How to I make Legoland trip the BEST thing ever?

[thrownunderthebus]

We won't manage a holiday this year even in the UK for a few reasons but we do have quite a good holiday budget....we've decided to take the children to legoland

The children probably can't remember what exciting days out are like as I was shielding for most if last year so I want to make it a really memorable trip!

The are two hotels on site but I can't see much difference - how do I decide? We'll have FOMO whatever we do

Any tips to make a great trip so good it will be remembered for years to come? Thanks!

[IEat]

You can make it a good trip .. I think wanting it be the best ever is asking for disappointment. Queues to long, tired feet, too hot, to cloudy, rides to short, hunger, thirsty, tiredness . Lower your expectations and the day and the day could be great

[Hazelnutlatteplease]

Yy to all the "crap" food. Bacon for breakfast Doughnuts and slushies for elevenies, lego bricks for lunch, ice creams and coffee for afternoon tea, and Macdonald's on the way home.

Get a hotel room that overlooks the parks.

If you can do a couple of trips the Chessington hotel (not Azteca, actual chessington) wayama room overlooking the animals is magical....

[thrownunderthebus]

@Hazelnutlatteplease I feel like you've recently watched "Yes Day"

Just thinking about being the mum that allows all that is great

[PurpleWh1teGreen]

Hate to be the thread killer but manage expectations. Because of the ages it's aimed at, all the DC want to go on the same rides.,

The queues are very bad. Fast passes are Essential.

[Mulhollandmagoo]

Keeping an eye on this thread for tips, booked for my daughter's birthday in August

[MegBusset]

Queues will be horrendous for rides (eg 1hr + for bog standard swinging boat ride that you would walk straight onto at any other theme park). Run to the one the kids really want to go on at opening time. Then forget rides and spend the day enjoying the atmosphere - Miniland, pirates show, playground, splash zone, overpriced food etc.

[MegBusset]

Hotel is lots of fun, the buffet restaurant is utter carnage but you just have to go with the flow. DS2 was so tired after a day at the park that all he could manage was a plate of grated cheese, the most expensive cheese I've ever bought The kids still talk about that stay, they thought it was the best thing ever.

[thrownunderthebus]

@MegBusset that's what I need

We're not managing holiday after all of this so if I have to spend £££ on a plate of cheese for the DC to remember an amazing trip then that seems pretty straightforward compared to some of this things I've had to deal with this past year

[AnotherBoredOne]

We did a hotel stay years ago and it was so much fun for young boys at that time.

[ANutAsBigAsABoulder]

Google Legoland pop badges - they’re given out with kids’ meals at the park restaurants and you can then swap them with Legoland staff for different ones. Mine loved it. We bought a joblot cheap on EBay one year to give them a start on swapping. If you have any lanyards, you can pop them on there. Just adds another element to the day.

[SquatBetty]

If you've got one must do big ride, get down to it ASAP after the gates have opened to hopefully reduce your queuing time (obvs this probably won't apply if you're using the Qbot things) and keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't break down while you're queuing like the sodding Haunted House ride did during the day we were there Oct half term last year.

[autumnkate]

Covid means no pop badges at the moment. Might be different by the time you go?

[autumnkate]

Worst queue we were in summer 2020 was for the ninjago ride so I would head there first next time

[CanICelebrate]

I would never go without a Qbot!

[Paperyfish]

We went the summer before COVID and my kids ( 5 and 7 at the time) adored it. We got there early and waited for the barriers to open and rushed straight to the nijago (sp?) ride. Then the next and next and next. Queues weren’t as bad as I feared. Only the Egyptian themed ride had a long queue ( hr plus) and they played Lego film in the queue and had an area for kids to sit that you queued round so they could relax while they waited. We stayed till they followed us out the gates at the end of the day ( got to get your money’s worth!). We’re definitely going back when it’s open again. Loved it!

[itsgettingwierd]

I was annual pass holder for years!

We use to go and stay in hotel out of the grounds that had pool and a harvester right next door. (I'll try and find in a bit).

We arrived at 9.30am and yes to going to furthest point. I would recommend q bots because ds gets a pass (which is the q bot due to disability) and some of the wait times were 1-2 hours (queue length).

We then would head to hotel for harvester and a swim and return to legoland following day and leave about 4pm.

The car park gets very busy and the the road out gets very busy too. We use the disabled parking but even once out of there it's the same queue!

We would then stop at Fleet services for dinner on the way home!

[itsgettingwierd]

@thrownunderthebus

So the lego Hotel outside of the park is best as it has pool and restaurant? How do we get to the park? 3 yr old is just a bit too big for the buggy but she hasn't had her little legs tested on a BIG DAY OUT....I'm so excited about how excited they'll be!

It's very hilly. You can hire the plastic car buggy cart things or I use to take the festival cart with food etc in and ds would join it when tired 🤣

[itsgettingwierd]

https://www.google.co.uk/travel/hotels/Windsor/entity/ChcIgPhu5Gtq9tJGgsvZy8xdGNfODRzehAB?g2lb=2502548%2C2503781%2C4258168%2C4306835%2C4317915%2C4328159%2C4371335%2C4401769%2C4419364%2C4463666%2C4482438%2C4486153%2C4491350%2C4507488%2C4515801%2C4523592%2C4526388%2C4270859%2C4284970&hl=en-GB&gl=uk&ssta=1&ap=MAFaAGgA&q=legoland%20hotels&rp=EMzKssP3uoTyswEQtZSi8qnnptiPARDki2y-bLbxscBEJ2ev46SnJWUUQE4AUAASAKiARlMZWdvbGFuZMKuIFdpbmRzb3IgUmVzb3J0&ictx=1&sa=X&utmcampaign=sharing&utmmmedium=link&utmsource=htls&ts=CAESABo9Ch8SGzoZTGVnb2xhbmTCriBXaW5kc29yIFJlc29ydBoAEhoSFAoHCOUPEAQYDxIHCOUPEAQYEBgBMgIQACoPCgsoAUoCIAE6A0dCUBoA&ved=0CAAQ5JsGahcKEwjwj-SdvdLvAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQEA

[itsgettingwierd]

It's called De Vere Beaumont estate. Plenty of room for kids to run around, pool and play parks and ground floor rooms open straight out onto the large grassy areas.

[BikeRunSki]

MN Legoland Survival Guide

We got a 2 night deal with a hotel in between. The dc were 6 and 3 when we went. Spreading it over 2 days worked well as there was no pressure to everything in one day when they were flagging.

We went in August. The main rides had big queues, but there were a few smaller rides with no queues where the dc were happy to “ride and repeat” over and over - the submarine, dinosaur train and a jungly one.

There are two “dragon rides”. One of them is a nice undulating uppy downy ride. One of them is a a steep, fast rollercoaster. Don’t get them mixed up!

A lot of rides are height restricted. My dd is very tall for her age. Just because a child is tall enough for a ride, it doesn’t mean they are brave enough!

Cafe queues are ginormous. Bring a picnic. Eat it in the bigger queues.

We actually stayed at a hotel in Windsor that had the biggest multicultural buffet I’ve ever seen, and a pancake machine at breakfast time. And a pool and a playground.

If you are coming from distance, book a local premier inn type hotel for the night before, so you can get there really early.

[BikeRunSki]

The hotel itsgettingweirdinhere has linked is where we stayed. Really nice hotel. Full of people either going to Legoland or Heathrow, so very jolly.

[Hazelnutlatteplease]

@thrownunderthebus this is where I admit the idea is based on a trip I had to Alton Towers without kids but with an all day dining pass! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 It was so much fun I carry the essence of the idea through whenever we theme park visit!

If you can go outside of school holidays the queues really arent bad at all. Especially if you stay in the hotel and you are organised on which rides you go for when. If you are waiting at the hotel entrance on opening then you hit the jet ski ride, the Driving School, boats, Nijago and Dragon rollercoaster (in that order) you might well find the Qbots a waste of money. DS has SN which operates on the equivalent of the cheapest QBot; still a full wait time but wait anywhere and go through the qbot entrance. We didnt even pick up our ride access pass until after driving school that visit and didnt use it overmuch as the queues were actually much shorter than the Qbot (its widely believed Legoland inflate the Qbot times sometimes). I dont particularly like the Qbot system. Having to book your next ride can be a bit of a pain for a few reasons. If a child doesn't know which ride is which or has trouble envisioning what they want to ride, you lose some of that natural excitement that comes with "that looks good shall we do that". We also tend to find ourselves bouncing backwards and forwards across the park and missing some of the smaller rides entirely. Of course you wouldn't get these issues with the most expensive Qbots but they really are expensive.

I can imagine they are worth their weight in gold some days but I'd be gutted if I'd paid that and the longest wait was only half hour.

(Even last year during the august summer holidays with the reduced capacity due to covid, very few of the rides were hitting an hour when we went mid week. We went with relatives who had to use the queue line and I was having coordinating hitting the front of the SN queue at the same time as them in the main queue. I dont think we did any wait longer than 30min (we did the bug queuer first thing). Overall the QBot timings were actually more of less accurate.)

At that age I'd definitely take a couple of days out school and go. They are still operating at reduced capacity for the time being. Just dont go when we're going for DS's 14th birthday... the park needs to be completely empty then

[emmathedilemma]

I don't remember it being hilly at all, but then I live in a hilly place so probably didn't even notice!
I'd stay within walking distance if you can, we stayed til closing time and it took my friends an hour just to get off the car park, then further bumper to bumper queues to get out of Windsor.
I'd also measure your kids before you go and look at the height restrictions for rides that are on the website to manage their expectations that there will be some things they might not be able to go on, or only the older ones can go on.

[emmathedilemma]

Oh, and spending money......be prepared for the gift shop!!

[Foxhasbigsocks]

Also a Legoland veteran! You HAVE to have the q bots as so many have said - without them every ride worth going on is 45 minutes to one hour queue and then it’s over in 2 minutes or less!

I would recommend, as so many op have said, starting with your must do ride preferably at the back of the park and working back towards the gate. That way you are at the back while everyone else is still at the front and you can do the front bits when they’ve got a little quieter.

We always do the underwater sub first - Atlantis where you can see all the fish as my kids love it. They were about 7 and 3 last time we went. Also the driving school ones - my 7 year old LOVED those!

Food is very very pricey as I’m sure you would expect, so just be prepared to accept that.

Bring a buggy for your under 4 even if they don’t usually need one as the park is very spread out and they get grumpy by the end of the day. It’s also useful to have somewhere to put drinks, snacks and coats.

Guest services hand out id wristbands to put on the kids and we always did these - just in case they wander off somehow - you put your phone number on.

We always avoid the gift shop but tell the kids they can buy a Lego set online when we get home