LEGOLAND California Park

Besides the wonderful world of Disney, I also wanted to plan a day trip for Mason and I to go on and after doing a bit of research I decided that LEGOLAND was the best option.  For those that aren't familiar with it, it is not in Anaheim but an hour a bit out in Carlsbad, CA.  

Before I bought the tickets, I first had to figure out how I was going to get there.  Two options:

  1. Rental Car
  2. Bus

Since I didn't really need a car aside from that one day, I opted to bus since it wasn't a long drive.  First stop, Greyline.  I opted to buy just transportation because I had a promo code for LEGOLAND admission. Unfortunately the deal I received (Kids admitted free) was a limited time offer but you can Google 'Legoland California promo code' or try http://www.retailmenot.com/ and other deal sites for codes.

  • Bus price $48.85
  • LL Admission $107.06 + Parkhopper ticket for SeaLife

There is a range of hotels to be picked up from so we just walked down the street to the Holiday Inn.  We had to be there for 8:25am so we left early.  The bus driver came in and loaded us onto the giant bus and we were the only ones on it!  We then drove to the depot where we waited for our main bus.  I guess by 9am it showed up and only 3 other families joined us.  Our Bus Driver introduced himself as a Mexican with an Italian name 'Guido' and had quite the sense of humour.  Mason and I opted to sit in the front to have a great view.   Mason was entertained with his Tablet and I chatted with the driver.

Once we arrived, we were told to be back for 5:30pm.  That's a long day! 

I took a zillion pictures, if you are a friend or family, you can see the album on Facebook. If not, you can uh Google images Legoland and check out the other tourist pictures lol.

As we entered the park, we walked past a Noodle house (Wok n Bowl Ramen) which was designated as my lunch.  Mason loved the water park and the water shooter guns and I had to pull him away to keep walking.  The large scale sculptures were amazing and made of over 200k pieces.  

Some of the highlights:

  • They had ample garbage & recycling bins
  • Complimentary tampons in the washrooms
  • LOTS of rides for Mason's age, some were parent accompanied others the kids could go on alone

There wasn't a lot of downsides but for the price of admission, I was surprised on the upkeep of the attractions, chipped/faded paint and the landscaping was atrocious.  You'd think they'd have a crew refreshing the park.  Maybe they are doing that later but I wasn't impressed.

When it came time to have lunch, I bought my main + chips & a drink for Mason.  Then we had to walk 8 mins in another direction to get his lunch (all the food kiosks are spread all over the resort, they aren't in the same place).  Cost - $16.36 and then off to Pizza Mania to get Mason a meal.  Well an individual pizza is just as expensive as the meal so he ended up getting more chips and apple juice (organic no less) at a cost of $9.96 CDN.  Oops.  

After we ate, we explored the rest of the park and went on the rides a few more times.  One note, I'm not sure if it's just the time of year but there were very little lineups for any ride during the first couple of hours.  The weather wasn't extremely warm so maybe that was a deterrent?  Oh, and there is NO wifi.  A lot of parents were complaining.  I would have PAID to have wifi since there were so many areas where kids could run around (playgrounds) etc and parents were just sitting and staring.  

By 2pm we were done and we still had SeaLife to go through.  So we exited out the front (not realizing that the two are joined) and headed over.  The building looks a lot smaller than it is.  It was set up the usual aquarium way and we wandered down pathways of fish & sea life.  We walked past a theatre which I forced Mason to sit through 3 showings because my feet were killing me (I'm sure his was too, I didn't bring the stroller!) and we had a TON of time to kill.  Next was a puppet show which Mason thoroughly enjoyed.  

Once we went through SeaLife twice..I was SO ready to go home.  It was only 2:30! wahh.  We were in the middle of nowhere so I wasn't able to leave.  We didn't get exit hand stamps but I pleaded with the cashier at LegoLand to let us back in which he obliged.  Now we had a ton of time to wander again and again and eventually it was time to head back to the bus.

I had quite the conversation with Guido on the way home, talking bout every topic possible.  He was quite the guy.   Mason was lucky enough to have battery power on his Tablet for about 90% of the way home.  We hit rush hour and it finally died but he was super patient.  We didn't get back to the townhouse until just after 7.  

I wavered back and forth to contemplate whether the trip to Legoland was worth it. I would probably do it again but drive so I and more flexibility on when to leave.  I'd say that any kid over the age of 7 may be bored so younger than that and over 36" would be perfect.  

 

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