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Legoland tips / Q-bots

14 replies

Mumof2bears · 01/03/2020 16:23

We (me, DH and DDs aged 7 and 5) are off to Legoland Windsor at the end of May, and wondered what tips you have on making it a good day for all of us? We'll be making a full day of it as we're staying in Windsor the night before and after, and are willing to pay for Q-bots (now Reserve & Ride I believe) as it'll probably be a one-off visit. Which one is worth getting?

OP posts:
Ricekrispie22 · 01/03/2020 17:39

It depends if you make the most of your time there. If you can get there for 9.30 (at least) and stay until the park closes, you’ll be able to do quite a lot without qbots.
There are several queue- free attractions such as Lego Reef, Miniland, Brickville, Star Wars miniland experience, rock climbing, Kai’s Spinners, Jay’s Lightning Drill, temple build, castaway camp, enchanted forest, splash safari and the model making studio. There are also shows. Do all these during the busiest times which are late morning and mid afternoon. Do the popular rides first thing, last thing and during lunchtime. You can tell which ones have the longest queues as they’re the ones you can get a Q-bot for.

Miniland opens 30 minutes before the main park so you can walk around early and you won’t miss any valuable time in the park itself.

Food is very expensive there and everywhere to eat has long queues so its best to take a picnic. we headed to one of the local supermarkets (Tesco in Bracknell, which was on the way to the park) and spent £12 on lunch, drinks and snacks for the five of us. Friends from home who we’d bumped into at the park had spent around £80 on food and drink over the course of the day. It hadn’t occurred to them to do this.
There are plenty of spots for picnicking, or you could eat it in front of a show or in a queue to maximise time. If you choose not to bring a picnic, aim to avoid the usual lunch hour rush. Restaurants are usually jam-packed between 12-2pm. Try to eat outside of these hours to avoid long queues for food and seats.

Some of the rides have Lego to play with along the way; Sky Riders even has an area where kids can sit and watch various Lego films, while you stay in the queue (although when it is really busy, it takes you out of view, so not totally ideal). There’s nothing like producing a few sweets or a little toy mid-queue to stop fed up kids from complaining.

The usual advice is to leave the wet rides until the end of the day so that you don’t have to walk around wet and cold. However, because everyone does this, that’s when the rides are usually busier. Consider taking spare clothing so you can go on them earlier and then get changed, use one of the family drier cubicles (costs £2), or bring waterproofs. You may be at risk of being unexpectedly squirted or sprayed on the Heartlake City Express train and at the live harbour shows – depending where you sit.

The toilets are quite well maintained, but towards the end of the day there can be a distinct lack of toilet roll. I recommend coming prepared with tissues.
Just a little thing, but unlike most lockers at swimming pools etc. the lockers in Legoland do not refund your coins as you might expect, so beware. There are notices which state this but not everyone reads notices.

When we arrived, even though it wasn’t yet 10am, the park was already really busy. There was even a queue to get down the path into the main park. Ignore his path, to the right of the entrance, andinstead veer left to avoid the crowds. The kids will love this route because they can whoosh down the slides rather than the steps.

We found the Legoland app invaluable while we were in the park. It helped us to know which rides to avoid and which to make a beeline for when they were quiet. There are signs around the park with wait times, but this was far easier to use, with Legoland’s free Wifi.

In the evening, Windsor has some lovely restaurants. We ate at the Bell and Dragon in Windsor which was very family friendly and even had chalk tables that the kids could draw on.

MikeUniformMike · 01/03/2020 18:58

Take pac-a-macs, and drinks and snacks.
If you are going from the M4, you might find it easier to go up the A332 then B383, then B3022.

TSSDNCOP · 01/03/2020 19:22

Get used now to calling it Waspland.

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PurpleCrazyHorse · 01/03/2020 19:32

We went for 2 days and got q-bots on the first day only. Looking at the new reserve and ride, it's probably similar to the cheapest one on there. Our queue time wasn't quicker but you can reserve the next ride as soon as you've had your q-bot scanned, so we got ourselves organised before we went with the rides we definitely wanted to do and then booked them ASAP as soon as our q-bot was clear (i.e. as soon as it was scanned at the ride). We could then wander across the park to our next ride time (or when it got really busy in the middle of the day the kids played on the climbing frame and we also watched the pirate show while our q-bot ticked down).

Tips:

  • We also took in our own lunch which we picked up at Tesco on the way. Legoland also have water fountains so we re-filled our own water bottles.
  • The new haunted house ride is dark and our youngest didn't like it. We had to divide and conquer with that one and it did keep breaking down too.
  • The 4D cinema is a good thing to do if you need a sit down. It's not massively wet and actually quite good fun. Be sure to sit in a dry bum space left by the previous occupant if you don't want a wet patch Grin
  • Consider leaving the park a bit early as the queues to get out of the car park are long and slow, plus the shops by the entrance get very busy too.
  • We had one physical q-bot device (was quite a hefty deposit if I remember) because my phone battery was rubbish. It had one adult and one child q-bot on it. DH also had one adult and one child q-bot on his q-bot phone app. It meant we could divide up with the kids and still benefit from the q-bot (big age gap), e.g. the driving school, where DH went with our youngest on the little one and I went with DD on the older one.
Roselilly36 · 01/03/2020 19:43

You will have a great time, ideal for the ages of your kids. We loved our visits to Legoland.

Take a picnic if you can, saves queuing etc and snacks you can eat on the go.

My two liked the drinks bottles that you buy that included free refills.

Miniland is lovely to look around, and doesn’t get busy.

Don’t worry about wasps, Legoland has had problems in the past but in May you will be fine, the wasps can be a menace at the end of the summer though.

Enjoy.

PurpleCrazyHorse · 01/03/2020 19:46

Oh (further to the above)... on the 2nd day we focussed on the rides we really liked as we didn't have a q-bot. Took it slow, caught the shows, did the water park and left early-ish as we had a dinner reservation on the way home.

I think the q-bots revolutionised our 2 day visit as we visited in the school holidays (knew it would be busy) and with a 4yo I realised lots of queuing would be tricky. We got loads of rides in on the first day and everyone enjoyed the slower pace on the 2nd day.

Mumof2bears · 01/03/2020 20:48

Thank you all for your really helpful and detailed responses! I have been umming and ahhing about the Reserve & Ride option, so it sounds like it's worth doing but not worth going for the most expensive option (£90pp!). We will definitely get there early so that the kids can have a look around Miniland - and will take lunch and jackets in with us too.

OP posts:
Stompythedinosaur · 01/03/2020 21:06

Definitely pay the the Q-bots. We did legoland once with and once without, and without them we spent the whole day in queues.

Get there early and go straight to one of the popular rides that aren't covered by the cheap q-bots.

If anyone is veggie then bring a packed lunch - I spent an unhappy day eating popcorn when I couldn't find any veggie food at all once.

Wishforsnow · 01/03/2020 21:11

I would say stay late, you can normally just hop on any ride in the last hour as the people that get there early normally head off early. I got a lot as live 5 mins away and normally just go for the last 2 hours and go on loads of rides.

underneaththeash · 01/03/2020 21:41

What date are you going? I’ve been around 30 times so have lots of tips.

underneaththeash · 01/03/2020 21:42

Sorry which day rather date!

Mumof2bears · 01/03/2020 22:38

Great, we're going on Fri 29 May. 30 times, that's a lot of trips!

OP posts:
Mumof2bears · 03/03/2020 16:53

@underneaththeash would you mind giving us some tips for our Friday half term visit? Have you used Reserve & Ride?

OP posts:
spiderlight · 03/03/2020 16:58

You definitely want a Q-Bot - we didn't queue at all when we went and it made such a difference.

My only tip - do not underestimate the bigger Dragon rollercoaster. DS dragged me onto it and I thought 'How scary can it be??' Answer: very! He loved it, I hated it!

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