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!

Fab- thanks HRH

It was sooooo busy today.

We did the new Duplo splash area which is brilliant. DS (4) was a bit nervous, he was cold & wet (obviously) and as he was in there alone he was a bit timid. There loads of water guns that kids can fire at each other. Brilliant but upsetting for smaller kids on their own.

The new fire at the end of the pirate show is great.... But.... You can actually feel the heat off it. Scary.

Oh .& the 3 minifigures you make yourself in the shop are 3 for £4.99. I think that's pretty good.

It was about 110 degrees today and the forecast storms never arrived! Much quieter than it was this time last year- didn't have to queue for anything. Fab day out!

Just planning our first ever trip tomorrow, can anyone tell me which area the Boating School is in? Is it Adventure Land?
Also the Pirate Show, where would I find that?
I have two really excited little boys on my hands just hoping I can get them into bed at a decent hour so I can get the car packed up!
Thanks all.

Hi Sparkle, Boating School is in Traffic, and the Pirate Show is at the Harbour in Lego City. Remember to pitch up early to get good seats, shows at 12,2 and 4, try to be seated 20mns before the show, a good spot is on the corner in front of the control booth. Have a fab day!!!

Is it worth bringing/buying rain poncho things, will we get that wet?
And is there an ideal time to leave, to not sit for an hour in the car park?
(Visiting early July, staying in place called Hurley)

Many, many thanks!

We are planning our first trip to Legoland for this Friday, 20th June. My DC have been wanting to go for ages and I really want it to be great but i am a bit worried after reading some dodgy reviews on trip advisor. In particular, someone commented that the rides were all quite tame and only really suitable for younger children. My 7 year old DS quite likes the tamer rides but 9 year old DD is a real thrill seeker - are there some scary rides there?

There's plenty of scarier rides, Canshop, don't worry.

/totalwimp

Ascot is on this week. Beware, the roads will be a nightmare!

Thanks Archery.
Tigress - thanks for the warning about Ascot. Not sure what to do about that other than hope for the best.

Hi please can anyone help? Alton Towers have a system where once you are in the park you can buy a ticket for a return visit much cheaper than normal. Do Legoland do the same thing? Would like to visit for 2 days but I've only got enough tesco vouchers for one day so trying to work out the cheapest way to get the second day! Thanks

Oh, this is such a handy thread. Will have a good look later.

Does anyone know about the Blue Peter badges. We are going with friends, and we have enough Tesco vouchers to get all 9 of us into the park. Their 2 kids have Blue Peter badges - will they get in with their parents using Tesco Voucher tickets? Or will they only get in if their parents are paying full price?

Actually, scrap that question. I just worked it out and we will be cheaper to use the Tesco vouchers for the Eurotunnel and pay for 2 adults to get into Legoland

OK, wuss question - DD is 4 but a total thrill seeker, I pass out on waltzers and anything spinning.

We are going to LL for the first time this week. I presume that any of the really fast/spinning rides wouldn't be suitable for her anyway? I don't especially want to faint mid-ride..

Vlad you can quite happily avoid any thrills at LL, my Dss are totally terrified of anything faster than snail speed (5 and 4) but they love Legoland. We avoid Knights kingdom and most of the pirate area, but they go on everything else.
The only spinning rides are spinning spider and the Viking Splash, but they are fairly gentle, Lazer Riders is easy fun, as is balloon school....you will have lots of fun just go for it!!!

Urgent question - we are going to LL tomorrow. As it is Ascot this week will the alternative exit route still be the best one?

For those going Mon-Fri before mid-July and have a child under 5, note you can get an annual pass that gets the pre-school child and any accompanying adult in for £50. The pass is only valid on term time week days but, if you think you may go back again, it is well worth it especially as it gives you 10% off purchases so, by the time you've bought one small thing will work our cheaper than using, eg, Kelloggs vouchers for you and an under 5.
I took 4yo DD for the first time this year last Wednesday & we had a great day. There were so few people queuing for Atlantis that we stayed on and did a second lap. Other rides we did 3 or 4 times (although some made us get off, go through the exit & back through the entrance). The queues were for balloon ride & the roller coasters in the Knights area.
Do take swim stuff & a towel for your child. Some adults went in too but most watched. I rolled up the bottom of my trousers & remained dry. At one point, DD got a bit nervous as the top of the splash tower and I thought I may have to go & rescue her but one of the life guards chatted to her & kindly brought her back down to a lower level.

Do take a pushchair. DD hasn't been in one since she turned three but found the combination of sun, excitement and all of the walking exhausting and climbed into it shortly after lunchtime. Before then, it had served a very useful purpose of porting the picnic, swim stuff etc. I was happy to leave the pushchair with all of that in by the rides & just take a little bag with my phone etc on the rides.
Next time I go, I'll have 2yo DS with me. That will completely change the day as DD is too short and/or nervous to go on any rides unaccompanied and there are few that 84cm DS will be able to go on but with the pirate show, Duploland, mini land, Atlantis, hill train & a couple of other things, we will easily fill a day.

Weetabix that is really useful stuff

Anyone who's been know how much the ponchos are? I can see one on eBay for a tenner! Having trouble tracking one down in rl, but if not too dear I don't need to bother.

I think the ponchos are £3-4

Does anyone know if the pirate play area is open yet? We have annual passes but I can't face going again until it's open. God knows why it's taken so long .....

Thank you :)

We are planning on taking DS1 who is 9 and his best friend and DS2 who is 3 this thursday...our schools have a random Teacher Training day so thought it would be a good idea to go when its not school holidays and not a weekend.

Im really hoping it won't be too busy!

Couple of questions...we have tickets via our Avios points. They are actual tickets and not BOGOF or anything. Do we still have to queue to get in?

Can you get Qbots there on the day or do you have to reserve them in advance and does anyone know how many rides DS2 (he is about 95cm) would be able to go on using the Qbot. The older 2 will be fine queuing for what they want to go on but am debating whether to get 2 for me and DS2 to use.

We are coming from East Anglia...we went through Windsor Village last time we went but is there an easier way.

Hi therein, we went on Friday (had a great time, DD decided that the queue for the rollercoaster was too long so we went on loads of other rides instead. DD really loved the balloon rides!) and the pirate play area wasn't open - quite disappointing as all the leaflets say it will open 'April 2014'.

All in all it was a great day though; the rides are so well managed, the place was very clean and I loved the Lego stations in some of the queues (made the wait for the boats quite enjoyable). DD particularly liked the Duplo Splash area - bring swimsuits and a towel.

I think you can get QBots on the day if I remember rightly.

We just survived Legoland today on an inset day. It was quite calm, the only times we really had to queue was the driving school and boating school.

What we learned: it takes 2 hours from SE London/Kent border when you start at 7.20 but when you get there it is quite empty, no problems with parking and we had time to check out the map and go to the toilet plus a small snack (breakfast was before 7am) before the park opened.

We took the normal route to LL as the alternative ones was signposted quite badly and we were past it when I digested the sign.

Legoland loves water rides, we loved the squid one, the Viking raft and DD could only be dragged from the duplo water play area when we promised ice cream. You get drenched, especially in the Viking raft and I think in the other Viking one as well, DD chickened out on this one. So we kept it for last but had each a full change of clothes plus swimwear for DD with us The weather obviously cooperated today.

Food, the burger one at Lego City is not bad, it is the same chain which does the vampire burger kitchen in Chessington.

You don't get your 10% discount of Merlin passes from the food and drink stalls, only the proper cafés and restaurants.

We didn't see the show or did anything indoors as we wanted to focus on the rides and DD is Lego Friends mad so wasn't interest too much in the movies.

We will go again. We didn't had to buy Q-bots and we only saw a handful of people at these queues. It may be very different in school holidays or weekends though and I would invest in them then.

Hi iheart
With your avios tickets just bypass the queues and go straight to the turnstiles. Once through these you car go to the qbot room and get your qbot. No need to prebook unless its school holidays.
Good Idea about qbots for you and DS2 if the older kids are happy milling about on their own. Kids over 90 cm can go on almost everything as long as they are with an adult, they have to be over 100/120 to ride alone.
Have fun!