California trip--Legoland!

Okay so I'm going to split our trip into pieces rather than one extra long blog.  And I promise not to post all 100 pictures I took, just most of them.  We haven't taken a family vacation for a couple of years and with Brodie about to start a new job, we know it will be a while before we get another chance.  As we were trying to decide where to go and what to do, my first thought was "California" which I then realized I have not been to for over 10 years.  That makes me wonder how long until we go again so I ruled out Disneyland--we'll wait until Clara's old enough to also enjoy it.  My next thought was Sea World, but that's a one day thing.  Then I thought about Legoland and our trip was decided.

I booked a hotel though hotels.com which I really like because I can read reviews, see pictures, and compare prices so easily.  We ended up booking a room at the Grand Pacific Palisades Resort.  The staff was friendly and helpful with directions and recommendations.  The hotel and our room were bright and clean and comfortable.  We got a room with a King sized bed and they brought a couple rollaways for the kids.  However, we couldn't fit both in the room and still get around so we had the kids share one rollaway with a head on each end.  We brought Clara's little foam folding Dora couch for her to sleep on.  Our room had a mini-kitchen (stocked with dishes, a microwave, mini-fridge, and sink) and a little deck as well.  The best part of the hotel was that it was less than 1,000 steps to the entrance of Legoland (to be exact we counted 987 steps from the front door of our hotel to the ticket scanning of Legoland).  That may sound like a lot, but half of those steps were through the Legoland parking lot to the gate.  So it also saved parking.

Legoland itself was fun, but it's definitely not Disney.  I actually think it's closer to Lagoon than Disney.  That being said it is much nicer and funner than Lagoon, but along those lines.  The kids had fun, but just as much fun as they would have had at Lagoon.  It lacks the "magic" factor and the staff could use a little more training.  With the exception of a handful, the rides were definitely geared towards kids younger than 10 years old, which makes me wonder why they charge $80 for an adult?  Of course I searched online for Legoland discounts and found "Buy an adult get a child ticket free" through KFC.  I went to www.legoland.com/kfc and bought my tickets.  The offer expires June 30, 2011 but I think the tickets said they didn't expire for a year.  It saved us over $140 for Legoland/waterpark tickets as well as allowing us to skip the ticket lines and go straight to the gate.  Then when we were there we went to the guest services counter and paid $10 per ticket for a second day.

It was cool to see all the things they built out of Legos.  There were life-sized dinosaurs and animals along with all sorts of mini replicas of different cities and buildings (including the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, New York City including the subway system, New Orleans, etc.).  And this summer they have Star Wars including life-sized Darth Vader, Chewbaca, and R2D2 as well as quite a few mini-land replicas.

Then there were the rides.  Tessa was luckily able to go on most of the rides (barely at 36 inches) and we only rode on 2 that she was too small for.  However, even Spencer was required to have an adult ride with him on every single ride other than the driving school and jousting horse because he's 2 inches short of 48.  And none of the rides were any more exciting or "dangerous" than the Lagoon kiddie land rides that Tessa could ride alone last year.  Didn't make a lot of sense to me.  Thankfully it wasn't too busy and most rides had a fairly short wait time (less than 20 minutes).  The rides with a long wait time were our least favorite rides.  We started the day off with the Sky Cruiser which is touted as one of the most popular rides.  The sign in front said the wait time was 15 minutes.  It was over an hour wait and the ride was boring as all can be.  So not worth it.  And it put Spencer in a mood refusing to go on any ride with a line of more than 10 people.  He's definitely my child.  At least this ride, along with quite a few others, had a lego play area for the kids while Brodie waited in the line.  By the end of the day I envied Brodie's waiting in line by himself, but the lego play areas did make it easier for the kids.

Their favorite ride of the day was the Fairy Tale Brook.  It was a slow ride in a leaf boat along a little stream where you saw lego versions of story book characters like the 3 Little Pigs, The Billy Goat's Gruff, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin, and Sleeping Beauty.  In my opinion this wasn't the funnest ride, but both times we went on there was no wait--we walked right on, and it allowed babies so we went as a family (one of only 2 rides we were able to), and my kids knew and loved all these stories so they were excited to see the characters.

 














The other ride both kids really loved enough to go on twice was the driving school.  There is one for kids ages 3-5 and one for kids ages 6-14.  The younger version is just an oval track but the older version is a whole series of roads with road signs and lines painted on the roads and everything.  Both schools have the kids drive themselves--pedals and steering.  The kids thought it was so cool to actually control the car themselves rather than sit in a car that drove itself.  Spencer was cautious, of course, and stopped for every single car that came near him.  Tessa kept turning the wheel left and right causing herself to zig-zag a lot.  Both kids had a blast here.

 













There were helicopter, airplane, jeep safari, dinosaur roller coaster, skipper school, mini-train, jousting horse, laser shooting, Bionicle, pirate ship/water shooting, and many other rides.  But my kids' very favorite parts of Legoland weren't the rides, they were the play areas.  There was a cute Duplo Village play area with tons of little houses, slides, and climbing things that the kids had a blast in.  There was also a Castle themed playground to climb, slide, and everything else on.  Along with a dinosaur dig area and a pirate boat mini-waterpark.  And the very coolest part of Legoland was the WaterWorks musical fountain.  If you stepped on one of the circles on either side of the fountain the corresponding instrument would play.  The kids had a blast jumping from one circle to another and making a symphony.  I even let Clara participate in this and she loved it too!

Something else I don't understand are the hours.  Legoland is only open from 10 am to 6 pm.  We could have done the whole park in a day if they were open a couple more hours of the day.  Or if we hadn't waited for over an hour for that first ride.  Or if they could figure out how to put together a hot dog, bag of chips, and a drink in under 5 minutes so we didn't wait in line for over 20 minutes to get an over-priced lunch.  At least we had planned on the 2nd day and only paid $10 per ticket for it.  So we came back the next day and hit Pirate Shores (where we got stuck in another over an hour long line for a log ride that was so ridiculously lame) along with repeating their favorite rides from the 1st day--Fairy Tale Brook and the Driving Schools--before going to the waterpark.

It's been crazy weather here in Utah but I really thought it would be warm enough for a waterpark in Carlsbad.  But it never got above 65 degrees while we were there.  So it was chilly and overcast at the waterpark.  Spencer didn't care even though his lips were blue.  His favorite was building legos on his raft along the lazy river.  Either the cold or lack of sleep or lack of attention was affecting Tessa and she cried and wanted to be held most of the time we were at the waterpark.  Clara wasn't a big fan of the water either, or at least not of the life jacket.  And really, the waterpark wasn't all that cool.  The splashpad and pirate boat waterplay area in Pirate Shores was much cooler.  Actually, unless I lived by Legoland and had a season pass, I don't think it would be worth going to the waterpark at all.  We didn't stay too long at the waterpark before giving up and letting them choose a souvenir.  With all the options, Spencer chose a Lego Ninjago set that he could get here.  Tessa isn't too big into Legos and she fell in love with a stuffed purple unicorn in the Lego Kingdoms area.  She named it Lego-Roni.  Clara LOVES playing with headbands--putting them on and then taking them off and so on.  By Tessa's unicorn there were pink headbands with a cloth crown on the top that I couldn't resist getting for her.

 

Overall the kids really enjoyed Legoland.  It was worth the price that we paid (kids getting in free plus $10 for the second day) but in my opinion it would not have been worth the full price.  And, although it was fun, I don't see us making a trip out specifically for Legoland again.  Maybe if we happen to be in the area for some other reason and have an extra day or two and find another good deal...maybe.