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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To bloody HATE Legoland

85 replies

InSpaceNooneCanHearYouScream · 14/08/2014 17:56

Urghhh. Is it just me or do theme parks only exist to extort money out of us? The entry prices for Legoland today were £46 per adult and £41 per child.Plus £4 to park. Since when do you have to pay to park at a theme park??
Luckily I had a half price offer, but even so it still cost £71 for 3 of us. 3 of the rides were shut and there were 45 minute queues for all the bigger rides, most of which are not a patch on Chessington or Thorpe Park.
I paid £2.75 for an ice cream, which was about a third of the size of a Mr Whippy cone. The staff were visibly embarrassed handing over these extortionately priced mini ice-creams.
At the end of every ride there was the opportunity to purchase a dark grainy photo of yourself on the ride for 'only' £10. WTF?
At one of the numerous shops, I was going to buy my two older boys a tub of pick and mix sweets each. Until I saw that they cost £7.50 per tub! Even so people were falling over themselves to buy them. Not to mention the 'ponchos' on sale for the wetter rides- basically a bin bag for £3.50 each. And don't forget the 'family driers' if you get a bit wet- only £2 a pop! What a bargain.
I've always thought theme parks were not good value for money, but today's experience at Legoland really takes the biscuit. How the bloody hell do people afford to take their kids to them regularly?

OP posts:
Original poster
InSpaceNooneCanHearYouScream · 14/08/2014 18:59

I just looked at merlin pass prices and it would cost well over £500 for a family of five. Not exactly a bargain. And as we're limited to school holidays with three school age children, that's £500 worth of an awful lot of queuing!

OP posts:
ChickenFajitaAndNachos · 14/08/2014 19:01

check out their January sale, they usually discount by 40%

ICanSeeTheSun · 14/08/2014 19:01

Merl in passes are best off bought in January.

ChickenFajitaAndNachos · 14/08/2014 19:02

Plus we find weekends in September and October very quiet.

NerfHerder · 14/08/2014 19:06

Oh- we love legoland... just never been in August!

DownstairsMixUp · 14/08/2014 19:11

Totally agree, legoland is shocking! Don't even bother taking the kids out for the day as it is literally rammo all year round. We went in June (at the start not half term) and still only managed 5 or 6 rides. Luckily I didn't pay full price to get in but I still felt robbed for the 15 i DID have to pay. Queues far too long, some were shut, food way too expensive, £4 to get in is an absolute rip off as well. I only got food their for a treat as we saved so much money on tickets but it was vile. A lot of the rides seemed dated to and the park just felt like it needed a good overhaul. Definitely won't ever go back there. The £4 charge on the way out for parking really was the final kick in the teeth for us!

amyhamster · 14/08/2014 19:11

We collect the kellogg vouchers on the back of cereal packets
Think it's free adult for each child

Pyjamaramadrama · 14/08/2014 19:14

We went end of April and the queues were not too bad. As I say start at the back of the park and work your way to the front. Also go to the gift shop mid day as it won't be rammed then.

I do agree it's dirty and run down. There's much better theme parks.

redexpat · 14/08/2014 19:20

Get on ryanair and come to Legoland Billund! Yes photos can cost but you can buy a voucher pack for 4 photos which makes it more readonable. Ice creams are the same orice here as elsewhere in denmark. Ive never waited for a ride more than 10 minutes outside school holidays. Thrre are lots of free tickets available eg buy 2 happy meals in mcDs get a free kid ticket. Also on the back of cereal packets. Even a season pass is less than 2 day tickets and then yiu get more mobey off vouchers. When one of the rides was shut everyone got a free ticket for the next year.

MuddlingMackem · 14/08/2014 19:20

YANBU, horses for courses, but I really like it.

Our holiday this year included Legoland, Chessington and Thorpe Park, on consecutive days. Legoland was four tickets with clubcard vouchers, Thorpe was two tickets via clubcard plus two with a BOGOF from the cereal. Chessington was all four with two cereal BOGOF vouchers.

The only one we paid to not queue was at Thorpe, as only DS and DH wanted to do the big rides, so they paid £20 each for fastpasses for four of the rides and chanced it for the fifth, just so that DD and I didn't spend the whole day waiting around for them. Although we did pay the extra for priority parking at Legoland to get in near the front of the masses for the one big ride they wanted to go on. :)

Personally I could happily give Thorpe a miss as it's not my kind of rides, but I love Legoland and even find Chessington a good day out. The Star Wars exhibition at Legoland was fantastic. :)

As far as food was concerned, we were staying in a Travelodge and each night popped into a nearby Tesco for our dinner for the next day, which we just put in a cool bag overnight. Grin And we'd stocked up with bottled drinks which we took with us.

AvonCallingBarksdale · 14/08/2014 19:24

It's fun! You just have to be prepared:

  1. Find a way of, essentially, not paying - ie DD has a Blue Peter badge, so she's free, there are offers on Kellogs cereals at the mo, 1 adult free with a paying child. So, for us 4, it'd only be me and DS paying. There are always offers to be had.
  2. Take waterproof trousers/bin bags with you.
  3. Take all your own food and drink. 4)March through the shop at speed.
MuddlingMackem · 14/08/2014 19:24

redexpat I would love to go back to Billund.

I went in 1992 and remember it basically being miniland plus a handful of little kiddie rides, and it was still fab. Would love to go back with the kids one holiday. We need to include it in the Europapark and Efteling holiday we want to do. We did Efteling pre-kids too and want to go back, but still haven't managed to get to Europapark at all. Grin

parallax80 · 14/08/2014 19:35

Disappointed this thread isn't about Orlando Bloom as I originally thought.

arethereanyleftatall · 14/08/2014 19:47

Lol parallax!

ChippyMinton · 14/08/2014 19:50

YANBU. It used to be lovely but now it's a rip-off.
Agree with others that Billund is great. Cheap flights with Ryanair, an accommodation and ticket deal. We went at May half-term, the Danes were at school, so we just walked onto every ride.

Original poster
InSpaceNooneCanHearYouScream · 14/08/2014 19:58

Billund sounds good!
I did have a half price offer- I think it was still too expensive! And none of us have blue peter badges Sad.
Legolas, now. I don't hate him. At all.

OP posts:
HermioneWeasley · 14/08/2014 20:03

YANBU. I HATE the way Merlin gouge you and gouge you at every opportunity. We've been once and I didn't like it, and I got food poisoning. I would avoid! And I'm not usually a misery - I love Disneyland - I even tolerate Paris!

ohtheholidays · 14/08/2014 20:24

We love Legoland,but your right it is bloody expensive!!

But to combat paying so much for one trip to any theme park we started buying merlin passes a few years ago.There's 7 of us and it saves us a few grand each year using the merlin passes compared to what we'd pay each time if we didn't have them.

To save money take food and drink with you and if you want to give the children a treat on the way out take some pick and mix sweets with you rather than buying them there.You can buy proper rain proof poncho's for about the same price that you'll be able to use year after year for about the same price as the thin one's you get at the theme parks.

If you want to save money on a day out you need to be organized.

ohtheholidays · 14/08/2014 20:33
  • 7 of us.Don't know what I did there. Grin
NynaevesSister · 14/08/2014 20:52

We had a fab day there. Went on an inset day, and used the 2 for 1 voucher. Took all own food and drinks. Had a number of long queues but managed to go on all the rides we wanted to. In the last half hour the park emptied. We went back to DCs fave ride and went on it four times in a row - there wasn't a queue left. Next time I would also take my own poncho. We were in the shop and son only wanted a mini figure. The queue was insane! So we went to the customer service desk and they let us pay there.

If you have a phone that is running low on juice ask in some of the venues or shops if they will plug it in for you. In the big shop by the entrance there's a phone charger kiosk but it costs a ridiculous amount.

NynaevesSister · 14/08/2014 20:53

Also we took the train to Windsor and then the bus. It was quick and easy and you're dropped right at the entrance.

Marmiteandjamislush · 14/08/2014 21:15

It can be worth looking at end of week London hotel deals (unless you live very near to London or the park) as they can sometimes include Legoland tickets. We used cereal vouchers and YANBU -- total rip off.

IdkickJilliansAss · 14/08/2014 21:19

We used our Necter card and only had to pay for parking

tess73 · 14/08/2014 21:34

we go once a year in june
i take them out of school, sick, for the day midweek, after reports, tests etc...
used kelloggs vouchers so only pay for the kids
bring sandwiches so only buy water and an ice cream
brilliant day.

no way would i
a) pay full price
b) go in the school holidays

Turquoisetamborine · 14/08/2014 21:43

If you are ever in Florida then I would definitely recommend the Legoland there. It's far better than the UK one. We went at Halloween last year for Brick or Treat and I think I enjoyed it more than Disney. It's set in a beautiful botanic garden and we rarely waited any longer than 10 mins for any ride. It was lovely and clean and well maintained. The food was terrible but we always take our own to theme parks as it usually is. We got the tickets free in a theme park bundle.

It truly was a day I'll remember for the rest of my life and our son was absolutely in heaven.