Legoland Photo Trip Review - July 29, 2006

[RobotMirror]

We went to Legoland a couple of weeks ago, and it was our (me, my wife, and kid)'s first time:

You'll have to excuse the smudgy look of some of these pictures... this is what happen when you have a 16 month old with a propensity for extremely grubby fingers (and fresh off a corndog):





















I expected, going in, that my son would enjoy Legoland, since I heard it was for younger kids. However, all rides - every one - but three were "36 inches and under" only, so he didn't get to go on much (except the fairy tale and harbor cruises), and the adults tried a lot of things, and were disappointed, compared to Disney level parks.

We arrived at 4pm, ate at the BBQ Buffet, and saw and rode everything in the park by closing time at 8pm.

I did think that the miniature land section, which I expected to hate, was very impressive. Lots of movement, although things were broken, and very detailed. I liked this a lot. I liked Legoland's version of a Jeep Safari, and their version of Storybook Land boats, better than Disneyland, but I had two major gripes:

(1) Who is this park appealing to? They exclude younger kids with the height requirement, and other rides are just not appealing to adults. You'd have to be in a very narrow age and size range to really have fun here.

(2). $57 bucks? Are they serious? That's almost Disney's price of $59 for one park, and as I mentioned, we were able to see and ride everything (while one of us was holding a baby the entire time), in just four hours. That, plus the $13 for parking, is just too much for the price, in my opinion.

I might be back when my kid is 8 or so, but I was underwhelmed. The park was really well groomed and themed in some areas, however, and I like the wide tree lined walking spaces. Didn't seem too crowded for a Saturday, either.

[RobotMirror]

Yikes - I just noticed that I put this in the wrong area of the site... moderators, can you please move this to "Non-Disney Parks", please?

[Crazy Legs]

Thanks for sharing great corn dog photos

[nish221]

Yup, we've been going to Legoland (after going to DL) lately since my son (
and I and my dad) are all "lego maniacs". But even we (a captive audience for
Legoland if you ever really had one) completely agree with Frogberto.
* They've always priced at "almost" DL, but there really
hasn't been been anything (rides & shows) that was really comparable to
DL IMHO.
* They really need to identify their real target audiences beyond "Lego Maniacs"
* They need to merchandise appropriately as well. They don't sell a Legoland
T-shirt in adult sizes! :-( They don't really have land appropriate merchandises
either.
* Miniland is really neat. So is the places where you get to build their kits and
cars (which you then get to race). But I would recommend at least 4. My son's
always been into duplo/legos and he's been pretty good with them since he
was a toddler, but even then he can't really build the really complicated
kits (Lego recommends at least age 7). Of course, his dad doesn't mind at all. :-)