Having spent my holidays from Uni selling ice creams from a cart at Legoland and spending many a happy day wandering around the place with my boys, I like to think I know the theme park pretty well. My sister asked me to write down some tips for her friend who visited over the bank holiday. After visiting today and the park being busy with school trips, I thought that my tips might also be of use to my readers, if you are planning a trip over the summer.
Get there early. The rides open at 10, but if you aim to get there for 9-9.30 then you will queue to get your tickets and go through the gates into "the beginning." You can wait here and look at the views of Windsor and London (if it is a clear day) until they let you down the hill.
Plan what rides you really want to do and if possible do them in reverse.
In peak season it gets really busy so know what rides you want to do. Great ones to do first thing are Laiser Raiders and Atlantis. Both are favourites of mine but leave them until later in the day and queue times will be over an hour for each ride. Head to these first.
Laiser raiders is an Indiana Jones target shooting ride. There are 4 people in a carriage, and older children and adults will like this is more than younger children. You can take a little one on the ride once they can sit, but as it is a bit dark and scary, they may not like it that much.
Atlantis is my favourite ride at Legoland for all the family. If you get there early the queue is not too long and you can sit down in a Lego submarine and watch sharks swim past. If you turn left out of Atlantis and head towards the hotel, there is Dino safari and past this is SQUID surfer. Once again these are quieter before lunch.
At lunchtime, attractions like the Star Wars Miniland is generally quieter as it is at the top of the hill, so head here then if this is on your list of must do attractions.
Enjoy the shows and playgrounds. The one thing middle man always asks to do at Legoland is to watch the pirates of skeleton bay stunt show. Now if you have girls there is the Heartlake City show at the same venue. The lunchtime shows are usually packed with people using it as a place to eat their picnics, so get there at least 15 minutes before to get a good place to sit.
The puppet shows in Duplo theatre are good and so are the 4D movies at the imagination theatre. One thing I hear a lot whilst walking around the park is parents saying "I have forked out £££ for you to play in a playground. This is a real shame. Children (especially small ones) don't want to spend hours of the day queuing for rides. They are happy watching the shows and playing in the playgrounds.
If it is a busy day then the shows, Miniland, Lokis Labrinth, Duplo Valley playground and Pirate Training Camp (an adventure playground) are the best places to head so the kids can play without having to queue. They have just opened a new splash park too - swimwear is required, and there is a Duplo themed one for smaller children and Drench Towers for the older ones.
At lunchtime, attractions like the Star Wars Miniland is generally quieter as it is at the top of the hill, so head here then if this is on your list of must do attractions.
Enjoy the shows and playgrounds. The one thing middle man always asks to do at Legoland is to watch the pirates of skeleton bay stunt show. Now if you have girls there is the Heartlake City show at the same venue. The lunchtime shows are usually packed with people using it as a place to eat their picnics, so get there at least 15 minutes before to get a good place to sit.
The puppet shows in Duplo theatre are good and so are the 4D movies at the imagination theatre. One thing I hear a lot whilst walking around the park is parents saying "I have forked out £££ for you to play in a playground. This is a real shame. Children (especially small ones) don't want to spend hours of the day queuing for rides. They are happy watching the shows and playing in the playgrounds.
If it is a busy day then the shows, Miniland, Lokis Labrinth, Duplo Valley playground and Pirate Training Camp (an adventure playground) are the best places to head so the kids can play without having to queue. They have just opened a new splash park too - swimwear is required, and there is a Duplo themed one for smaller children and Drench Towers for the older ones.
Know which rides usually have shorter queues.This is just what I have noticed and will depend on they day but generally these rides seem to have shorter queue times. Scarab bouncers, Fairytale Brooke, the spinning spider, thunder blazer.
Know your child ratios and heights. Height restrictions on a lot of rides are 90cm and for the bigger rides 1m. It is best to know what rides your children can and can't go on before you go to save upset when you are there. A lot of rides also want a 1:1 ratio for adults and children, with children only being allowed to ride alone if they are 1.3m. As a mum of 3 little ones, I can tell you that the only rides I can do with all 3 by myself are; Atlantis, Laiser Raiders, The Orient Express and Ariel Nomad.
Know your child ratios and heights. Height restrictions on a lot of rides are 90cm and for the bigger rides 1m. It is best to know what rides your children can and can't go on before you go to save upset when you are there. A lot of rides also want a 1:1 ratio for adults and children, with children only being allowed to ride alone if they are 1.3m. As a mum of 3 little ones, I can tell you that the only rides I can do with all 3 by myself are; Atlantis, Laiser Raiders, The Orient Express and Ariel Nomad.
So these are my top tips, and I hope they are helpful. In addition I can tell you that the food in the restaurants is usually nice if a little pricey. Tesco Clubcard Rewards are a great way of getting tickets and if you can go a few times in a year the annual pass is worth getting. This also allows a discount on restaurant and shop purchases. If you have any great tips to add please let me know in the comments below.
I have also written reviews on HeartLake City, the special Star Wars days that local on the first bank holiday in May each year.
As we live locally we have also been lucky enough to visit the Legoland Hotel out of season, and this is what you can expect from an Explorers room and the Pirate room.
I have also written reviews on HeartLake City, the special Star Wars days that local on the first bank holiday in May each year.
As we live locally we have also been lucky enough to visit the Legoland Hotel out of season, and this is what you can expect from an Explorers room and the Pirate room.
We headed to atlantis first thing each time we visited too - and there was no queue at that time in the day. We also found that a rainy day is a great day to go (as you are bound to get wet on the rides anyway) so just go in wet-weather gear and enjoy the shorter queues and less busy park. we never have got round to watching the pirate show - so that will be on our to-do list next time x
ReplyDeleteI would suggest that if you take a child as a birthday treat, make sure they dont take their birthday money with them, as they will end up spending it all in the shop, and then regret it when they get home (yes, been there, done that!) xx
ReplyDeleteOh no - good advice!
DeleteI love legoland I cant wait to go again x
ReplyDeleteThis is great advice thank you! I have 2 little ones and to be honest we would hate to spend most of our time queuing. Will have to go through the map and plan ahead with family before we go :) x
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