Returned from our legoland trip today. Large glass of vodka, lime & soda currently been inhaled. Overall we had a fantastic but exhausting day.
To recap - I went with DH, DS and 3 of his classmates for my son's 5th birthday. We live in SW London. I thought I'd add my tips for the day although tbh it all pretty much falls in line with the 2013/2014 thread.
We drove to & from legoland via the alternative route. It is very scenic and the traffic moved quickly. There are yellow signposts although some creep up on you. I would do that again.
We arrived for 9.30am. It was relatively quiet. Went via Guest Services where you can collect a birthday badge which my son liked as all the staff then made a fuss of him.
I hadn't got Qbots in advance as really begrudge the idea of paying for that on top of tickets. However, we had to balance that against the fact we were only there for one day and with 4 five year olds it was unlikely to be a full day too. DH turned to me at the outset and announced "I've made an executive decision - we're buying Qbots". It was completely the right choice and I wouldn't go again without them. I don't like the principle but it just means you can relax enjoy your day. Otherwise the queues for the main rides looked around 45 mins. For each ride. We had to buy 6 Qbots as the regular ones don't shorten the queuing time so if we'd shared this between us then we couldn't have all gone on the rides at the same time and there would have been a 30 min gap. If you don't have the Qbot there are other stuff to do like carousel, swinging chairs etc but sort of not what Legoland is about.
Anyway, on arrival, we queued left and then walked down the hill straight for Atlantis. Go there first to avoid the queues. Don't bother with the train down, the walk is nice and there are slides along the way.
The favourite rides were the Dragon (quite grown up) and Atlantis. Did Atlantis twice. Most rides good and only disappointing one was the Digger.
Miniland was looking good and great for a picnic and some quiet time. We didn't manage Duplo splash towers but it looked amazing. Unless very warm, I'd second wetsuits as others have recommended.
Shame that castaway camp playground wasn't opened yet. Boys would have loved that.
Had packed lunch whilst watching the Pirate Show. This was good. Didn't spend 1p on food or drink all day which was satisfying given that it looked typically average and overpriced.
We left at 4pm. Frankly by that point the little people were exhausted. But I've also heard too many bad stories re leaving the carpark from 5-6.30 and I had to factor in that we would be hitting the m4 on Friday late afternoon.
Would I go again? Yes but only if I had the Merlin annual pass to soften the blow of the Qbot.