Tips on day at legoland with 3 and 5 yr old and v.grumpy exdh........

[arwen]

As it says in the op! what is a must see, what should we not bother to queue for? anything that has the worst queues so we should go there first etc, also places to eat reasonably. Please pass on all your experiences.

Thanks

Do the cars and boats first.

Thanks cat64, exactly the kind of thing I wanted to know, which cars and boats science teacher, it looks as if there are a few different types?

3 yr old may be too little for lots of the rides. 5 yr old will probably want to do Dragon Coaster and Pirate Falls ands there is a smaller version of the coaster for lo's. Driving school gets very busy as do Fire Engines and boats. Adventurers ride not worth the wait imho. Shows in Duploland theatre good for a breather and to get shade.

Get there before gate officially open.

Take hill train to the bottom and work your way back up, to avoid big queues early in the day.

Send grumpy exdh to the zoo instead.

ooh you are brave

the cars are the driving licence ones - those are v popular (can't remember the age limit)

I tell you, we only went there once, but BY FAR (to me) the biggest waste of time ride where these sort of balloon things that went up in the air (v near the beginning, near the small children's bit). We queued for about 40 minutes and the ride lasted about 1 minute and all it did was go up and then come back down.

If they still have the driving test thingy then the 5yo will insist on doing it and the queues were always horrendous - and the 3yo won't be allowed to do it (I don't think) so one or other DC will have to be dispatched with exdh, however grumpy!

OMG yes foxinsocks - the balloons were so boring - DS was 2 and even he was wondering what else it was going to do...

5 and unders do the mini driving course, not full one. If you look on the website you'll see the height/age restrictions for each ride.

the balloons and the stupid helicopter thing (chopper squadron?).

again, you go up, you come back down. Err that's it. And the queue was HUGE for that.

The great ones are the ones where you get wet . The log ride one (is it pirate rides?).

We went on a very busy day and have never gone back because the queues were so long (and we aren't great theme park fans anyway) but I reckon you have the right idea - if you have a plan of action, it's probably MUCH easier!

I took DS aged 6 last week. He loved it. It wasn't a particularly nice day weather wise and that was a good thing because there weren't so many people there.

He loved the model villages. He also very much enjoyed the pirate adventure playground place - you don't have to queue for these things and you can have a sit down at the adventure playground.

Agree about the puppet theatre show it was excellent.

Plenty of places to get food and drink without much queueing. Don't forget sunblock!

It depends on what your children like... the nearly 3 year old I care for loves the Helicopters, as he gets to 'fly' them himself.

A lot of rides are 1 child, 1 adult with children of this age, due to their height and the ride seating only 2 people. Helicopters seats 2 children plus adult at a push, boating school also will seat 2 children plus an adult.
Some rides do a parent swap sort of thing - such as Dragons Apprentice (smaller of the roller coasters), so one adult can take 2 children, adult doing the ride twice.

I tend to only go daytime during term time, so avoid most of the queues, so not good at knowing which rides will be busy.

Thanks all, very helpful tips. The reason I am going with exdh is we figured we will need one child 1 adult for most of the rides. Have looked at the website and dd 3 is above the minimum height restriction for most things.

Does everyone not have the same idea though and do it in reverse?

Dont bother getting the train down as you can do it quicker by walking!

dont bother with a buggy either.

Take swimsuits and towels as there is a great water place they can run through.

Be there before 10am.

Pay the extra for priority parking.

Take lunch and lots of drinks.

dont queue for dino safari!

We always head for the boats which you drive yourselves and the lovely animal train thing which is great.

Pace yourself and dont feel you need to go on everything!

queues are always massive for the boats, it takes AGES. very good though. If queue is less than half way up round the enclosed area, join it. Otherwise it's too long.

Rollercoaster (jungle coaster) at back of the park is NOT worth queueing for, I've been on once on a quiet day, and it wasn't worth the queue then - on a busy day, forget it. The dragon coaster, at the far end of the park (the Castle) has very reasonable queues, and is a good ride. OTOH, Dragon's Apprentice is pretty rubbish.

The queues for the under-6 driving are not too bad, but for 6-and-over are massive. Probably could try the 6+ (he has to lie about his age), depending on how confident 5yr old would be driving.

Log flume (towards the right) is also excellent, Pirate Falls, but again the queues are MASSIVE. If the queue area is close to full, then you will be waiting over an hour. I believe it opens half an hour after everything else.

On a hot day, the water slide, Extreme Team Challenge, is fun, queues are generally ok. You shouldn't get too wet.

Don't queue for the Dino Safari - it's pathetic.

The Wave Surfer is quite fun, queues can be long, you do need to hold onto kids quite tight.

If all queues are long generally, try Miniland (lego models), Explorers Institute (walk-through, near the centre where the show is), Magic Show (same thing, walk-through) Duplo playground, Rat Trap playground (far side of park), waterworks play area near Duplo playground, Duplo Train, plus Fairy Tale Brook, which is a charming boat ride that ALWAYS has short queues, and is very pleasant

food and drink is quite expensive, best to bring at least some.

The 3D films at the cinema place are fun; my 3 year old DS loves Racers 4D but says Spellbreaker is "too scary". Nearby are several places to build Lego models - one where you get a tray of bits and instructions to build various machines, one where you earthquake test a building, one with giant blocks to build a house big enough for small children to sit in, and one where you build lego cars and test them on a ramp with a timing beam. Grumpy exdh might enjoy that?

Another tip - when the Duplo puppet show is on the nearby rides tend to have shorter queues as everyone is watching the show, same thing for the large train in Lego City when the show there is on.