The LEGOLAND 2014 thread all your tips and questions answered here!!

[HRHQueenMe]

link to the 2013 thread here

Starting afresh for the new season! The new pirate playground is not yet built (what have they been doing all winter????) but the park has been pruned and tidied and looked lovely yesterday! Xbox room is still closed as well.

The new Pirate Captain Birdsnest is a bit more of an eyecandy man for us mums than last years young man, so thats an improvement, and the lovely pirate Georgie is back in all her glory, still as charming as ever!

Please add your hints and tips, and there is a few of us LL regulars who come on here and will happily answer all your questions!!

Lastly, there is a new burger joint under construction, so that will be a great improvement (as long as they keep the prices reasonable). The coffeeshop in the harbour still does great latte!

Enjoy!

Thanks hrh. Rang and they said no probs!

DS & I renewed our annual passes today following a 13m break. Highlights: fairy tale brook has been done up.
The new Duplo splash area looks amazing, there were kids in there in swimmers & it was raining. Only the Brits!
Fast food burger joint behind pirate show was alright
We like the building area by the cinema. Nice new things to build.

Just found this thread, hope someone can help me! Is there a cheaper time/way to stay in the hotel? It always seems to be £499 a night whenever I look, do I just need to accept that is how much it is or am I missing a clever book early/voucher code/annual pass trick?
I could book a weekend at centre parcs for not much more... Tia

Are there any Chima theme things on the park this year? or Ninjago? Be good to have a heads up if there are as the website doesn't highlight any and those are DSs current passions.

Planning a visit with 8 yr old DS ( and my 38 yr old lego mad brother) just after half term ( handy inset day) . I'm guessing we will head down to the roller coaster at the castle first, or maybe driving school...

willucy - just to let you know that we went yesterday and they wouldn't let me use my Nectar points to pay in conjunction with a Kelloggs voucher.

I didn't push it as the voucher did say 'not in conjunction with any other offer' blah blah, and Nectar counts as another offer due to doubling of points value.

That's what they told me anyway.

Unis- I don't think there's much chima or ninjago to be honest.

There is a 4D film which might cover one of these but I'm not 100% sure. There's also a room where you can build with the robot stuff. DS is only 4 & I'm not inclined to be into that stuff but an 8yr old boy might be.

We are travelling from Ireland next weekend and due to arrive in Windsor Monday lunchtime. We are hoping to do Windsor Castle after lunch and then head out to Legoland Hotel. We are staying 2 nights in the hotel and have all day Tues and Weds in the park itself. A few questions I could do with advice though!

1. Where is best place to park in Windsor when we arrive and what is best time to head out to legoland traffic wise.
2. Will Q-bots be needed as most schools have just gone back after half term break?
3. What is best time to leave on the Weds to head back up towards Warwick for next part of holiday? We had thought we would eat dinner in Legoland and leave later to avoid traffic but reviews for food putting me off! Would it be madness to drive into Windsor for dinner before heading up. Would traffic be crazy?

thanks for any help...all advice welcome!

Meant to say my children are 7 & 8 so will not be looking to go on the rides aimed at preschoolers if that makes any difference to queues......

Hi erogal

I would park along Home Park which is just beneath the Castle (King Edward VII car park). Its an easy walk to the castle and the cheapest car park.

For food after LL there is a brilliant Loch Fyne along the road to Ascot (just turn right outside LL and follow the signs for Ascot, its 5 mins from LL. The staff are lovely there and its very childfriendly. There is a lovely Gastro pub in Oakley green called The Green Oak (booking essential) which is nearby.
Both can be reached without getting stuck in traffic.

There are lots of pubs up in the villages towards Ascot but its out of the way if you need to get back to the motorway.
If I was you I would go up to Loch Fyne, have dinner and then head back to The motorway via the great park to avoid traffic.

Qbots, you could be fine if the weather is dodgy, if you think you need them you can just go back and get them.

Have fun!!!

I found the times for the Chima 4d movie, think that will be a must...may have to watch it twice..... ho hum.

And that's close to where you can build the robots

Robots sound good. He reallly really wantsto do driving school too. LAst time we went boy was only 4, his interests have changed but hes still not very brave about whizzy bumpy round n roundy rides.

Thank you for all the tips everyone. I'm going on Monday with 2dds (2&6). Dd2 is over 90cm but dd2 is under 110cm so I think they should both be able to go on the same rides. May need to do a parent swap on some though as it's just me. Not sure how busy it will be, I know there's a Morton Michel fun day which may add to numbers, but it's term time (inset for some including my dd). Can't justify qbots so hoping we don't end up in hideous queues. I'm going to spend the evening planning a rough plan of attack.

Place marking - we got passes this year and are going in July. Just booked our QBots!

Staying locally so that we can do two days this time - we were there on the busiest day of the year last year and did nearly everything, but wanted to be a bit less manic this time!

We are also planning to go on Inset day tomorrow. Really hope that means the queues will be SLIGHTLY shorter...

See you there nonemore. I'm just packing up now so I can sneak everything in the car tonight. Dds don't know we're going, can't wait to see their faces when we pull into the car park. Packing list so far: several changes of clothes, cossies & towels, waterproofs, picnic, suncream & buggy (dd2 (2.10) hasn't been in it for months but I figure it'll be a long day and she might need a rest, and I'll need it to cart around the aforementioned list). Is there anything I've forgotten. Very excited to see rain is no longer forecast for tomorrow.

We're going today too! Inset day... I thought it was just our area (South Oxon)! Hopefully it won't be too manic there today. It's our first time, just me and DS1 (6) who has wanted to go for ages. He doesn't know where we're off to... Hoping for a gentle ride on the motorway as I have The Fear.

I have a change of clothes for him, trunks, two camping towels, kagouls, food, suncream, and the MacLaren to act as trolley.

Well chaos and spoon I hope you enjoyed today more than I did! that was about as close to hell on earth as I think it is possible to get. I shan't be darkening the doors of Legoland again. 8 hours in that place and 7 rides! 7!!!!!! And over an hour just to get out of the car park. Hideous.

Oh. My. God. What an induction to Legoland!

First trip so (despite this v useful thread) we were milling about like lost sheep a bit. And I think every single primary school in the SE had an inset day. I spoke to some of the people who worked there (poor sods) and they all said it was abnormally busy for a term-time weekday, more like summer holidays, and the park opened for an extra hour to accommodate us, too.

I MASSIVELY regret not getting Q bots. I can't say I wasn't warned, either! We did Atlantis and Dino Safari first off (45 mins and 30 mins) and I wasn't sure if it was then worth paying £30 for Q bots x 2 because I couldn't tell if queues would get worse than that. Oh well, I'll know better next time. So we did Atlantis (too short!!), Dino Safari (ok, but we went past all the exciting dinosaur bits too fast), lunch at the Pirate Show (which we both loved), then another 3o mins or so for the hot air balloon ferris wheel thingy in the Egyptian section (a bit pointless but DS1 wanted to go on), and then about 45 mins for Dragon's Apprentice (at least there was a Duplo workstation there which kept DS1 really happy - why can't they have lego building stations at all the queue points?), and then I finally convinced DS1 to go on the log flume thing (Pirate Falls?) which was excellent fun but another 50 mins queuing (but there was a pirate ship climing frame!) and we got moderately soaked. Then, amazingly, there were only 30 mins before the park shut at 6, so we whizzed back up the hill, via the ice cream parlour, to the Star Wars miniland, which was fantastic and deeply satisfied DS1 and geeky me. We loved the shop too. And the Big Shop further along. Those poor staff.... park shuts at 6 and they said mostly they don't clear customers out of the shops until well past 7.30!

The car park was something else. Massive amounts of pent-up aggro and beeping. Loud abuse of the parking stewards and rampant car parking anarchy - as soon as stewards' backs were turned, people were leaving their cars, removing cones and barriers and nipping through. Having said that, by the time we got onto Winkfield Rd, traffic wasn't too crazy and I got to the M4 fairly fast without having to go to Junct 5.

Sorry, massive post about something that most people on this thread know well! DS1 absolutely loved it, he hadn't a clue we were headed there until he saw a sign on one of the (stationary) roads into the park. I really liked it too, but wish I'd got a Q bot...

Oops, NoneMore, missed your post. Well, because we left a bit later than planned, and because of the bloody appalling traffic on the roads between M4 and LL, we only got ticketed and inside at 11.20. Left the rides area at 5.30 for miniland. so that's what, 6 hours? and five rides. Similar to your ratio. I didn't enjoy the crowds or queues, and the car park fiasco wasn't what you want when you're already tired. (were you in car park B?) But I must be mad, because I'm already planning what to do next time! I think try as out of season as possible. Perhaps if there's an autumn inset day... mind you, today was an inset day and it was bonkers!

Wow Meandmyspoon, that's quite a day!

We are driving down from Scotland at the start of July for trip to legoland then London. We are staying at windsor travelodge then legoland hotel. We don't want to take car into London after that. Is the best place to leave the car for a few days a long stay car park at Heathrow airport, or is there somewhere in Windsor to leave it?

In terms of travel into London after you've parked, it will be much easier to park at Heathrow. Then it's just a fast Piccadilly Line tube into London, whereas the most direct way from Windsor is a coach, the 702, which is more expensive, less frequent, takes longer, and there's a chance it will be full! (I'm sure other coaches are available rather than the 702, but I haven't used them.)

(As someone in West London living on a main road in from the West, choking on all the fumes, may I also say a truly heartfelt thank you for leaving your car behind.)

Wow, we planned to go but as DD played up on Sunday we cancelled it on short notice. She had an inset day yesterday as well.

We now hope to go on the 23. June, another Inset day. Let's hope it will be better.

Thanks pleaseaffixstamps