ManicMammy's Blog

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Weekend at Legoland

Posted on | May 13, 2008 | 1 Comment

Where to start? We’re just back from the weekend away with Saturday and Sunday spent in Legoland Windsor.

Despite the really hot weather, the queues, the amount of people there, we all had a brilliant time and really enjoyed it. After two days there our legs were sore from walking, we still hadn’t managed to visit everything and so will probably return in a couple of years when the 1 and 2 year olds are big enough to enjoy the older kids’ rides.

We had bought Tesco Clubcard vouchers prior to going which meant the Adult day entrance fee was approximately €11 which compared brilliantly with the standard cost of £35. Annual passes were being offered for £10 when you presented one day’s entrance ticket so Oscar was chuffed to get his photo-id annual pass. This also gave a 10% discount in any of the Legoland shops and restaurants. Under 3s were free.

The site itself is huge and quite hilly so baby had her buggy on the first day. On the second we opted to hire one of the resort’s double buggies for £10 and the kids chopped and changed who used it, giving each in turn a break.

What I really liked about Legoland was that there was something for everyone. It is very well set up for families such as ours with many kids and a good range in ages. We all enjoyed the more sedate train rides through the site, traditional carousel, mini ferris wheel and balloon ride. As the weather was so hot the splash area in Duplo land was a particular hit. The children removed footwear and tops as fast as possible and ran around getting splashed and jumping in the water. They loved it.

I liked the way also that there were younger and older kids versions of the same attraction adjacent to each other in many of the areas. This meant that Conor could head with the older boys to the driving school whilst I accompanied the smaller pair to the mini driving school which was great fun and they enjoyed immensely.

The big hit that they all, apart from baby enjoyed on the first day was the fire engine. It was really simple but looked good fun.

On the first day, we were very disorganised and meandered around a fair bit. The hot weather taking us by surprise, the resort was very crowded and queues were quite long for most of the popular rides. As result all were weary quite early so we headed back to the hotel and the welcoming swimming pool to revive all.

The second day, Sunday was much better. Kids were all kitted out in Tshirts and shorts, we had a plan of action of where to head to first and what were the most wanted rides by our gang. Legoland seemed less crowded and the queues were very manageable. Vikings’ Splash started the day off well for Conor and the boys without too much hanging around.

Conor and kids only waited around 10 minutes for the Pirate falls water ride towards the end of the day. Things seem to quieten down dramatically after midday which was great. Myself, Sibéal and Fionn were happy to spin around under the spiderweb.

Mid-afternoon we headed to watch one of the shows at the lakeside: “Johnny Thunder in Revenge of the Aztec Queen”. The kids oohhed and ahhhed at the dives, acrobatics and theatre of it all. That evening Conor and 3 older kids headed to the Imagination theatre to see one of their 3D mini features. By this stage the 2 younger had fallen asleep in the buggy.

We didn’t get to spend much time around the Imagination centre which looked very interesting with plenty of things to build and test and that would definitely be one area I’d like to head back to.

The restaurants we visited in Legoland were a bit disappointing food wise. Sandwiches and milk purchased in the Pit Stop cafe were abandoned by the children on the first day. On the sunday we headed to the City Walk restaurant which was slightly better. Pizza and bolognese were ok and they ate some of them. There are plenty of other eateries there and perhaps we would have fared better if we’d eaten in the baguette bar or the fish and chip place.

Thankfully there were lots of icecream and drink vendors scattered around the site so everyone kept cool and hydrated. The resort is very well run, lots of helpful and friendly staff about. Baby changing facilities and stickers to put on the childrens backs with your mobile number on them in case you lose one of them.

We left Legoland on Sunday laden down with Lego kits and gear from the shops near the entrance. We all had a very enjoyable couple of days there and yet left much still to see. However, next time I think we’ll try to visit there during the week rather than the weekend.

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Comments

One Response to “Weekend at Legoland”

  1. Pat
    June 9th, 2009 @ 9:48 am

    Sounds like a lovely day!

    I stumbled accross a 20% discount which your readers may be interested in here (Merlin Annual Pass) which gives you access to all the parks plus LegoLand Windsor. Can’t wait to go :)

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