Last year we enjoyed several trips to Legoland before it closed for the winter. Today it reopened for the 2015 season and Jessica was very excited this morning when I told her we would be going to Legoland for the day and was looking forward to seeing the pirates again.
Hubby bought me an annual pass for my birthday last year which covered me and Sophie (who gets in for free as she is under 3). Jessica now needs her own pass and we have bought a preschool pass for her which cost £60 and covers her and an accompanying adult for entry into the park. With an adult ticket costing £48 on the gate (although if you book in advance online you can save up to 25% on ticket price) and a child ticket costing £43.80, the preschool pass is very good value –the only catch being that it is only valid for weekdays during term-time. On the plus side though, it does now mean that I can invite Grandma or a friend to come with us to Legoland and my friend Denise came with us today.
We normally get the Hill Train down but this was temporarily closed when we arrived so we had a leisurely walk down towards Miniland and Lego City. This year, Jessica is now able to go on rides that require her to be 0.9m tall (she’s only just tall enough though!) and our first ride, Sky Rider, was one of these. It’s a ride along an aerial track giving great views across Miniland, but Jessica was not keen at all and spent the ride gripping on to me wanting to “cuddle Mummy” as she was a bit nervous about being so high in the air.
We took a wander through Miniland and saw all the Lego models of London landmarks and scenes from around the world. One of the things I love about Miniland is that every time I wander through it, I spot something new and this time it was noticing a Lego fossil dinosaur in the wall of the tube station.
Lego City had undergone a bit of a refurbishment over the winter as there is a new area called Heartlake City which is due to open in May 2015 which includes part of what was Lego City last year. The pirate stunt show area had also been spruced up but to my surprise Jessica wasn’t particularly interested in stopping to see the pirate show (one of her favourite things last year) as she was keen to head off to ride on the ‘horses’ – the Desert Chase carousel ride. We started off with a ride in the tea cup. Sophie is now big enough to want to hold on to the disc in the middle and help spin the cup and both girls enjoyed this. We then went on a second time, this time with both girls going on a horse each (last time I tried to do this by myself which was very challenging trying to hold both girls up on horses – I was very grateful for having an extra pair of hands with Denise being there this time around!).
Jessica enjoyed a ride on the Thunder Blazer, a chairoplane ride, which was another ride that she had been too small to go on last year.
We then headed back through Lego City and towards Duplo Valley, stopping en route for Jessica to have a drive in one of the L-Drivers cars. Her driving ability has not improved since the end of last summer though as she spent most of it steering straight into the kerb and needing to be constantly rescued and pointed in the right direction again!
At Duplo Valley we enjoyed our first picnic of the year before having a ride on the Duplo Train and exploring the Brickville play area. Jessica wanted to explore Splash Safari – the water feature area – but it was far too cold and as by this point she was looking rather blue, we decided to head back up the hill (this time on the Hill Train) and grab a cuppa and a muffin at the Hill Top Café before heading home. Both girls fell asleep within a few minutes of arriving at the café – they’d enjoyed their day out but I think were a bit knocked out by having only just recovered from being poorly recently.
One of the things I love though about having an annual pass is there is never any pressure to try and fit a lot in to a day because we can always come back again.
I didn’t realise how expensive a daytrip was so thank you for the tip about booking online. We would like to take Milin this summer as I think he would love it. Your photos are lovely, what a brilliant day out. I agree that a pass takes the pressure off one day. I have a zoo pass and love just popping in for a few hours without a great need to do it all! xxx
It makes quite a difference to book online – hope you enjoy it if you do go in the summer 🙂
Kiran, Kellogg’s often do some kind of discount promotion at this time of the year. And if you shop at Tesco, you can get a massive reduction via Clubcard Vouchers – we use these to buy our annual passes every year.
Ah yes, we’ve used Clubcard vouchers and discount vouchers in the past too – thanks for sharing this Tim.
We’ve never been to Legoland although it’s right up there at the top of the ‘list.’ You’ve reminded me that we need to organise a trip sooner rather than later. We actually had to cancel a trip in the past because my son got chickenpox!
Hope you manage to get to make a trip there soon.
I’m a big fan of annual passes for places like this, much better value and it’s great not being under pressure to stay for hours! Glad you had a fun day 🙂
Thanks Sara 🙂
I’ve been to Legoland a couple of times with my gang and I can see why you would invest in an annual pass if you lived close enough. There is so much there you could go several times and do something different each time. I think the girls are going to really enjoy it this year now they are that little bit older. Beautiful photos and a great day out. Thank you for sharing with me on Country Kids.
Thank you Fiona – it was lovely seeing the difference that being a few months older made on this trip and I’m looking forward to more trips this year. Lovely to link up again 🙂
That is great value, and as you say, takes the pressure off. We want to get there again this year, though it’s a bit more of a trek for us. Looks like the girls enjoyed it and lovely that they can go on more rides now x
aaahh lovely happy photos as always. Annual passes to somewhere make such a difference when you have little ones, mine never last more than a few hours x
Thank you – annual passes are great! 🙂
Really good to read this as my husband is keen to take our girls (he LOVES Lego) and I have resisted going due to the costs – especially when our girls are still quite young. Love your fab photos!
Thank you – hope you manage to get a day there soon! 🙂
I remember your trip last year at the close of the season. 🙂 Looks like you had better weather this time. The pass sounds very good value. Heart lake city, ooohh is that from the Lego friends?? I might have to try and persuade hubby for another trip, we struggled last year to get much done due to the queues. #countrykids
Thanks Stacey – much better weather! Heart lake city is from the Lego Friends – am looking forward to seeing it when it opens 🙂
My children are desperate to go to Lego Land this year. Just got to save up as we live too far away for an annual pass.
Hope you get to go – always worth looking out for vouchers to keep the costs down too.
My daughters used to love Legoland when they were small. It’s such a fabulous place to go for a fun-filled day with the kids. I hope you enjoy many more days there throughout the year x
Thanks Izzie 🙂
Wow £60 for the year is amazing value! Looks like you all had a great time. Lovely photos 🙂 our friend works for Coke and got us free tickets last year, it’s a fab place to visit but so expensive if you’re buying tickets on the door at full price!
Thank you – £60 is great value and yes, it is expensive if you’re buying tickets at the gate.
Oh wow, this place looks great, I would love to take Boo when she gets a little older.
A great point about the pass meaning that you don’t have to rush on the day as you can always go back! Great thinking and probably something we should use for some of the things near to us.
Amazing photos, Jessica and Sophie look like they had so much fun!
Passes are really good for things like this – if we take a picnic then it effectively becomes a free day out and the girls love it 🙂
This looks amazing!! Where abouts is it located! Definitely thinking a break in England is on the cards in the future! There seems to be some great things for kids to do!! Loved this x
It’s in Windsor and definitely worth a visit if you are over in England 🙂
Even if you go to certain places lots of times, its always new when you have a kid cuz they never go there the same person. So its always new everytime when you have children which is amazing =) #countrykids
Yes, that’s true – children do see things in a different way each time.
It definitely makes a difference to the affordability if you can go out of term time. It looks like such a fun place and somewhere we would love to go if we can.
It certainly does – making the most of being able to do things in term time while we still can!
we took Potato last summer and he loved it but was only just tall enough for a few rides. We’ve booked to go again in May, just before he turns 3. He’s going to have such fun. We’re staying in the hotel and have 2 days in the park. I’m so excited! I love the idea of an annual pass! We have one for our local wild life park and it’s perfect for popping to when the weather is good and we haven’t got plans.
Oh how lovely to be staying in the hotel. Hope you have an amazing time 🙂
Lovely photos hun! sounds like you had a great day out we’ve not been before but is on the lift for this year! x
Thank you, we had a great time 🙂
We love Legoland and should so get the annual passes! I great day out! The girls look cold but happy 🙂
We have two legoland trips planned this year, our first being in May, and I’m really looking forward to it. How amazing that you live close enough to have a pass to go. I would love Ethan to have a go in the cars but I’m not sure if he would understand the concept or if they would give me the time to explain to him x
Jessica’s not very good at understanding the concept yet but she enjoys it. I think there would be enough time for you to try to explain it though. Hope you have a wonderful time when you go in May 🙂
I have never been! I think we will try and go next year when Little L is 2, that should be about right for the both of them. Looks so much fun! x
It was great fun – think Little L would love it next year 🙂
Having a pass for some of these places it such a good idea. Your girls obviously love it at LEGOLAND.
#countrykids
Thank you, they have a great time there 🙂
I never realised you could get an annual pass, and I can see how much you’d save over the year
How lovely that you’re near by so that you can dip in and out of LEGOLAND, it’s the type of place that is so big I don’t think you could get bored – and like you say, there is no pressure to do everything in one day
The girls really do look like they’re having a lovely time
#CountryKids
Thanks Tracey, they had a lovely time and I love the annual pass for taking off the pressure to fit in everything into one day 🙂
Sounds like a lovely day out and having a pass does mean you don’t have to rush around everything in one go doesn’t it. We did legoland at christmas and loved it, must go back in the summer. Thanks for sharing #LetKidsBeKids
It was a fab day out – I was tempted to go at Christmas but decided the girls were probably a little too young to appreciate it – maybe we’ll go this year instead. Lovely to link up to #letkidsbekids 🙂
that looks such a fun place to visit, my boy would love to go there.
#LetKidsBeKids
It is a fun place, would definitely recommend 🙂
We have bought annual passes for the last three years using the massive discount available through the Tesco Clubcard Vouchers scheme. Kellogg’s and Amazon often do some kind of promotion early in the year too Essentially if you scout around you can usually find some kind of deal somewhere on either day or annual passes.
I don’t normally add links to comments but I wrote this post of tips for surviving Legoland last year – it may be useful to anyone who’s considering going for the first time … http://slouchingtowardsthatcham.com/2014/07/29/10-top-tips-for-surviving-legoland/
That’s brilliant, thank you so much for sharing that Tim.
What an amazing place! It does seem like a great idea to get a pass, you would definitely want to go to Legoland again and again 🙂
Thank you – am sure we will go quite often now that it is open again 🙂