Any recent experiences with Legoland?

[Saffron]

I'm looking at a daytrip to Legoland Windsor over the half-term. I know it's likely to be crowded, but we can't manage any other dates.

Has anyone been recently? Do you have any tips? Little Saff is 7, and DH is not overly enthusiastic about theme parks (but he did promise a trip to Legoland AGES ago!)

xx

[cactus]

We went in October half-term two years ago, it was very very crowded, more so than a summer holiday day.

The queues to exit the site at the end of the day were horrendous. But it is a great day out, so take a deep breath and go for it!

Get there super early, as soon as the gates open, then make your way over to the rides that you think your daughter will prefer, hopefully before the queues really build up. You can look online, check out the maps and make a plan.

Of course there is the priority q bot system, which I've never used, but after the last visit, where we queued for an hour plus for everything, I reckon it's probably worth it.

You'll get very wet on some of the rides, so take waterproofs, and definitely a packed lunch.

[Lula]

We crazily went during August this year but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Although definitely try to get 2-4-1 vouchers through cereal boxes.

Yes, it's busy but the site is so vast, plan what you want to go on before you go. There's a good Mumsnet thread with the best rides for different ages. Also I think it pays dividends to walk further before queuing for your first ride rather than just join the queue for ones near the entrance.

Also, we brought our own lunch, snacks and water then bought ice creams for the kids. The pirate live show is great as is the Star Wars exhibition. My kids loved the driving school (although they try to upsell a driving licence to you after with a photo for about ?15! and Atlantis (submarine in an aquarium). Stay until the last possible moment too as we got on three rides right near closing time as there was hardly any people left.

It's hard to avoid the Lego store at the exit when you leave so if you do go in (it's honestly so busy in there like it's half-price sale or something when everything is just full price) be prepared to get your wallet out.

[remainpower]

For the love of God, book your tickets online and dont make the same mistake we made. The ticket queue was insane

[PeckhamNicola]

Hell on Earth. Never ever again. Why for Pete's sake can't they just turn the 30 second loop music off? And absolutely criminal to make you fork out a fortune to go in only to queue for everything for hours. They can't even run the fast food restaurants efficiently. They send carriages which could take 4 people round with only 2 people in. Aaaaaargh.

[Saffron]

Long story short... change of work plans for me and Mr Saff meant we weren't able to squeeze in a trip over the half-term.

However... blessing in disguise? Instead I've managed to book ahead for a short xmas break. I got a discount for a hotel room we'd never have booked otherwise bc they want crazy money usually.

The drawback is that some rides won't be open, but I hope the novelty of being there over the xmas hols will make up for this.

I'm wondering if there will still be massive queues for the rides that are open? Will we need the queue app?

[scareyt]

Are you doing 2 days? If so I?d say don?t bother with the queue jump thing. On the first day you can just wonder round, see stuff like mini land and do the lamer rides and suss out what you want to do on day two and where the big queues are. In day two, get there before it opens and as soon as they open the gates run across the park to Atlantis and the driving school and you can get straight on. Sounds stressful but it?s fun spread over two days like that. First day taking it easy and the second day feeling like pros. I expected to hate it but had a really good time.