First trip to Legoland tommorow advice please

[shaka12003]

Hi all we are off on our first trip to legoland tommorow its about an hour and a half drive from us so will need to leave early to get there. Dcs are 6 and 7 and don't know we are going so will be a massive surprise for them.

What advice does a Legoland virgin need. Thanks in advance

A change of clothes and towel, my dcs used to love the water fountains

sandwiches - fod is incredibly expensive there!

Definitely go on the submarine!!!

Definitely a towel - that's my top tip for Legoland be it wet or dry weather.

We were there last weekend and it was torrential. We all had raincoats with rain ponchos over the top though and the rain didn't spoil our fun one bit, in fact it meant the queues were shorter than usual.

Towel is useful for sitting on if the benches etc are wet while you wait for the dcs to come off rides and also, as bruffin said for the water play area if it's sunny. Also useful for drying wet hair and faces etc be it from rain or water related rides.

Have a look on the website, choose the rides you most want to go on, get their before the park opens and go straight to the ride your dcs want to go on the most. For mine it was Atlantis and Lazer Raiders. Don't queue up for Viking Splash on the way in, its much quieter later in the day, as lots of people tend to go there first, because it's the first ride you come to.

If it's cold and/or wet, going on the Atlantis ride is a great way to warm up, we went on it four times one day.

Food is extortionate and horrible so a picnic is advisable and if it rains you can eat it in the Duplo puppet theatre, which is opposite a stand selling hot drinks etc. If it's sunny, its nice to eat your picnic while watching the Pirates
stunt show. If you do want to eat there, you can get a child's meal for £1 with any adult meal at certain cafes after 3.00 pm.

If your dcs like fizzy drinks, which mine don't, it's apparently good value to buy one of their refillable drinks cups, which you can then have unlimited refills in all day.

There are shops and merchandise in every area of the park - so be prepared for plently of pester power.

Get 'there' before the park opens.

Please excuse my atrocious typing.

Thanks for all those tips is it sad that I think im more excited than the dcs are about going lol. I take it we need to aim to be there about 9:30 then. I was thinking about a packed lunch as my ds can eat for england lol. Ill have a look at the website tonight for the rides info and see if we can work out what ones to go on.

I think instead of carrying drinks around all day we can get 2 of the refilable ones and share them then. Any more tips please feel free to enlighten me thanks

After looking at the map start off as far away from the entrance as you can - literally frog march there as it will be much quieter.

Forecast is freezing - lots of layers to wear.

Try and get there earlier if you can as you can as you can buy your tickets and use the cafe before the park opens.

ok Random thanks for that didnt realise there was a cafe we could use what time do the ticket booths open do you know?

I'm not sure - does it say on the website, I'm not a devout regular but keep this thread bumped as there must be some die hard fans around at somepoint today.

how are you paying for your tickets? Some can be scanned at the turnstiles others you have to get from the ticket booths etc.

Says it opens at 10am so the other things must open and 9.30 - remember you have to pay to park - think you pay on exit from memory.

weve got a 2 for 1 voucher so will have to buy them from the booths.

Leave your food in your car, you can pop out to get it rather than carry around all day.

The nice thing about Legoland is that there is loads to do which is not "ride" related. The model village is gorgeous, and I seem to remember the DCs spending hours on some sort of giant wooden climbing structure (Pirate Training Camp) which had one entrance/exit and benches outside, so DH and I were able to chill with a leisurely coffee while the DCs hared around.

If it tips down there are indoor places where you can do various lego projects; you get all the necessary bits in a box, build your car (or whatever) then test it on a ramp.

The outdoor fountains are great fun - ours stripped off and ran about in their pants, but you might be inviting frostbite if you did that at the moment. And don't go on the water rides until the afternoon, unless you like walking around with a wet arse all day.

But have a lovely time!

You can pay a pound to leave your lunch in a locker if you want to.

My boys have just reminded me that the queues for the driving and boating schools are beyond ridiculous, even on quiet days, so those are also things to get to before the queues build up.

Bear in mind that with the driving school your dcs are likely to want the driving license, which you have to pay extra for - and it's a whopping £8.00 a child! I let my two boys have one last year, but this year warned them in advance that I wouldn't be paying for them to have another.

The 4D cinema is another place to get out of the rain for a bit and they do different shows, each lasting 15-20 minutes, so you can go there more than once.

Rain ponchos are useful for keeping your backside dry on the water rides, as obviously the seats are usually wet before you sit down. Dh and I have slightly more robust ones that we use for music festivals, but we bought the dcs a Legoland one each for about £3.00 each and they were a worthwhile investment considering the amount of rain we had thrown at us over 48 hours.

Thanks for all the advice todays the day the dcs are just having their breakfast then we are ready to go. I'll report back and let you all know how it went

Hope you have a fantastic day!

I hope you found something else to do and didn't get stuck in horrible traffic because Legoland was closed today (power fault). Ii should be open tmw but that probably doesn't help....

Oh golly, I hope your day wasn't ruined

I love Legoland but it would be a nightmare to get there and find it closed. Imagine all the sobbing children

Noooo! Just heard about Legoland being closed today. Nightmare.

BBC link about today's closure. They do seem confident that it will be open tomorrow but, OP, you might like to have a think about what you might do if there are further problems.

Oh he'll! I just spotted that this thread started yesterday, which makes the second part of my post non-sensical.

OP: I'm so sorry!

Oh no! OP I hope you managed to find something else fun to do today and can go tomorrow instead.

Such a shame when you were so excited and had kept it a secret from the dcs until this morning.

Hi all thanks for the replies. Thanks to the advice to arrive early we arrived at 9am to be met at the gate saying they had a powercut. We were immediatly given 4 free tickets to return their even though we had'nt paid a penny at this point and were going to use 2-4-1 vouchers. We went into windosr to give them a chance to get power sorted but on trying to get back there we found out it was still closed. The dcs were dissapointed but we went to chessington instead using our vouchers and are returning to Legoland tommorw as it is back open then.

We can not fault legoland customer services they were great and at the end of teh day the powercut was in windsor anyway so not there fault. So I will let you all know tommorow how it went fingers crossed lol.