THE LEGOLAND 2015 tips hints and reviews thread, all your questions answered here!

[HRHQueenMe]

Link to the 2014 Legoland thread

Please ask away, and feel free to add your own hints and tips and reviews! Legoland is daunting, esp for parents going on their own so any tips and hints are much appreciated.

None of the regular posters on this thread are employees or associated with Legoland, we are mostly local parents with Annual passes and know the place very well as its our local playground.

Happy Legolanding!

Ds will be 3 in July and were thinking of taking him and baby dd for his birthday. Is any weekday better than others? His bday is the 19th so will prob be the week before to avoid school holidays.

Check calendar on the LL website as some mondays and tuesdays are closed, If possible I would go earlier in may/June as July gets busy with school trips. If you go on a weekday morning in May you will have the place to yourself. Tuesday mornings tend to be quiet. Have fun!

At what age would you start to take your DS? Mine is coming up to two, so I an debating whether to go in the summer or wait until next year.

If you have a 3 year old the preschool annual pass is a great buy. £50 for unlimited weekday, term time visits for one child plus one carer. We just collect crisp packets with half price entry vouches so DH can come as well.

Lurking. Dad is desperate to go and I know nothing about it. Will read that link too

Thank you, his dream might yet become reality

I'd say it's probably best for age 3 and up, but much depends on the size of your child. A lot of the rides have a 90cm height restriction, and a couple have a 1m restriction, so if your child is smaller than 90cm there isn't much for them to do.

You also need at least 1 adult per child. Almost all rides have seats for 2, with a requirement that each child is supervised, making for a frustrating day if you have 2 preschoolers and no partner with you.

Steer clear from the fire engine race unless you are in rude good health.

THE BASICS OF A SUCCESSFUL LEGOLAND VISIT.

1. Do not pay full price at the door!! There are coupons and offers galore, and tesco vouchers are still your best bet! Annual passes are a snip with tesco vouchers as well. Look out for midweek preeschool offers too!

2. LEGOLAND is all outdoors, there is very little shelter from the cold. Bring plenty of warm clothing if you are visiting, and a change of trousers for all as the water rides get you wet. VERY WET.

3. Q bots will make your life much easier, if you can afford them GET THEM. The basic one is good enough, you dont need anything else.

4. bring FOOD, DRINK AND A PRAM. food is crap and expensive, but there are lovely lawns to picknick on, and you can picknick infront of the pirate show to maximize time. There will be lots of walking so prams are essential esp to load your picknick and wet clothes on.

5. IN SUMMER BRING SWIMMING GEAR!! the splash area is excellent, even for grownups to cool down.

6. write your mobile number on the arms of all your children, wristbands for this are available free from customer services.

7. if your toddler is under 90 cm they are limited in the number of rides they can do. If your child is borderline 90 cm get them measured at customer services, who will issue a wristband to say they are ok to ride, this will save you arguing with the attendant at every ride.

8. there are LOTS of fun to do with babies and toddlers under 90 cm, dont be put off! You can easily spend a full day having fun with baby! Everything is easily accessible with prams and I have happily BF everywhere with nothing but smiles from the staff.

9. traffic is horrible leaving at closing time. Please please follow the alternate route, it will save you about 1 hour in travel time. Upon exiting LL at the bottom of the hill TURN RIGHT TOWARDS ASCOT FOR ALL ROUTES. DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO GO LEFT TOWARDS WINDSOR IF TRAFFIC IS NOT MOVING. Turning right will take you to the M4 jct 5 in 20 mins and M25 jct 13 in 25 mins. Turning left will take you to jct 6 on the M4 in 1h+ at closing time. You have been warned!

10. have fun!!!!

agree 3 is a good age to go, but if you have an under 3,
A) its free entry for the child
B) you can have a brilliant fun day with a baby!
Im a childminder and often go with baby mindees, there are quite a few rides you can do with a baby, and shows to watch, and loads to look at. I would say over 1 is good. My own children have gone from day one and have always loved it. Bring a sling for queing and there is plenty of pram parking!

What luck finding this thread in active convos! We're taking DS who is 4 to legoland on Monday. He is sooooo excited.
Any advice for taking the train? We're travelling from Islington. Should we go early or wait until rush hour is over?
I heard they search bags for outside food, that's not really true, is it? We are planning on bringing as much as we can seeing as how it is so bloody expensive for everything else, even with the entrance discount.

I was thinking of going with my 4 year old and 1 year old (and DH) in the Easter Holidays. I fear this might be madness... Should I wait for an inset day when some of the other schools are not off, if one gets set that is.

Legoland doesn't search bags for food.

They have a picnic area but you can eat anywhere you can find a nice space - apart from the park in Duplo land, last year we we're told off for eating in their even though we had eaten picnics in there the previous year. So many people eat picnics in there, especially in the summer I'm not sure if they were actually able to enforce this rule.

Picknicks are definitly allowed, there are lots of lovely lawned areas to picknick on, and tables down by the playground near the hotel. They might not let you picknick in the playground at duploland but there is always trouble finding a free bench there so people do sit on the ground, as long as you are not blocking anything you should be fine. They dont search bags for food.

40 minutes is a good bench mark to arrive before official opening time.
Dont wait for the rush, be there well before opening time, go through the ticket stalls and wait in the ''beginning'' area, there are shops and a coffee shop, hang around until opening time when they open the gates down to the park. Use this time to toilet, coffee, and familiarize yourself with the map so you know your plan of action. Utilize the time well as if you dont you will only manage 1/4 of the park and you will be exhausted. If you are getting a qbot get this now as well. It is a waste of time and money not to arrive on time as it is a big park and you will just get dissapointed if you cant see and do everything you set out to do.

Lots of ''plan of action '' ideas on the 2014 thread, will do a new one once I have been this year so I can see changes etc.

Thanks HRH, I've also read some of the tips on the 2014 thread now and downloaded the app.
One of the posters said they got a pushchair for their 4.5 yr old. Is that even possible? We aren't planning on this as ds has been out of a pushchair for years but now I'm worried it will be too much for him. I personally hate amusement parks and rides so i really want this to be as pain free as possible!

You can rent big heavy pushchairs there. We went 4 or 5 times last year with a 3 year old. Never used a buggy. The threat of going straight home if he refused to walk was enough to keep him chirpy all day, then a ride on my shoulders for the final slog out of the park and back to the car park.

Anyone been this weekend?

We couldn't because of family commitments but will be there next weekend

Was it busy?
What changes did you notice?

I'm thinking of going back this year and staying at the hotel (we stayed off site last time).

Are the premium rooms worth going for over a standard?

Is there anywhere in the rooms to hang up wet gear?

Thanks!

Cecy, we stayed at the hotel a few years back in a standard pirate room, and it was pretty much all we could wish for, except the double bed was stupidly unconfortable, so i ended up in the kids bunk and it was lovely (i was heavily pg at the time...;)
Im sure there was a line over the bath to hang wet gear, or at least some drying rack on the wall as we used the pool.

There are some "free adult" vouchers on some Kellog's cereal packs again. Paying £2.70 to save £50 is worth it.

We are going at the end of April on a Fri/Sat and staying at the hotel. Tips to get the best out of both days would be great please. Should we do half of the park each day? Or treat day 1 as a full day and revisit favourites on day 2?

Thanks HRH I think we'll save the money and go standard then!

We went today and it was very cold and intermittently raining. Thankfully the ponchos are not too bad at £3.50.
This park is definitely geared for drivers. We left our bnb at 8:30 and caught a train at Highbury and Islington at 8:45 to then face a wall of people at moorgate on a packed tube. We transferred at Paddington and went overground to Slough and then got yet another train to Windsor and Eton central. We THEN had to get a taxi to the park arriving just after 11. That was 3 hours of travelling with a 4 yr old.
The park was fine. It is massively overpriced even with the 2 for 1 vouchers but DS absolutely loved it. We only did the left hand side of the park - miniland, duplo play park, helicopter ride, l-drivers and then ate our packed lunch under a show tent awning to stay dry. We did Atlantis (I loved this one) and then wanted to come back up so DS could play with some lego in the imagination bit, but it was closed . A quick walk through star wars and then we left. It took us less time on the way back, about 1 hour 45 min.
We were so certain that we didn't want to be in rush hour (my nerves could not have handled that again) that we only stayed at the park for 3 hrs! DS did really well but he was flagging at the end when we were walking back to our bnb that DH gave him a shoulder carry.
The verdict: stay somewhere near to the park or take your car.

Thanks to all those on this thread who gave advice about pre-planning routes, taking food and timings, it was very useful!

Wow, I think this will be an awesome thread to plan a trip.

We are a family of 2 adults and a 4 yr old, do you know if you could use the kelloggs 2 for 1 and then pay for remaining adult with tesco clubland points (probs going in separately) and also if they do offers while your there for a second day like alton towers etc? Thanks in advance

I've booked to take my 4 and 6 year olds on my own at the end of May for the first time.

However having spoken to a friend, I'm now beginning to worry. She said there were very few rides that we could go on as a 3 and my DDs wouldn't be old enough to go on alone.

Is this the case? I'm worried that we won't be able to go on a lot of rides which will cause tears and tantrums

Everyone says that food is really expensive, but I haven't managed to see exactly how expensive... what does a cup of tea cost? A kids meal? TA muchly- I'm trying to work out whether it's worth trying to find a supermarket on our way from the hotel in the morning or just biting the bullet and paying what it pays.