age 12, you can get a child in for free with a BOGO coupon (often found in the back of a Lego magazine you can get free from the Lego Store or website.)

It isn't DLR, that's for sure, and some of the park felt a little tired (colored plastic fades in the sun and some of the older models were faded) but it was worth it. Check out their website for pictures of all the attractions. I loved Miniland, and there is a new Star Wars section if you or your DS is a SW fan. My kids favorite was the Dragon roller coaster. It warmed them up to roller coasters in general and after LL they were willing to try more coasters at DLR (like Screamin and Space Mtn.) LL has photo-ops everywhere you turn so bring a good camera.

We went on a Monday and drove from LL to DLR in about an hour at 6pm. It's freeway most of the way so it just depends on traffic. Depends on how often you make it to SoCal, but if it is rare that you go to DLR, consider skipping Knotts and LL and upgrading your park hoppers to four days.

I'd skip the beach unless you rarely get to see the ocean.

 

[atmail35]

I think you can definitely get your money's worth at LEGOLAND. We went for 1 day with our 8YO daughter and she really enjoyed it. I actually wish we had another day there. I kept hearing it was a one day park, but we spent a lot of time exploring miniland and there were rides we did not have time for. We were there 9:15 to about 4...and DD was tired and we went back to the hotel.

If your kids like Star Wars, they will love Miniland and the X-Wing is amazing.

The BOGO is the way to go for sure.

I will caution people from buying much at the gift shop. Some sets are overpriced vs a regular LEGO Store/Target etc.. We pretty much only bought stuff exclusive to LL.

The main reason we went was because we were driving from Anaheim to San Diego to see relatives so it was on the way. I'm not sure we would have made a special trip this time if we were only staying in Anaheim.