Yes I may be mad I decided to take my three children ages 5 (girl), 7 (boy) and 8 (girl) to Legoland Windsor by myself. We had an awful journey there thanks to the M25 misbehaving and so I was worried that this could result in frustrated, bored children being pains! As soon as we’d had the obligatory trip to the toilets (the only part of the park now to be up to standard!) we were in having pre-booked out tickets and printed at home saving money as well as time!
The theming was brilliant and we spent quarter of an hour just wandering and looking at the various sculptures in mini-land. We decided to go and watch the pirate stunt show first and use the maps to plan the rest of our visit! The children enjoyed the show which featured pirates, treasure, water, acrobatic diving and daft dancing. The 7 year old probably enjoyed it the most but the nearly 9 year old enjoyed it despite claiming she wasn’t watching! We formed a plan while we waited for the show to start and so headed straight to Pirate Falls, a log flume style ride where we were greeted with a 60 minute wait. We decided to skip this and went instead to the other water ride which advertised a 45 minute wait but which was in reality only a 20 minute wait! The theming of the ride was brilliant and after we were all suitably wet we spent a few minutes playing the games that were on offer. We had already agreed we would do this once and once only as they are very expensive and the prizes probably not worth the stake!
From here we headed to Atlantis, an underwater adventure, this amazed the children and again the wait was about 20 minutes although this was protracted by a drinks and ice-cream shop being housed in the outside queuing area, at £2.50 for a drink/ ice-cream/ bottle of water I was glad we had brough our own drinks! The ride was amazing, as well as the Lego models of mermaids, divers and sea creatures there was an abundance of sharks, tropical fish and rays. The submarine supplied information about the various creatures and being able to see them at such close quarters was great. The exit of the rides contained more fish tanks and children could climb though and pop their heads up in the middle which they found hilarious! They also had the opportunity to hold a sea urchin and meet a fish that cleans tanks and tickles your hands.
Next on the list was the traffic zone where kids can try their hand at driving cars and boats, we plumped for the cars and the two bigger children headed into the 6-13 queue and I accompanied the 5 year old, They drive a lego style car around a laid out route with traffic lights, zebra crossings and junctions and have a good amount of time on the cars. They get their own driving licence at the end and there is an option to add a photo but again this is very expensive! We then went to the bit the kids had been waiting for on a hot sunny day – drench towers and duplo splash zone.
Be warned they live up to their name, the kids had their costumes and towels and happily raced down slides, squealed when buckets of cold water landed on their heads and danced in and out of animal themed fountains. We did have to queue for a bit as for safety reasons there is a maximum capacity to drench towers. There weren’t enough changing rooms but with some clever towel use I was able to get them all decent again without using them. Sun screen re-applied we bought yards of slush puppy again hideously over-priced but you can refill the souvenir cups if you choose for a reduced price but buy early if you want to do this!
We then headed to fairytale brook advertising a 15 minute wait but which in effect proved to be 3 minutes! The gentle boat ride wound through a large amount of fairy tales and all the children enjoyed the ride. After that we headed to mini-land. I had worried the kids would be uninterested in this part but in fact they loved it, the various building captivated their interest and the ones they recognised had them all shouting at me to ‘look at this!” We ended our jaunt with a visit to the busy crowded, under staffed shop. The more recent lego releases were to be found as well as clothing which was exceptionally over priced and teddies and key chains, cups and stationery items. We did have a chance to look at the star wars miniland which for fans of the franchise is a real treat! Moving parts. lasers and life size models of the key characters were great although the 5 year old found some if it a little intense, the 7 year old described it as cool!
There were plenty of other rides and attractions we didn’t do but we focussed on the things we wanted to do the most. We saved time by eating our packed lunch in the queues and not wasting time trying to find something they would all eat for a reasonable price. As with many theme parks food, drink and souvenirs are pricy but you can save money by bringing your own. In recent times Legoland has been criticised for being dirty and full of wasps, we didn’t see any wasps but I can imagine how if there were a few nests around it would quickly become a problem! The toilets could have been cleaner and although we did see staff attending to them the sanitary bins were left untouched! We attended on a week day and a lot of schools have yet to break up so although we didn’t have to queue very long for most of the rides the park was at about half capacity and so we could move about more easily. the walkways are not that wide so with just a few extra people getting around would become more difficult. Parking we pre-booked and so we were very near the entrance so we could nip back to the car with swimming stuff and lunch-boxes and when we left we got out with no problems although the M25 was a different story! All in all we had a good visit, the children had a great time but if you go with the intention of doing absolutely everything arrive early and leave late!
