My credentials:
You have come to the right place for Lego advise because I know Legoland inside and out! I worked at Legoland California for three summers in retail and attractions during high school/college and am now the mom of two Lego-loving kids. Over the years I have come up with “the plan.” What, you might ask, is ”the plan?” It is the perfect step-by-step guide of what to ride, eat and buy at Legoland and when to do it. If you follow “the plan” you will get the most bang for your buck at Legoland because you will find yourself spending more time on rides having fun and less time spending money and waiting in line!
(Here I am living the plan....notice how no one else is in this picture aside from Lego Man and Quin. I know how to beat those crowds!)
“The Plan”
For starters:
Before I delve into “the plan” let’s start off with a few
valuable pieces of information to make your day the best it can be and help you
save money!
1.
Save
Money on Tickets:
You can easily get everything done at
Legoland in one day at a toddler-pace.
That is the beauty of Legoland.
The park is small enough that you don’t have to rush to get everything
done, but is large enough to keep you busy for an entire day. However, if you want to go to the Sea Life
Aquarium (which is attached to Legoland) and Legoland Water Park as well, I
would recommend an additional day. The
Sea Life Aquarium is pretty standard as far as aquariums go and my boys are
usually done after an hour or two looking around. On the other hand, you could spend all day at
the water park. I love the Legoland
Water park because it is so toddler/preschooler friendly. There are smaller slides and a large wading
area for the younger swimmers. However
if you don’t want to fork out the extra money to pay for the water-park, no
worries! There is a huge “splash zone,”
in Pirate Shores of the Legoland park.
This is a perfect spot to cool down and they
even provide “family sized blow-driers” that you can step in to dry off. There is no extra cost for this area, just
don’t forget to bring your bathing suits!
2.
Save Money on Food:
There are a lot of dining options just
outside of Legoland park that will feed your family for a lot less! Just off of Palomar Airport Road (the main
road leading to the hotel entrance) is a Costco. You know what that means….Costco Food
Court! Lunch and dinner doesn’t get
cheaper than $1.50 for a hot dog and soda or $11 for a huge pizza. The food court is outside so don’t worry if you
don’t have a membership, you can still get the food! If you are looking for cheap gas, this Costco
is also a great place to fill up!
One more great aspect of this Costco is that they are often selling Legoland tickets. The deals are better off season (not summer or major holidays). Right now they have a 2-day pass for $79 (does not include parking). However, when I looked at the end of February they had a 3-month pass for the same price, $89! Going to this Costco could prove worthwhile if you know you want to spend more than a day at Legoland.
Now back to food....If you are looking for a Southern
California classic, eat at In-N-Out which is also really close to
Legoland. They serve the BEST burgers
and fries! Heading West on Palomar
Airport road cross the five and take a right on Avenida Encinas and you will find
it!
3.
Save
money on Souvenirs:
If you are looking for some inexpensive Lego
gear check out Kohls before your trip!
The carry lots of lego brand shirts in the boys department. In fact I just got a Lego Star Wars shirt for
my 4 year old for only $3! Before buying
any souvenirs at Legoland check out “The Big Store” located at the front of
the park. They often have a few bins of
clearance items that you can save on.
Currently, as you walk to the front of the
park there are timeshare people close to the entrance. Their promotion is that they will give you a
$100 gift card on the spot for going to a timeshare presentation at a nearby
hotel later that week. My husband and I
were hesitant, but agreed to try it out.
It was actually a great deal! We got the $100 for the day and then went
to the Hilton hotel later that week for the presentation (it really was only 90
minutes!). The best part was that they
had childcare available so we were able to listen while our kids had fun playing
and eating breakfast in the kid’s club!
4.
Save your
Time
So here is the reality of Legoland: they
have TONS of height requirements. Don’t
plan on being a single parent going with a toddler and a preschooler because
you will literally be able to go on 4 rides together. Seriously, 4 rides. I know because I have done it. Almost all the rides have a minimum height
requirement and then on top of that, children almost always need to ride with
an adult. I highly recommend going with
an adult for each child under 48 inches and vigilantly checking the height
requirements on all rides before getting in line. Warning: if you have a child under 34 inches,
do not expect them to go on a lot of rides.
Plan on taking advantage of parent swaps on the rides you want to go on and embracing other
aspects of Legoland, aside from the rides.
Now
let’s move on to the big stuff……”The Plan”
1.
Usually
the turnstiles to the park open at 9:00am but the rides don’t open until
10. I HIGHLY recommend getting to the
park by 9:30. There are lots of great
photo opportunities at the front of the park!
From “The Beginning” (the official name for the front of the park) you
can go left towards Dino Island or right toward the Imagination Zone. Go left
towards Dino Island. This will be
difficult because there will be a big crowd of people waiting here while the
other side will seem less crowded. But
trust me. Go to the left!
2.
As soon as they drop the chain to allow entry comes
the next challenge. You are going to
power walk by the first few rides. Coastersaurous
(a small roller coaster) will be on your left and Safari Trek will be on your
right. DO NOT GO ON THESE RIDES
FIRST. They are always the most crowded
the first few hours of the park opening.
The lines may not even look that long, but they really are! Safari Trek in particular loads very
slowly! If there are more than 10
people in line, don’t go on because you will be waiting too long for a very
short, and somewhat disappointing ride.
Wait to do these rides at the end of the day!
(The main reason my husband is smiling on the Safari trek ride is because he didn't wait an hour to ride like every one else did in the morning!)
3.
Continue walking and ignoring the carnival games
in Dino Island as well as Duplo village.
Duplo Village will be hard to get your kids through without stopping
because there are a lot of fun, interactive water games (Water Works) to
explore as well as a huge Lego playground. But be strong!
Continue on to Funtown. I always keep my kids strapped in the stroller
and don’t let them out until we get to the first ride….
4.
Skycruiser!
This is one of those really deceiving “the line doesn’t look that long”
queues. You will probably walk up to the
front, notice some people in line and think “this will probably be 10 minutes
tops!” Stop right there and triple
whatever number you thought in your head.
If it looks like 10 minutes, it is probably 30. This ride is officially the slowest loading
ride in all of Legoland. However, you
can’t pass it up because it gives you a great view of the entire park and your
kids will be pointing at it all day saying “I want to ride the Lego car in the
sky!”
So do it first thing before the
line is over an hour. Luckily there is a
Lego play area provided at this ride.
Your kids can build Lego cars and test them out on some giant ramps
while you wait in the frustratingly long line.
Beware of this ride, there is a 36 inch heigh requirement and small
children need to ride with someone 48 inches or taller.
5.
After Skycruiser, head over to Junior Volvo
Driving School (for kids 3-5) or Volvo Driving School (for kids 6-13). This is my 4 year old son’s favorite
ride. He loves it because he is actually
in control of the car.
However, the
bummer is that in our family he is the only one who can ride it, so everyone
else has to wait while he rides it. Because
of this you will want to ride it early in the day before the line gets too
long. Usually if you get there in the
first half hour of the park opening your child can ride it a couple of times
without waiting more than 5 minutes.
6.
After accomplishing these first two rides we usually
ride the Kid Power Tower and Helicopters.
We will then head over to Duplo Play Town to run off a little energy on
the play-structures and to ride the train which is tucked back towards the rear
of the playground and can easily be missed.
7.
We then continue in a clockwise direction and
hit the rides throughout the rest of the park.
From Funtown we go to Pirate Shores (mostly wet rides so we skip most of
these if it is a cold day) and then up to Castle Hill. I usually never buy food at theme parks
because the food is almost always overpriced.
However there are a few food items worth mentioning (and purchasing)!
a.
The Garden’s Panini Sandwiches are delicious!
Although a bit spendy (about $10) they are yummy, especially the Strawberry
Chicken Panini!!!
b.
You must buy some of the Granny Smith Apple
Fries. (Below our Granny is modeling this delicious treat)
These do not disappoint. They are like apple-pie-to-go with whipped
cream dipping sauce.
c.
During the summer Legoland has a promotion for a
free kid’s kit (kids meal) the last hour the park is open. My sister (who works in food and beverage)
says that not many people know about this and it is a great deal if you can
hold your kids off until the end of the day. Saves you about $8 a kid! Typically this
promotion starts mid-June.
8.
Castle
Hill has a couple of great play areas for kids.
First is the “Hideaways” which is a huge outdoor play structure. My favorite aspect about this play structure
is that there is only one way in and one way out. So if you plant yourself at the
entrance/exit, you know your child won’t be able to sneak away! The second great play area is between Granny
Smith Fries and the course for the Royal Joust.
You will see a small covered area with a ton of legos available for your
kids to play with. Our family likes to
stop here in the afternoon when things are hot because it is usually shaded and
breezy. The kids can play while Mom and
Dad snack on the Granny Smith Fries. Bliss. It seems like there are never more that 2 or 3 kids playing here
and is a nice little hideaway.
(above is my very own Lego creation made at Castle Hill Lego play area!)
9.
From Castle Hill either venture into Mini-Land
for a break from the rides or down to the Imagination Zone for more ride
action.
10.
During the last hour of the day head back to
Dino Island and enjoy the rides (without waiting in line)! We usually end our day with a couple of rides
on Fairy Tale Brook (one of the few rides that have no height requirement or
line) or digging with the complimentary buckets and shovels at the “Dig Those
Dinos” sandbox.
Overall, Legoland is a wonderful amusement park, especially
for families with young children. I love
that I can take my children on a few rides, then play at a playground or go
build something with some legos. There
is a great balance of activities here for younger children that a parent can
really appreciate. The attention to
detail is amazing and there is a wonderful feeling to the park itself. It really is a great place to capture the
imagination!
