Day trip to Legoland. Any tips for first timers?

[Bishberro]

I'm taking my two to Legoland for the first time this weekend and just had a brief look at the website. Any seasoned Legolanders got any tips to make our visit as painless as possible? What the heck is a q-bot and will I need one with a 3 and 6 year old?

[Medusa]

Q-bot: Legoland VIP queuing system. You pay extra for the privilege of a much shorter queue; Legoland gets richer.

1. Take food & drink. The stuff there is horrible and expensive and involves more queuing.

2. Be prepared for lots of standing around. 60-90 mins for the best rides at busy times.

3. Take waterproof jackets if you're going on wet rides. You really will get pretty wet.

4. Decide your policy on Legoland merchandise before you go so as to avoid a showdown with clamouring children when you're all tired.

5. Have fun!

[DaveR]

I would recommend biting the bullet and forking over the extra for Q bots. It's a way of going to the front of the queue on the most popular rides, and the difference on a busy day is massive.

[nunheadmum]

IF you think your kids will want the rides, go for Q-bots. But we did manage to get away without them on the last bank holiday weekend by not doing many rides - we got there early and did 2 rides before the queues got too bad. Kids (age 6 & 8) did comment later that 'we didn't do many rides' but they weren't that bothered. The pirate show made up for it - and a big slushy.

[BellendenBear]

We went to Legoland a couple of Saturdays ago. It was remarkably painless. Do you have vouchers to get in free / cheaper? We only had to pay for 1 x 3 year old and it still cost about ?45!

Top tips:

Get there early (we left at about 8.15 and it took just over 1 hour, queues not too long)

Take your own food, best place to picnic is 'mini land(?)' - lego models of European countries, lots of grass.

Take swimming stuff

Also good advice from Medusa to have merchandise policy before you go.

[madmum]

Gin! change of clothes, food and more Gin.

We've done this 3 times, if your going outside of school hols its pretty easy. Your 3 year old wont need to be added to qbot but 6 year old will, we have 2 boys 5&8 but in the past we have only added 2 people to qbot, as your youngest may be too small for some of the rides anyway.

Get there early, pay extra for priority parking (normal parking ?4 priority ?7) as it took us over just under 1 hour 45 mins to leave the park last Friday!

Also if you can get away with no visiting the gift shop your on a winner! ( if you do then please pass on your secret)

It is good fun and the kids absolutely love it! When you see their happy faces you can kinda forgive the rest.

Have fun xxx

[Bishberro]

Oh God it sounds like hell. We have the cereal packet vouchers so the adults get in free but still sounds quite pricey. It sounds like qbot might be worth it for two people. Thanks for the tips.

[Audrey]

Dadhacks.co.uk has a good post on it.

[mrs.lotte]

We stayed at the hotel last year - it rocked. Smallish swimming pool great games area, good unlimited buffet, endless ice cream, 2 days in park including early entry. Otherwise Q bot and own food and ponchos. Have fun

[Lacey]

We've been a few times this year (got an annual membership on a deal so trying to get value for our money!)

Our boys (7 and 3) love the Duplo splash and play area. Definitely need swim stuff for this. We tend to do it at the end of the day so not then carting around wet stuff.

Agree to take food and snacks tho children do eat for free in some of the restaurants after 3pm (which means they are quite busy then).

Also, check out the info re parent swap if you have a younger child who can't go on all the rides.

[MylesUy]

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[simonethebeaver]

Can I just add Qbot, Qbot, Qbot to the voices? We got one because we were with a disabled child, and I honestly cannot imagine how awful it would have been without it, if your kids want to go on the rides. And we went on a quiet day too.

[Belle]

Don't get sucked into the fairground type games...I spent nearly a tenner trying to win my son a big stuffed angry bird (like a mug), they are undoubtedly rigged!

We said at the start that my oldest cd choose something in the lego shop at the end. This worked remarkably well (he was 4.5 at the time) - to the extent that I had to persuade him he could have an ice cream without forfeiting lego!

But yes, they do find ways to get ?s out of you everywhere...so for e.g., the rides that get you wet have full body driers outside - at a cost - or ponchos you can buy on the way in.

The most basic level of Q-Bot sufficed for us, but then I was surprised that my 4 yr old didn't want to go on all of the rides. My not quite 2 year old was too young/small for most things so I would say your kids are good ages for it.

I think there is a huge mumsnet thread on this btw. Oh and re the hotel, it has a good playground right next to it which we found fairly quiet and good for a bit of down-time. We actually didn't bother going into the water play though we did walk by to check it out. There is basically way more than a day's worth to do in the whole place, so it's good to have a vague idea of what your planned trajectory is going in.