Legoland review – what a family of six actually thought of their day at Legoland.
Yesterday the Super Six went to LEGOLAND. Oh yes we did. Did you happen to look out of the window yesterday? Stick a nose out of doors?
Well, just in case it passed you by, let me tell you – it was frickin’ FREEZING. Literally; it actually had the cheek to snow on us all day.
Of course, when we left home in Dorset, it was cloudy and cool – but I gaily ignored the dour warnings of the husband and left my hat/gloves/thermal underwear at home. Fool.
I have never ever in my whole life spent a day out quite so cold.
Despite his expression here (he’s waiting for us to all go on the Jolly Rocker for the THIRD time, and is a bit bored. And possibly a little bit cold, as I’m wearing his hat…), Boy LOVED the snow.
But did we let it spoil our day? We did not. I simply stole the 11yr old’s hat (what? He said he was hot and that it itched! I was doing him a favour I tell you…), held hands with the frozen 6yr old, and skipped our way around the park.
Just in case you’ve never actually visited the Park of Plastic Bricks, here’s the quick low-down;
This is no huge adrenalin-fuelled theme park. Oh no, this is the place you go where the small people can pretty much ride every ride. That’s not to say they’re not fun – they most certainly are. But you will find yourself queuing with other parents and similarly bored-of-waiting children, instead of being glowered at by super-cool human beans who resent sharing queue space with your offspring.
Best rides? For five of us, there was no contest – the Jolly Rocker swinging pirate galleon is where it’s AT. Brilliant fun. And yes, the 6yr old (aka Captain Fearless) did put myself and the 10yr old to shame when she leaped aboard while we were hesitating to try it the first time, screaming in exhilaration the whole ride through.
That’s Pink in the middle in the red hooded coat, next to No.1 with his arms in the air. Busy SHAMING the 10yr old and I into going on next time.
Sadly, Boy (11) does NOT like rollercoasters or big swinging rides. Not at all. We’ve tried, we’ve coerced, we’ve assured him he’ll love it when he’s on, we’ve guilted him into trying them (he did actually agree to try the dragon rollercoaster. He still really doesn’t like rollercoasters)… to no avail. He’s afeared, and that’s that.
So the best ride for all six of us? The Viking’s River Splash. The great big sit-in-a-tyre-and-rock-around-a-river-rapids. Brilliant fun which we all enjoyed a lot – take care with smaller riders though, some of the jolts were so violent they actually shook the 6yr old out of her seat.
Also… NOT the best ride when the temperature is -3. Seriously. You do not want soaked through clothing when your teeth are already chattering and your hands no longer have any feeling. The walk-in family dryers help a little, but only to take the worst of the wet off.
Oh, and Legoland? When it is SO cold outside, leaving the water cannons on for passers-by to fire at you whilst you’re on the ride? That’s just plain mean.
The one downside for us was the Laser Raiders – usually the family’s favourite activity at a theme park (not that we’re competitive or anything, but getting a higher score than the 6yr old is REALLY important…), we actually queued for a full hour to go on this. Clearly everyone had the same thought – Get Inside! Sadly, the one hour wait really wasn’t justified – the ride was too short, some of the targets weren’t moving from red to green (which means you can’t shoot them), there simply weren’t enough targets when there were four in a carriage (in theory, when you hit a green target it goes out – and you score – then it comes back to red, then it comes back to green ready for another hit. This ‘reset’ process was so slow that the carriage had gone past before anyone else had a chance to hit that same target – and then there are four of you in a carriage shooting, you need a lot of targets to make it fun for everyone). No.1 son’s score didn’t show at all – we only saw it by looking at the ride photograph at the end which has the scores printed on them. Really disappointing, and no one asked to go back and do it again.
Funniest Camel Ever.
The Imagination Theatre was another good way of getting out of the weather – be warned though, if you want to see the Legends of Chima 4D show you need to queue early as it fills up fast. The showing’s are every hour on the half hour, and we were advised to get there at least 20minutes early.
We mostly stayed in the right hand side of the park, with the bigger rides – the Vikings, the Pirates, the Knights, the Egyptians… though we did venture across to drive the boats at the Boating School. We missed the Atlantis submarine this time, and also failed once again to explore Miniland properly. 
However, on the way out we did ‘pop in’ to the new Star Wars Miniland… and ended up spending aaaages exploring and loving and marvelling. We have also planned a Star Wars film festival this weekend, purely on the back of that visit. Totally brilliant (and whilst not exactly warm it was at least weather-less in there!) end to the day!
She spent quite a lot of her day looking like this…
If you’re thinking of going, then do buy your tickets online before you go – a Family of 4 ticket is currently £115 – saving you a full £50 off the on-the-gate price.
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