Legoland top tips

[scrappydappydoo]

Yes I know we're mad but we're going to legoland on tuesday and I know legoland threads have been done to death but I've never been before. What are you top tips??
We're taking two dd's aged 3 (tall for age) and 1. TIA

Get there at opening time and walk right through to the far end of the park, then do everything on your way back

Be prepared to queue for up to an hour for a 3 minute ride!

1. Take packed lunch.
2. Things like driving school go on age not height.
3. Not alot for a 1yr old to do.
4. Leave duploland till last, and take dry clothes to change into. Its the best bit!
5. Dont miss the vibrating mole mine near the start/exit; it cute!

6.Dont show the 3yr old the bungee trampolines; they are £5 a go.

1. Johnny Thunder show on the pond is great for watching while you picnic, if you get there a bit early to sit at front. Cant stand and eat
2. The train from the entrance is very cute, but it only takes 3 or 4 minutes to walk down, so if there's a long queue, dont bother waiting!

9.Fairy tale brook is lovely for a 3yr old, as are the whirly helicopters and the puppet show (all near duploland)

Go in early they let you in way before 10am...head to the end of the park and work backwards.

Take massive packed lunch to much on all day and lots of drinks, and rain macks for everyone. Also definately watch the Johnny Thunder Show whilst having a rest, buggy for napping for you one yr old.

The boat ride we found was the only ride to que for but as your waiting there are tables of lego/duplo so the kids dont get bored.

Driving school - they give you a ticket to take to the desk where there is a photo and the chance to buy the driving Licence - £5.

You will have a ball, we had a great time and thought it was better than Disney Paris!

Get boating school out of the way first.
Check heights on the way in (to the left of the main entrance before the ticket booths) as they are strict. Then check the map for height restrictions. You don't want to queue and not get on.
Take plastic capes for water-rides (our pound shop stocks them)
Take a towel and dry knickers or cozzie for duplo gardens fountains.

Take a towel, packed lunch, money for locker, prepare for queueing, start at bottom end of park and work back up (like others have said)

Yes, take food. The food there is crap.

Take the train straight to the bottom of the hill and work around towards Duplo land. models are great for a calming bit. You may struggle to do things like fire engine and diggers as you need some manual strength and to hold onto the kids. It is a fair bit of walking so you may want to take/hire a buggy.

we went he week before last with a 4 year old and a 1 year old. 1 year old didnt go on much but still had a nice time ... 4 year old went on most things though didnt really enjoy/see the point of the new laser raiders ride. Definitely go to the back of the park and work your way forwards - there is so much to do that even if the main rides are busy it won't matter at this age. You can always distract them with a different ride. Have a great day!

how did you get on scrappy?

we went today too, I have never seen it so busy!

by lunchtime the main rides had queues at 90 minutes, which is way too long.

Eldest DS spotting Mark Ramprakash was my highlight.... swoon!

Oooh - joining in here too. Another Legoland virgin, about to take four boys aged 5 - 9 on Thursday. Can't go in school term time, this is our one and only chance to go with our Australian cousins.

sooooo - if we aim to do three big rides during the day and then to explore other areas inbetween (leaving the dads to queue, of course!) which three should we choose pleeeaasse? Any recommendations/tips to add to those above much appreciated.

Do not, I repete DO NOT waste your time queueing for that new Lazer Raiders ride you see advertised on TV!!!! The queue goes inside the building and as well as it being stuffy and smelly you can't see how far you have to go until you get to the ride, everytime you think you have got to the last corner you discover you really haven't, then when you finally get there (2 hours later in our case) you have to wait another 25 minutes while everybody with Qbots waltzes infront of you (we had paid enough without paying another £10 per person for a Qbot, although with hindsight we would have gone on a damn sight more rides if we'd got one!!!). Oh and then just to make your wait a little bit longer (we were all desperate for the loo by this point) you are shown into a room (without toilets) to watch a video message then directed out through another door and into another queue (we were at the front of the queue when we went into the video room thingymibob but then ended up at the back again when the door was opened as everyone was asked to move up to let more people in). I wouldn't have minded as much if DS had enjoyed the ride but he got off and said "I don't want to go on that again Mummy, it's boring" He's only 4 so if he finds it boring older children have no hope!!!!! That's 2 hours 45 minutes of my life I'm never going to get back again.

Oh and be warned Notquitegrownup if you are planning to leave the Dads in the queue and join them near the front you will be lynched by all the angry parents who have spent hours queueing with their bored children!!!!!!!!!!

the slides down all them steps are fab

Chubbymummy - this is why MN is sooo useful, thank you! I feel your pain! (Though ds2 has his heart set on the laser ride, having seen it on TV. Agh!)

(And thanks for the tip - we won't send the Dads to queue for us!)

dc's favourites are Pirate Falls, Dragon Coaster(I think it's called) and the Viking Splash (not tried the laser one yet). Cars and fire engines pretty much obligatory but long queues.

Quick money saving question - are we OK with 3 Q-bots (one adult and 2 children). We don't have to have one adult per child per ride, do we?

Definitely get there as soon as it opens and head for the drinving school and boating school rides, and viking ride (wet). We went last weekend and had a lovely time, but the queues got very long in the afternoon. The Q Bot system is flawed and has resulted in a lot of bad feeling in the queues, as most of the queues are much longer than their stated times (eg boat school queue was 1 hour instead of the 30 mins stated on the sign). This is because on some rides like the boat school 50% of all the boats are filled with Q bot people, which slows down the queue for everyone else. This results in a 2 tier system, completely different to Disney where everyone has the chance to get a fast pass.

Have picnic lunch while watching Stunt Show (no preference is given to Q bots here!), and the 4D cinema is great.

Agree Pirate Falls, Dragon Coaster in the castle, Viking splash.

In hindsight maybe I should have got Qbot, but I feel it's all so expensive anyway.

Take packed lunch (and tea) and eat down at the lighthouse show, always fun.

Get there before 10am definitely, run down and start at bottom.

Kids like the mini world, all the countries in minature.

Also on the big signs at the top that say queue times, I wouldn't believe them either, it said the roller coaster was closed, but we could see people on it, so ran over, and still had to queue 40 mins!

Take Top Trumps or something to play with in the queue so they kids don't notice the wait too much. Sweets useful at this point too. Go for a wee before joining the queue, so many poor parents were struggling to get out of the queue and go back to take a small child to the loo.

If queues busy the shows are good, and lots of places to go inside and build lego.

Take cagoul or waterproof cape (they do have them for sale there on the stalls).

Thank you, thank you, thank you. We had a wonderful day, largely thanks to these tips.

Knowing which 3 rides to head for made it so much easier finding our way around in the morning and getting our bearings. We didn't try to do too many rides, but used time to explore some of the other bits, like miniworld too.

(We were a party of 4 children and 4 adults so hit on the idea of paying for 4 Q-bots (you do need one adult per child) and swapping - one group of 4 queuing for one ride, whilst the others used the Q-bot for 2 quick rides, then swapping over.)

We got there pretty early, enjoyed the lighthouse show lots and the 4D cinema was great too.

Everyone off to bed very happily tonight.

Good to hear you had a great day. My top tip would be to do as I did today - get someone else to take your child

lol Weblette. My other tip would not be to expect to enjoy yourself at all! Having chosen to go, we nearly cancelled having read the MN comments. However, we decided to try to survive the experience. Anything else was a bonus. As a result it wasn't too bad at all!

This is great! Was thinking of getting a Q Bot but as you need one per adult it would work out expensive.

We are going for the first time in a couple of weeks so are stopping off at Asda before to stock up of sandwiches and snacks for us.

Eat at least one chocolate waffle. Oh My God. The best thing I have ever eaten. A hot waffle rolled on a stick and dipped in hot mealted chocolate. Take LOTS of money! Four cokes... £10. Four magnums.... £10. You get the picture.

We went to Legoland last Sunday with 2 4 year olds and 3 adults. No problems and everyone had a nice day-so long as you realise it will be busy and it will be expensive!
If you are only there for 1 day , I would recommend Quebots. You only need one for how many people will actually ride as far as i can see, and they do cut down queue times enormously (whether they are fair is another matter of course but ...)DS loved the laser ride and said it was his favourite. Even with quebots we waited 15 mins and the queue was awful! We went on about 10 of the big rides with it though so I would say it was worth it.
The kids also loved the shows, especially Johnny Thunder-the actors chatted to the kids before and after and the one who spoke to us was lovely!
Food was fine, if expensive. Annabel Karmel meals for the kids at the Crossed Ribs restaurant included pasta, chicken salad (although spicy with dressing), lasagne, hamburger etc. I gave DS my plain chicken breast from my burger and put his chickeny salad concoction in mine!
Single scoop of ice cream in cone cost 2.30-5 cones and 2 bottles of water cost over 17 pounds!
We probably spent 250 pounds for 5 people with Q-bots, 2 meals and ice creams and photos etc. Lots of extras like panning for gold and bungee jumping which we avoided as they would really add up.
Mumsnet deal worked fine. We got there at 9 to park, queue to collect tickets, then for entrance, then for quebots! I packed children breakfast and they sat on a bench and ate it while I queued.
We all enjoyed it in a slightly frenzied way-still not sure if it was worth the money but was glad we went. It would, however have been awful on my own with 2 small children when the park is busy. The first bit before my brother and his girlfriend arrived was much more fraught. Hope my wafflings may help somebody.

DS and I are going to legoland next Sunday (he is 5). Is it worth getting a qbot? We got the tickets through clubcard deals so haven't "spent" anything yet.