Lego Land-is it worth it

[ZeldaSmelda]

I’m thinking of taking DS to Lego Land as a treat late August/early September. We’ve never been and he is desperate to go (he is 7). We have annual passes for merlin so with one night in the legoland hotel it’s just over £200. It’s a 3 and a half hour drive from where we live and we usually go to Alton towers as we only live 20 minutes from there but he’s a bit old for CBeebies land and too young/scared of some of the bigger rides he’s tall enough for. It would only be my and DS who are going and don’t mind paying a bit more for a treat. I have heard it’s hell when it’s busy but with Covid and restricted numbers I’m hoping it’ll be quieter?

Thanks

We exchanged Tesco club card vouchers for tickets years ago and it was well worth it 😂 it was free! Kellogg’s often do vouchers to get free or discounted tickets but I will say food is expensive. Prepare to pay a small fortune for pizza or bring a picnic. Also the queues can be long. because we got free tickets we bought the fast pass things so we joined a quicker queue. As an adult, I loved it never mind the kids enjoying it! Loads to do. And I absolutely loved seeing all the brickwork and tiny replicas of things (kids were somewhat bored by me insisting we look at the sculptures but I’m a bit of a Lego geek).
The small Lego world place in Manchester Trafford centre is also quite good for a smaller day out but it’s no theme park.

I’ve just had a look at Chessington and it’s £170 for the night for the 2 of us, I’m thinking I could do one night in a premier inn type place, do Chessington, then one day in legoland and stay the night in their hotel or vice versa... just want to make the most of our annual passes, we’ve been Alton towers loads of times, done everything at Blackpool and London but never ventured to the theme parks down south.

Chessington is much better than Legoland so absolutely worth doing and you’ve got the zoo as well .

We went twice on inset days and once on a weekend. The weekend required us getting Q-Bots to avoid having to queue for hours. Inset days were perfectly fine in the morning, afternoon got busier but still less than on a weekend.

We didn’t stay at the hotel as I found it far too pricey for a night. I know friends did it but didn’t rated it highly, there are Premier Inns nearby, that may be better value for money.

Actually I’ve just been looking on the legoland Facebook page and it looks like people have a lot of complaints so not too sure now...

Chessington is much better than Legoland

Oh I don't agree...I much prefer Legoland out of the two.

We had £10 tickets the last time we went and I still felt ripped off. Summer holiday time. Never again.

It’s shabby, dirty and generally overpriced. If you go at all, pick a slightly drizzly weekend day when the schools are back. My dc are Lego fans and we found it a grim experience in the summer. We went in term time on £10 tickets and it was probably value for money that time.

I've been several times, but a few years ago now. He's about the right age for it. It's a long day, and there's plenty to do there.
If you go in September, it may be when some schools have already started, so the queues may be smaller.

Take cagoules with you, just in case it rains, although it is in a dry part of the country, and take snacks and drinks.

The road up to Legoland from Windsor can get congested. Check other routes.

The view when you enter the park is spectacular. There's a right way round and a wrong way. There tends to be wasps.

I live locally, and when relatives went, they stayed in hotels in the area. Windsor is pretty close to other towns - Slough, Ascot, Bracknell, Maidenhead, Egham, Staines.

Windsor is lovely for a day out. It has a big castle (as seen on tv) , nice shops, river (stunning views if you go on the river), theatre, and parts of Eton were in the Harry Potter films.

It's only 20 miles from London.

The key to a successful trip to Legoland is to plan thoroughly in advance. There is normally a good MN thread full of tips run by a local childminder who knows it backwards. If you try to play it by ear you’ll end up stuck in queues for hours.

Personally I think the hotel is worth it - your DS will love it and the early entry means you can get to a couple of the big ticket rides without queuing, then do a couple more immediately after normal opening time, then spend the rest of the day doing the less queue-heavy stuff (there’s a few hours of fun to be had without queuing for rides). A very cheap hotel (or conveniently located relative?) an hour or so away for the night before you arrive would enable you to get there at opening time on day 1 (vital IMO, because that first half hour is the best of the day), and possibly do similar on night 3 before you head to Chessington with the same strategy.

He'll love it! Go for it!
My daughter, 8, is desperate to back!

We have been a few times and mine really enjoyed it youngest was 7 last time we went. We went in our October half term last time and it was really quiet and we barely had to queue as it turned out that the local schools had a different week off to us. If you are from a different area it might be worth checking that too.

I’ve had a look at the Facebook page and quite a lot of rides are closed and there’s no early entry time. Things may change between now and September so not sure whether to book it (but pay the extra tenner for the protection so I can move it) or just enjoy it. I haven’t got a clue what’s there whereas Alton towers for example I’ve been hundreds of times since I was a kid/worked there as a teen so know it like the back of my hand so know what things to avoid etc

We loved the hotel. Its so well themed and ut really adds to the experience. Usually you get early access to a couple of rides and you're starting at the back of the park and the day trippers come in at the front. While they dawdle along you can jump around the popular rides at the back of the park before the queues build. We live too far away to go again so really pleased we did it like that.

We stayed on the hotel and loved it. We went during October half time. Because we get a 2 week half term we were able to go the week when most kids are back at school. It was quietish in the sense there were queues but not bad ones and we were able to get around the park easily. In fact this post has made me want to book again. I loved it.

I took DS (then 5) in April last year at the start of the Easter holidays (he had 3 weeks off). We stayed in the Legoland Hotel. The hotel was amazing (the best bit of the trip) but I wasn't overly impressed with the park.
On the Sunday, all the rides were open and the bigger ones had very long queues. As we were staying overnight into Monday, I thought we'd save the busy ones for the Monday as most children would be at school so the queues would be shorter. However, they close all the busy rides the next day. Basically nothing was running, except the smaller rides that we'd done the day before. Miniland was amazing though, but seemed quite tired and dirty somehow.
DS keeps asking when we can go back but I'm not keen. Going to try Chessington instead.

7 is a perfect age. We went 5 years ago, about 3 weeks before DS’s seventh birthday. It was August abd we didn’t have Q bots, but there were very few queues for the “little” rides that we wanted to go on. We did 2 days and spent the night in between in a hotel in Windsor.

Google “the mumsnet legoland survival guide”.

We flew over from Ireland when I think my sons were about 7 and we loved it. We went at christmas time though for the santa experience and although it cost me an arm and a leg with flights etc we had a fantastic weekend. if you can afford it then do it!

We went two years ago with boys aged 5 and 7. It was OK as a one off experience. Quite old and shabby, long queues (we got a Q bot) and very short rides. Also a distinct lack of Lego - we went in the summer hols and only saw one Lego character walking round and there was nowhere to actually chill and play with Lego (there was one building with Lego bricks in but you were instructed what to build!) Also lots of wasps. We stayed in an apartment in Bracknell and had tickets for two days but left by lunchtime on the second day as we’d seen everything and couldn’t be bothered queuing any longer.