AIBU to think that Legoland is just a massive sodding rip off.

[IAmADancer]

I had the unfortunate experience of going to Legoland yesterday and I am still angry about how much the whole day cost and feel as I have just been completely ripped off. I may as well have just taken a wad of money into the middle of the park and burnt it.
I know it was half term, although hadn’t realised when we booked the tickets, but from the moment I arrived I felt like we were just being conned out of money.
£12 for park
£120 in q-bots which were a waste of time as we would turn up at our allotted time and then still queue for another 20-25 mins because there were no staff or only part of the ride working.
£8.50 for a stupidly small salad
£16.00 for 3 coffees and a tea
£9 for face painting
The list is endless. How the hell do people afford to go to this place?
Half the rides aren’t working, the queues are over an hour for a ride that lasts 2 minutes. The queue to get an ice cream was 30 minutes and then you are charged an extortionate amount for one scoop. It is dirty and old looking, the rides are crap and the decent ones you have to pay extra for. The toilets are disgusting, the only food available is pizza, pasta and fried crap.

I was so pissed off by the end of the day and just felt completely taken advantage of.

So AIBU or is legoland actually incredible and I went on a bad day?

We complained and got new tickets. Sold them on eBay

We went a few years ago and loved it. We had Qbots but didn’t need them as the queues were small. DS adored Lego at the time and had a ball. We took packed lunches.
From the sound of it we were incredibly lucky!

Has anybody complained on the Legoland twitter account about the shocking costs and crap service?

People saying don’t go in the school holidays. I work term time, when else can I take my family!!

YANBU op. We felt the same. We spent most of our day queuing for well, pretty much everything. This was our main gripe. From rides to ice cream the waiting time was ridiculous.

But probably all very lovely if you have the luxury of a term time visit

Drayton manor/Thomas Land is good

@wizzywig we have just returned from billund this week. No queues, plenty of toilets / picnic benches/ bins not overflowing. Would definitely return. We did 2 days with 2 nights at the holiday village and cost the same as going to Windsor including flights....

We're relatively local so went quite a few times when we had Merlin passes a couple of years ago and my girls loved it. But that was fully with the attitude of if things are busy we'll watch pirate & Lego friends show, water park & just pick a couple of things to do each time. Quiet days we did tons even coming off and going straight back on rides.
I think as a one-off It's horrific & lost track of the number of poor people who'd had experiences like yours.
Would highly recommend Paultons park - my fave southern UK park.

We were there this week and it was busy but it was fine. Parking is £6 unless you’re paying for the premium car park. No queues to get in with a merlin pass (£99 in the sale). Queues are shortest before 12 and after 4. In the middle of the day eat, watch shows, splash park, miniland etc. Longest we queued was 45 mins for ninjago. No qbots here (I think they’re a joke and I don’t think they should have them). The fish and chips is edible by the pirate lake but we also take loads of snacks and drinks. We spent about £30 on fish and chips and ice creams for a family of 4. If you go at 11 and wander round aimlessly you can spend a fortune and not do very much at all.

For kids aged 0-9 you really can’t beat Paultons (with Peppa Pig land). Still expensive to get in though a lot cheaper than legoland, ample free parking, and although there are long queues for PP land in the rest of the park they aren’t too bad even on busy days. Food is mid priced but not painful and there are loads of beautiful picnic areas where you can bring a picnic, stretch out and watch the kids play in play parks or the popular water park. The place is immaculate and beautiful. We had season tickets for about 6 years and I miss it now my kids are too old!

Agreed we went term time and it was still shit. This was four years ago and it doesn't sound like it's improved so I won't go back

Worst and most expensive day out ive ever had. Would never make the mistake of returning unless the place was burnt down, rebuilt and was a quarter of the price and let quarter of the amount of people in.

We went with discount vouchers, on a drizzly Sunday at the the beginning of the season and were really disappointed.

We queued for about 15minutes for most rides and were still shocked at how quickly they were over. As we walked up and down the deserted queing areas I just kept saying to DH 'imagine if we had to stand in these queues!'. I don't know how people cope on busy days or why they bother going.

The park itself was dirty and tired looking and the rides were rubbish, Paultons is a million times better.

Queing for food and face painting seems like madness. Sandwiches to distract the kids with while queing is definitely the way to go.

You can't really complain about the cost of things like face painting. You chose to do it.

We take packed lunches, and rarely do anything there that needs extra money.

The Billund one is amazing. Lalandia is just over the road as well and cheaper to stay at than the Lego hotel. It’s got a massive water park, climbing walls, ice rink, kids entertainment and loads of restaurants. Most people we knew who stayed in Legoland got a day pass for there. We stayed in Lalandia and got a day pass for Legoland but ended up spending 2 days in Legoland cos you can return for half price in the same week and there was more stuff we wanted to do. Went in the summer and it was busy but we didn’t queue long for anything. Food was reasonably priced and everywhere wa clean.
There are regular buses from there to explore a bit of Denmark as well. My kids still say it’s the best holiday we’ve had.

We have annual passes to Paultons Park as we are local. It's a much superior experience. Guest centred, clean, nice food, short queues (except Peppa Pig world which my DCs have outgrown now anyway). Seasonal events, good planning in busy periods. So much investment has gone back into the park and it's great for all ages.

Legoland could be amazing. Unfortunately it's looking a bit shabby as Merlin are investing in hotels not revamping rides. We have premium LL annual passes (not Merlin) which cost us nothing as I saved my Tesco clubcard points for a whole year. We do like it there and we've had two really good days there so far since getting passes. My tips:

Always bring a packed lunch, loads of snacks, sweets and refillable water bottles (fountains are by the chicken takeaway). Bring a buggy even if your children are too big for it to hold all the stuff.
Bring swimwear for kids for the splash park. Waterproof trousers if a wet day for sitting on wet rides.
Plan your visit- get there at 9am, be in Miniland by 9:45 ready to rush to your favourite ride first as soon as the gates open, to avoid queues
Then go to splash towers as it's quiet in the mornings
Come back to Miniland around lunchtime, have a picnic, do some building in the exploratory centres, 4d cinema etc. At this time of day most people are queueing for rides.
Do the star wars exhibition in the afternoon, watch a show (not at lunchtime- it's packed), see which rides have shorter queues
By about 4pm the bigger rides have shorter queues so you can do those more easily
ALWAYS turn right as you leave!!
Parking is free with a premium pass.
Ice creams in Papa Mole are £3.75 for a single scoop or £4.25 for a double. We get a double scoop tub and split it between two. Only expense of the day.
Never bother with Q bots
Never pay gate price- do the Sun or Times free ticket deals, or at the very least BOGOF with cereal packet etc. £60 per person plus parking is ridiculous.
LL hotel is ££££££ but I have managed to book a night in the Lego Friends room for my obsessed DD in November for her birthday. The park will be closed so it's only £115 for all 4 of us (family room with bunk beds). The next day we will do Windsor castle or explore the town.
Premier inns and the Marriott Windsor are very good. LL Holidays online do 2 day deals including hotel and tickets which are better value than the resort hotel (kids go free etc).

Theme parks are awful if you don't know the tricks for how to maximise your experience. Hope this helps someone.

We live an hour away from the German one. It's great. Wouldn't go in June/July/August if you paid me. But haven't had any problems at all, fast passes have never been needed, it's really clean, food seems reasonable, and we buy annual passes with parking included, more than three trips and you've covered the pass price.

Legoland is probably like Center Parcs in that they can charge what they like and still fill it and then some in the school holidays and won't change until visitor numbers drop off.

How can most people go on inset days unless you live really nearby? Of course most people have to go on weekends or in school holidays.

Sounds awful. I like Crealy in Devon and Cornwall for little kids, no Lego though.

Used to have merlin passes and am happy that phase of life is over. They never stop letting people in, even when the park is stuffed to the gills, and it’s such terrible value for money.
Mini land hasn’t been revamped for years. Eldest DS is 20 now, and a couple of years ago it looked the same as when he was 3.
It’s a rip off

Another one here who agrees that the Billund Legoland is absolutely brilliant! Not been to the Windsor one and now don't think I'll bother!

Agree, it’s shit.

I’ve been in the Disney parks on Christmas Day and it was more bearable and better value than Legoland Windsor. I have no idea who’s stillgoing or how they stay in business

All of these places are like this, butlins, legoland, Thorpe Park. I refuse to go.

Realistically, you have to know that going to a major theme/adventure/water park is going to be a very expensive day out, and either suck it up for your childrens' sakes or just not go.

Regarding the other stuff (rides closed, long queues), I would write a complaint because that's not really on.

We really like Legoland, but we go in term time and take packed lunches. We have merlin passes so we don’t pay for admission on the day which means we’re not as bothered if we don’t get to do everything. I’ve been once in the holidays and swore never again, it was unbearably crowded and there was a 3-hour queue for one ride! I agree it’s a bit shabby and tired looking in parts but my DS loves it and doesn’t notice

We have just returned from 2 days at Chessington. Never thought I’d actually utter these words but we actually thought Legoland was marginally better, at least the rides there were fun and the staff were bit better organised. We did buy the lowest tier qbot when we last went (£80 on top of the entrance ticket!) but go there early and we’re able to do most of the big rides in the first hour of opening and used the qbot for the rest of the day. Chessington on the other hand was just so old and tired looking and there was little to no organisation with how they managed ride queues which just added to the wait times. Some of the staff were really rude as well. I also really really disliked the whole zoo aspect, enclosures were way to small and the animals looked bored and some distressed to me. Both parks are designed to extract as much money as possible from parents, was shocked at how many of those ripp-off fairground type games they had dotted about and food was predictably shite and expensive. We nearly always take a packed lunch and our own snacks and never pay the full gate price for admission is it’s just a rip off as you can’t even get onto the rides! Unless you get early entry or are prepared to pay for fast passes, forget about getting on any of the headline rides. It’s such a con. I love the theme parks in Florida and Portaventura in Salou and it’s so depressing that the ones closer to home are so shite. I’m done with UK theme parks I think, roll on next year when we’re back at WDW and Universal Studios.