1 or 2 days at Legoland?

[thebeesknees]

We have 3 children, ages 7, 5 and 1, and have never been to Legoland. We are thinking of going during the week of January 31, probably on a week day. Should we splurge on the 2-day tickets or would 1 day be sufficient to see everything? I'm guessing that this time of year would be more of an "off-time", based on the operating hours, so I would hope that wait times for rides would be somewhat reduced. We'd probably want to check out the aquarium next door during the afternoon, as well, but that is included in the price of the hopper ticket. I am considering signing up for the Brickmaster club solely for the free tickets, so that would save us some $ if we could be sure of getting the vouchers in time.

 

[DTDkettleCORNfan]

We LOVE Legoland, but would probably not do more than one day there. We went off season and didn't have long waits, and were able to do everything in one day. Granted, we didn't do any of the splash playgrounds because we were not prepared (thought it would be too cold). We also didn't do the aquarium. Doing either one of those will take time away from LL, and might not allow you to do everything in one day.

If LL was our only destination, and we had somewhere to stay nearby, I know my kids would have enjoyed a second day there. But our main point of being in So. Cal. was Disneyland, so one day was enough.

Good luck deciding.....and have a great time!

P.S. I see our signatures are sort of similar! But instead of a 3rd child, DH wanted a dog. I think a baby would have been easier for me to handle than a puppy!

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

I think you are right on in doing the Brickmaster club. Not only do they send you the one ticket when you join, but in the magazine themselves we got more free ticket admissions to both the park AND the aquarium. We used the ones we needed and then gave the others away to folks standing in line. So for the $40 a year it costs you will get your money back just with the tickets themselves! It will most likely get both your 5 and 7 year olds in-possibly to both parks. Plus my son loves getting the magazines-we ended up saving all the sets you get for Christmas gifts for him and he was happy to have new Lego sets to open-and I was happy they were all paid for in advance! LOL

I would start witha 1 day ticket. You can upgrade there at the park or get a discount to do the aquarium as well. We did one day and my then 7yo loved it-we went in July but it was a still a bit too chilly for the waterpark area so 1 day we were able to hit all the big rides. The next day we decided to do the aquarium before we drove back to the LA area where we were staying.

Have a wonderful time!

 

[deejdigsdis]

We took our 3 boys (9, 6, and 3 yrs at the time) to Legoland and Disneyland for the first time in Nov. We were told that 1 day at Legoland was plenty. We went on a Sat. and the hours were 10 - 5. Crowds were very low. For some rides that have 2 "sides" they were only running one side. The day seemed to zoom by and we didn't see the whole park. My kids -- all huge Lego fans -- would have all enjoyed a second day, or at least part of a second day. We aren't really a rushing around everywhere kind of family, so maybe we would have seen everything there was to see if we were. We left the park feeling like we wish we had another day for their sakes.

Also...we did the Brickmaster club for all 3 boys. I highly recommend this as the way to go. The free tickets you get can be used for any admission. It would have cost our family of 5 about $300 to go to Legoland, but it ended up costing a total of $45. My husband and I and 1 son used the 3 free tickets from the Brickmaster club. We had a friend give us their free ticket when they ordered the Brickmaster membership for their son, so another of our sons used that one. Lastly, a friend in San Diego kept a look out for discounts and sent us a coupon for $10 off the price of one admission, bringing our last child's ticket down to $45.

I hope you have a good time! Our 2 youngest sons actually enjoyed Legoland more than Disneyland.

 

[PHXscuba]

Be sure to check out the days and hours for the week of your visit. Looks like it's mostly 10-5 and closed on Tues/Wed. You'd hate to go Monday and love it and not be able to go Tuesday!

After considering all that, I'd decide how much you want to try to see. We didn't do the aquarium when we went (we were seeing other fishy things in the San Diego area), so one day 10-5 was about perfect. When you look at some of the entertainment/movies on the park's list, be aware that much of it may not be running on a weekday in the off-season, making it fewer things to accomplish in the park.

If it were me and I was staying relatively close, I'd probably go for the day and consider upgrading to go back the next morning if I hadn't done everything the kids wanted, as a PP suggested.

PHXscuba

p.s. Check the height requirements on the website very carefully. Legoland's minimum height to ride is pretty generous, but the height to ride ALONE is pretty tall. So unless your 7-year-old can ride alone or you have other bigger people coming, you may have some major swapping going on. That would also slow down how much you can do in a day. Just be warned -- I saw one family with 3 small children have to take turns each riding with dad because none was tall enough to ride alone, even for the measly safari jeeps.

 

[Ivette1980]

[ I am considering signing up for the Brickmaster club solely for the free tickets, so that would save us some $ if we could be sure of getting the vouchers in time.[/QUOTE]

What is the Brickmaster club?

 

[Todd Lee]

When we went with our (then) 4 year old son, we wished we would have had at least 2-3 hours more. We got off to a slow start. We made the mistake of not picking up a park map when we got there. We made it to lunch time before we saw a map. We were ready to call it a day from boredom (the 4 year old was losing interest). Luckily, we saw a map as we ate lunch, and realized we had only seen about 10% of the park, and it was the area with the least amount of rides. We spent the next 5 hours hurrying around the park trying to have as much fun as we could. In the end, we didn't get to see everything we wanted to see and do.

This was back before the aquarium, 2 years ago. (or maybe the aquarium did exist, but we never knew about it) I was surprised at how much fun we had, Legoland ended up being a highlight of the trip. We also spent 3 days @ Disneyland.

 

[deejdigsdis]

[ I am considering signing up for the Brickmaster club solely for the free tickets, so that would save us some $ if we could be sure of getting the vouchers in time.

What is the Brickmaster club?[/QUOTE]

On the Lego website you can order something called Lego BrickMaster One Year Subscription. It is $39.99. You get 6 small Lego sets delivered throughout the year - one every 2 months. You also get Lego magazines/comics, some $5 off coupons for the website, and a free Legoland ticket. Considering a child's ticket to Legoland is $57...it's more than worth it. My kids are loving getting little Lego sets in the mail. I'm so glad I found out about it before we went.

 

[Mattsmommy]

I just went to the site and the don't mention the free legoland ticket

 

[thebeesknees]

I talked to someone at Lego yesterday and she says the voucher for the free ticket comes in the welcome packet we would receive 4-7 business days after ordering. Online, it said the Brickmaster club was backordered, so I called them directly and she said that was wrong, that it's available now and the ticket is good through the end of the year. However, we are homeschooling and yesterday I found an offer on the site for $25 tickets on Mondays only, so we are going to try that first (I'm waiting for a response to my e-mail to see if it applies to out-of-state homeschoolers), and if it doesn't work, then I'll order the club thing so I can get the kdis in for free. I think we are leaning toward going for one day and then paying the upgrade charge if we want to come back for another day.

 

[deejdigsdis]

I just went to the site and the don't mention the free legoland ticket

Not sure if I was clear... The offer is on the lego dot com website, not the Legoland website. If you click on "shop" -- and then enter "brickmaster" in the "search" area, it will come up. Very good deal!

I talked to someone at Lego yesterday and she says the voucher for the free ticket comes in the welcome packet we would receive 4-7 business days after ordering. Online, it said the Brickmaster club was backordered, so I called them directly and she said that was wrong, that it's available now and the ticket is good through the end of the year. However, we are homeschooling and yesterday I found an offer on the site for $25 tickets on Mondays only, so we are going to try that first (I'm waiting for a response to my e-mail to see if it applies to out-of-state homeschoolers), and if it doesn't work, then I'll order the club thing so I can get the kdis in for free. I think we are leaning toward going for one day and then paying the upgrade charge if we want to come back for another day.

I hope you can find the best deal for you! I noticed they fixed it on the website - it's not saying it's backordered now. Remember, if you go the BrickMaster route, the free tickets are good for adult admission as well. You don't have to use them for the kids' tickets.

 

[aussietravellers]

We went to Legoland last month and found one day was plenty and we went to Sealife too. It was very quiet the day we went (on a weekday) and there was not a line for any rides. We turned up at the very last minute to see the 3D show and there were plenty of seats.

 

[Ivette1980]

Are the tkts offered once a member of Brickmaster one for each family member?

 

[Eeee-va]

The website actually now says the Brickmaster club comes with "A coupon good for FREE admission to LEGOLAND® California or LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Illinois with one paid adult admission." It looks like a coupon is shown in the little picture, but if you zoom there is a different ticket in that place that says "Complimentary." So I'm not certain you get a truly free ticket just for paying for a year's membership anymore?

http://shop.lego.com/product/?p=KBM27&LangId=2057&ShipTo=US

 

[geffric]

Guess it is just my boys but one day was not enough.. in fact we spent 6 days there.. my 8 year old loved it so much.

 

[dollarmite]

Definitely 2 days. Maybe even 2 weeks. My family and I visited in Nov and quite honestly, it was out worst theme park experience ever.

The lego displays themselves are absolutely fantastic, but the incompetence displayed in regards to loading and unloading of rides was mind boggling. We would walk past a ride and see, say, 20 people lined up. At DL this probably wouldn't even constitute a 5 minute wait - at LL it was a minimum of 25 minutes. The log ride had a 45 minute wait so we didn't even bother trying that, yet there were only a handful of people waiting. Sure enough when we passed by again 30 minutes later those same people were still in line!

The main problem is that one person is used to measure kids, put them on the rides and then operate the ride. Most other parks have at least 2 people - one at the entrance of the ride to measure and another person (or 2) for loading and operating.

We travelled from Australia and LL was the one thing my kids had talked about non stop for 6 months (they live and breath Lego). They were virtually in tears due to our inability to experience many rides, and the fact that we had to rush from one thing to another simply in order to see the entire park (and I don't think we did see it all). We didn't even stop for food lest we waste even more time.

They need to hire more people to operate the rides and open longer even in supposedly off peak times. It's also incredibly over priced for what it is - it's not DL, or even Knotts Berry Farm, so there's no way they can justify their entry fees.

We left with such a bad taste in our mouths. It was a complete waste of our time and money.

 

[deejdigsdis]

The website actually now says the Brickmaster club comes with "A coupon good for FREE admission to LEGOLAND® California or LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Illinois with one paid adult admission." It looks like a coupon is shown in the little picture, but if you zoom there is a different ticket in that place that says "Complimentary." So I'm not certain you get a truly free ticket just for paying for a year's membership anymore?
http://shop.lego.com/product/?p=KBM27&LangId=2057&ShipTo=US

That little "complimentary" ticket is exactly what ours looked like. It was definitely a free ticket -- just handed it over at the booth and used 2 for adult admission and 1 for a child admission. The wording is a bit funny though...maybe the "buy one get one" just refers to the one in Illinois??? I would call before ordering to verify.

Are the tkts offered once a member of Brickmaster one for each family member?

You get one ticket with each BrickMaster membership you purchase. In our case, I have 3 boys so we ordered 3 memberships at $39.99 each. Online it says "Limit 1 per customer." I called to ask if I could order 3 and it wasn't a problem. We received the tickets with the first kits, about 4-5 days after placing the order.