Legoland Florida

[Anonymous]

Taking my kids (7 and 8) during the week before Christmas. Any tips or experiences you can share? I didn't see an option for an Express pass like Disney has. Will the lines be crazy?

[Anonymous]

No express lines. I've never been in Dec, only gone in slow times.

[Anonymous]

I was at the legoland in CA and we bought something that let us use a virtual line so we never had to stand in line. It was great.

[Anonymous]

Get there as soon as it opens so you can avoid long lines for the first 90 mins. It’s not anywhere as bad as Disneyworld but it can get busy by afternoon. The biggest issue is not that the lines are so long but the staff is not good at efficient line management.

[Anonymous]

My parents live in the Orlando area and we visit them regularly. When my kids were in the 6-8 yo range, we did go to visit Legoland at the holidays instead of Disney. I can't imagine a worse time to visit Disney than the week between Christmas and New Year's. Legoland is tolerable at that time of year and my kids love the fact that it was so much less crowded.

Some tips from our various visits:
- Meals: since the park closes early, we time shift for later meals. We try to hit the Perkins across the street for breakfast in the hour before the park opens. Alternatively, when we are staying at the Lego Beach Resort, we pack the car up and hit the on-site restaurant just before heading to the park for rope drop. We try to eat lunch a little late (like 1:30-2:00) so that we can make it to the end of the day in the park and eat a late dinner after the park.
- The front of the park has about the same wait times whatever time of day you go, so we tend to save that stuff for the way out. That includes Fun town, Duplo Valley, Lego Kingdoms, and Miniland.
- We tend to go to the middle of the park, Land of Adventure, Lego City and Lego Technic in the morning and get as many of the outdoor rides and activities there as possible. Note, we haven't been there since Chima opened, but that looks to be a good morning activity. If you are doing the water park, then we often hit that early afternoon, after lunch, and try to get a couple of hours in before the mid-day showers (yes, it rains pretty much every day in the afternoon in Florida). We only did the water park once, so we're not real experienced with that one.
- Imagination Zone is a great place to spend an hour mid-afternoon when the showers hit. We usually head in when the clouds start to form up and I don't think we've ever stayed short enough in there (my kids love that place) that the sun wasn't back out when they were done.
- After the rains, we often try to see if we can catch up on any repeat rides (especially ones that are covered) that the kids want. Ninjago and Land of Adventure are good rides to visit after the rain.
- After backup rides, we try to hit fairway games that the kids love. Leave those for later in the day so that you don't end up carrying around the prize stuff all day.
- End of the afternoon is a good time to hit Island in the Sky. The wait is shorter than it is first thing in the morning.
- End of the afternoon is also a good time to visit the Miniland and run around.
- Early evening is when we usually hit the double decker carousel. My kids had largely outgrown carousels the last time we went (Christmas just before the pandemic, they were 8 at the time) but they still love this carousel. They like to go up to the second level and ride there and see the park. We also like to get the carousel after dark, because we like it being lit up.
- After the carousel, we usually hit the gift shops. We've had times that we've gone to the brick store and stocked up on extra bricks of certain colors or types. My one son loves to build things with blue bricks so one visit, we went in and bought a huge collection of blue bricks of various sizes and shapes for him. He loves those. And we end at "The Big Shop" which is where we let the kids pick up any mementos and gifts. We've found that waiting until the end, often helps them with the indecision of do I want this or that.
- We usually stay until the park closes. After the Big Shop, we go back and drive to the Perkins across the street for dinner.

Another tip. One of the most fun things is trading Lego figures. Every "model citizen" (the park employees) has a name badge that is a Lego flat piece. Most have Lego figurines on their name badges. And anyone can trade a Lego figurine for another one. So, if your child sees a lego figure character that they like, they can trade. The keys are that each figure has to have body, legs, arms, head and hair/hat. If the character that you are trading is missing something (like hair/hat), then they will trade like for like and take the hat/hair off the figure you are trading for and put it on the one you give them. What I do, is I usually go on e-bay before each visit and look for a set of Lego figures/characters. Then we go through our Lego sets and we put together a bunch of figures with all of the parts that the kids are willing to trade away. I put all of those in a big gallon zip-loc of tradeables (carefully marked to avoid confusion). Then I bring another zip log where the ones we have traded for go. The kids get to trade as long as the bag we brought still had figures left to trade for. Trading and looking at model citizens name badges is a great way to pass the time in long lines. Sometimes they see a model citizen passing by while we are in line (or one who is working the ride) and we (parents) hold the place in line and the kids go to inspect the name badges looking for good trades. Then they play with the figures while we are in line and it helps to occupy the time.

Here is a sample name badge:
You can trade for any of the four figures at the bottom. The bigger figure on the top is part of the badge and not tradeable.

[Anonymous]

We went to Legoland CA yesterday. There were no crowds and we barely waited for anything. If possible to upgrade the day of, I would wait to pay for that feature. The week before Christmas should still be fairly low key.

[Anonymous]

Should we plan to see the water skiing show?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Should we plan to see the water skiing show?

we *love* the water skiing show! One of the skiers has been there since it was Cypress Gardens-you'll see a gray hair balding guy out there doing ariel flips on waterskis! He's friendly and they come out to talk to people after.

It's also a nice place to sit in the shade while you watch.