Has anyone been to Legoland CA in the last couple of years? How many days are recommended? I am considering doing 2 days Legoland and 2 days Disneyland for my elementary age kids. Originally, I planned 3 days DL. I think they will like to spend a lot of time in the free play areas at Legoland building and running around playgrounds. Plus there is the water park. We would have to shuffle our trip around a bit to do the water park due to open days. We have never been to Legoland, but we did do WDW a couple of years ago. I found that they really loved character meets /interactive games, Wilderness explorers more than rides and shows. They are a tad older now, but the interests are the same. We also have a Six Flags locally, so this may be why they don’t care as much about rides. Any thoughts/ recommendations? Kids are under 10.
Any thoughts on the value of the Legoland hotels versus a beach hotel?
I have not been to Legoland in a dozen years. My cousin and I with two 9 year olds - who apparently could easily pass for 7 yo - drove down from Longbeach for the day but wow as soon as my cousin and I saw the hotel we were wishing we’d been smart enough to book. It looked so fun, and it’s right there!
The 9 yos thoroughly enjoyed everything. We kinda let them decide if they were interested or not. I’m sure many of their favs are no longer there.
One thing we all did which was and still is my favorite ride ever is this:
I like spinning but NO drops while my cousin loves drops but NO spinning. We watched this silly ride for 20 or 30 minutes before deciding, sure why not. We could handle it. The ride has 5 levels of intensity so we decided to go for most intense. Unfortunately the 9 yos were too short for intense so we all had to make do with level 3. Still a huge lot of fun but 5 would have been awesome. Nothing horrible about it at all except perhaps too short.
How fun! It looks like they did close that ride. But, I bet it was neat. Thanks for the feedback about the hotel. I do think we would miss it if we don’t stay there.
It has been two years since our last trip, and there have been a few changes since then.
That said, I recommend about 1.5 days. You can do most of it in one day, but you might want to have a half day to catch up.
Also keep in mind that weekdays are MUCH less busy than weekends, at least during the times of year I have gone in the past (which IIRC has always been in October). Early Entry or the first hour or so of park opening is a great time to get low waits.
We did the water park once but my kids weren’t brave enough to try much back then. Keep in mind that they only open one of the two water parks on less busy days (that’s the tradeoff to weekday vs weekend).
My kids LOVE the hotel and they often say they would rather go to Legoland instead of Disney, and it’s almost solely because of the hotel (and the Lego sets / scavenger hunt they get each day).
This is the same ride system as Forbidden Journey at IoA. I am a hard no on anything with this ride system! Maybe it isn’t as bad without the screens but it makes me so, so sick.
I think what gets me on the Kuka arms is that the motion is very unnatural. It has a distinctly artificial cadence to it. Hard to put into words. My body doesn’t take kindly to it. I tried closing my eyes, anchoring on a fixed point, breathing exercises, Dramamine, etc. etc. and nothing has helped. There is usually a point where I wish I was dead so they suffering would stop. (Only slightly joking.)
I was disappointed in this. They are not opening the 2nd waterpark until mid June which is after our dates. My oldest loves wave pools. But, we’ll survive. Trying to convince DH/ to stay over at the hotel one night instead of driving back and forth to our Disney area hotel both days. One day driving was fine, but two , meh. I think I’m close! I’ve read that they only do the scavenger hunt once per stay now. But, I know my kids would love that part. Did you stay at the Castle Hotel or Legoland Hotel?
I’d stay near Legoland at least one night. Avoid some of the SoCal traffic! I live 40 minutes south of Lego, it can take me 2.5 hrs to get to DL in miserable traffic. So can be 1.5 hrs DL -Lego each way. Safe travels.
We did our first Legoland trip this spring and my little kids (ages 5 & just about to turn 8) could have easily had another day there. My older two (ages 12 & 13) were happy to see it once, but one day was enough for them since they were happy to skip the kiddie-geared things, but they did still enjoy a bunch of it. The water park was initially something we were interested in too but as we went in April, it wasn’t open, but again, we had plenty to do for the one day.
I absolutely recommend staying near Legoland for the one night between the 2 days! We didn’t stay at the onsite hotel, but it looks amazing. We did stay nearby in Carlsbad and had a less than 10 minute drive to get to the park.
Also, there is an all you can eat pasta & pizza buffet in Legoland. They make their own bolognaise and all pasta from scratch and it is delicious. And that’s what DH, the older kids & I would absolutely go back excited for.
Thank you so much for the tips! We found a cheap flight, but needed to extend the trip to get it. So, we have two Legoland days and got two nights at the hotel! I am glad not to be driving back and forth. Plus I prefer to drive to a far place in the morning versus drive to a far hotel after a long day. Looking forward to it. We will try the restaurant for sure!
as soon as my cousin and I saw the hotel we were wishing we’d been smart enough to book. It looked so fun, and it’s right there!
Maybe it isn’t as bad without the screens but it makes me so, so sick.
(Only slightly joking.)
Maybe Forbidden Journey is at level 5.
