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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:
numptieseverywhere · 14/08/2014 21:46

Legoland Windsor is the most overrated and overpriced theme park in the UK.

Original poster
InSpaceNooneCanHearYouScream · 14/08/2014 21:46

Brick or treat.....is that brick through the window if you don't get a treat? Grin

OP posts:
tess73 · 14/08/2014 21:51

thanks for the info turquoisetambourine
the theme parks in US are just better run, mostly because way way way more staff. At the water boating school park in windsor we don't even bother with it on quiet days as even a short queue doesn't move. Then you look at where they are getting on and off and it is just one dozy teenager helping the whole boat out. then helping the next load in, then off they go... FGS - a few people should be unloading at one end of the platform then the empty boats load the other end, they should move along empty to the loading dock. it's not difficult.

numptieseverywhere · 14/08/2014 21:51

Legoland Windsor is the most overrated and overpriced theme park in the UK.

blibblibs · 14/08/2014 21:54

The day we spent at Legoland Windsor was the worst day of my life. I'm sure its put me off theme parks forever Smile

Bearbehind · 14/08/2014 21:56

I went to Alton Towers a few weeks ago and was shocked by the commercialism of it all.

It's just one opportunity after another to cash in.

We paid about £30 each to miss the queues on the main rides- 2 adults and it was the only way to fit them all in on the day- but thats not viable option when travelling with a family.

They even charge to squirt water at people on the river rapids.

Never again.

bumblingbovine49 · 14/08/2014 21:58

Never never visit theme parks at weekends or the main school holidays. Pick an inset day. Not all schools close on the same inset days so the parks are much quieter.

I have always visited Legoland ( and Chessington when we lived near to it) on an inset day and have never waited more than 20mins in a queue and even then that was for the bigger/more popular rides. Though I do have to say that as a family we really don't like the massive, scary rides much so we tend to go on the medium/smaller rides anyway. Legoland is the best for this as there is lots of stuff to do in the park which is not going on specific rides so even if you don't go on masses of rides, it still feels like you have done stuff/watched shows/ played with stuff etc.

We only go once a year maximum though as it is supposed to be a treat and there is no getting away from the fact that theme parks are expensive.

beccajoh · 14/08/2014 22:06

I love this thread. I thought I was the only person in the world who hates LL but I am not Grin

Notso · 14/08/2014 22:17

We got merlin passes this year in the new year sales. I think we paid around £100 each for the premium passes for DH, DD, DS1 and I, our other two are under 4 so free in most places.
We got them as it is hard to find a day out to please all age groups with our older two being 14 and 9.
I honestly think it is one of the best things we have done for our family. They paid for themselves after two visits to Alton Towers and one to Blackpool tower so everything we have done since May is free.
Parking is free with our passes.
We take waterproofs and a picnic. Our passes get us 25% off food and in the shops if we do buy anything.
I actually like Legoland more than I expected and that was when we first went a couple of years ago. We were going there for DS1 who lives LEGO, but all of us enjoyed ourselves.

pointythings · 14/08/2014 22:19

We went in late June and loved it - did a combined hotel/entry deal which came to £135 for the hotel stay including breakfast plus park entry for 2 adults and 2 children. It was very hot, but we hit Splash Pad and got thoroughly soaked, then wandered around evaporating as we went. Got on lots of rides, ice creams were perfectly reasonable and food no worse in price than any other theme park.

And the Lego Star Wars exhibition was frankly amazing.

theliverpoolone · 14/08/2014 22:44

They also manage to fleece you with the lockers - I took dd this week, and, following the MN guide to surviving Legoland, took a massive bag with spare clothes, packed lunch etc, having read that there are lockers for £1. The only thing being, that whenever you return to your locker to get something, you have to pay another £1......

I had the Kellogg's free adult voucher, so decided to fork out £30 (£15pp) for us to have a Qbot. It did mean we managed to do far more rides than we would have done if we'd had to queue - not sure it was worth £30 though. Would love to know who pays for the premium Qbots at £70pp Shock

Original poster
InSpaceNooneCanHearYouScream · 14/08/2014 22:55

Pay another £1 every time you go back to the locker.....? Robbing bastards!!

Grin @ bliblibs and beccajoh

OP posts:
pictish · 14/08/2014 23:01

The only thing being, that whenever you return to your locker to get something, you have to pay another £1......

Now that is absolutely shocking!

No matter how much fingers in the ears it's-all-for-the-kids lalalaing you do, you cannot possibly put a positive spin on that. Obscene!

Catsize · 15/08/2014 00:43

I hate the Windsor one. but still seem to find myself going next month
Love the Danish one.
The Danish school hols don't coincide with ours. We went on holiday to Denmark last year and the end of August was great for getting on rides at Legoland and Farup (another good Danish theme park).

Lurleene · 15/08/2014 00:59

We went on an inset day in July this year. Unfortunately every school in a 100 mile radius was having a school trip to Legoland that day.

I always wonder if the Queen gets as good a view of Legoland as it has of Windsor Castle.

ICanSeeTheSun · 15/08/2014 02:19

Save up on free trolley tokens, always work on £1 lockers.

Hulababy · 15/08/2014 02:31

I dont really get the legoland thing. I know some love it. I love theme parks - heck, we are currently in Florida doing lots of theme parks. But one we won't be visiting here is Legoland. We did it once in the uk a few years ago when dd was 3. It was busy and was expensive to enter and the rides were rubbish with long queues. I guess it's just aimed at little children and die hard Lego fans - neither if which I have. We have far cheaper more local children's theme parks and activities than spending a fortune on legoland.

But each to their own

Catsize · 15/08/2014 10:24

Top tip icanseethesun, thanks. Smile

LAlady · 15/08/2014 10:38

We had Merlin passes for a few years. Legoland is down the road from us and the easiest one to get to. It's also the most overrated theme park ever! I hated the place - queues upon queues for non descript rides. Fortunately my children grew out of it pretty quickly!

Notso · 15/08/2014 10:45

Aren't the trolly tokens usually £1 to buy though?

ElephantsNeverForgive · 15/08/2014 16:25

I like the idea of buying charity trolly tokens to use in all theme park lockers, they are a total piss take.

Alton towers won't let you take totally secure bum bags on Smile, so you stuff your phone and money in your pockets. How the fuck is that safer?

It's also massively sexist as DH just arranges his bigger waist bag like a beer belly and no one cares. If I did that I'd look PG and get thrown of the ride.

ElephantsNeverForgive · 15/08/2014 16:27

If lockers are a genuine HS necessity you should get your key money back!

ChickenFajitaAndNachos · 15/08/2014 16:34

I visit a theme park about 10 times a year and have never got a locker, brought the photos or the 7 pick a mixes. I think lots of places have ways of making extra money it's doesn't mean you have to pay out for them.

MissDuke · 15/08/2014 17:18

I guess that because they have so many special offers going on entry, they have to make their money back somehow. We use tesco clubcard vouchers to get into Blackpool Pleasure beach every year so it costs us nothing, and we spend nothing there. If everyone did that, how would they afford the running costs of the place as I doubt they get much back from Tesco?

They obviously know people will pay happily for a special offer to get in, then not notice how all the other expenses add up once they are in the gate! Can't be cheap to run a theme park. Some great ideas on this thread to save money once there.

hackmum · 15/08/2014 17:35

I went to Legoland once, 13 years ago. Never again.