LEGOLAND Part 3 ~ The Park

This is part three of a three part blog series on our family trip to LEGOLAND.  Make sure you read Part 1 ~ Tips/Reviews and Part 2 ~ The LEGOLAND Hotel of this blog series!

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CHECK THE HOURS:
LEGOLAND is not open 7 days a week.  Make sure to check the days of operation before planning your trip.

WORK A CIRCLE:
You can easily go in a circle around the park to make sure you don't miss anything.  When you walk in, go right or left and just keep going.  To the right is the Star Wars display.  ;-)  To the left are most of the rides.

PREPARE THE KIDS:
LEGOLAND is a lot of walking around and taking your time to look at the cool LEGO models and displays.  They are everywhere and are so impressive.  It's not about thrill rides at LEGOLAND, although the little kids will LOVE the rides and not be afraid on 90% of them.

BUILD YOUR OWN MINI FIGURES:

Make sure you stop by and build your own mini figures.  This store was right inside the park on your left.  Mini figures are a key part to any LEGO collection.  The ability to create and package your own is pretty cool.  This store was really the only place we found to purchase anything cool.

Gabriel's Mini Figures

RIDE PHOTOS/PARK PHOTOS:

Similar to Disneyland's Attraction Plus Card, you can buy a flash drive at LEGOLAND that you can load all of your ride photos on to.  I can't remember the price, but as we didn't find anything else to buy, we went for this.  Also at the end of the day I was able to pick photos that their park photographers had taken and also load them onto the flash drive.  For an additional fee of course, but it was nice to go home with the photos and not to worry about having to download them like you have to at Disneyland.

OTHER PARKS:
LEGOLAND also offers a Water Park and an Aquarium.  We did not go to either.  The water park was closed as it was November, and we're not that far from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, so we decided to spend all of our time in LEGOLAND.  You have to buy park hopper tickets to get into the other parks, but I would say the combination of the three parks could take up a few days on a family vacation.  And it would be so nice and convenient to stay at The LEGOLAND Hotel.  I just read that there will be a new Chima themed water park opening Summer 2014.  Our family might have to make it back this summer for that!

WAITING IN LINE:
The coolest thing that LEGOLAND has done, is to create play areas in the middle of the lines.  One parent with the children can go inside and play while the other holds their place in line.  It's genius. You could even just send your children in there.  The line loops around the play area so you can always see them.

LARGEST LEGO MODEL:

The largest LEGO model ever built is a Star Wars X-Wing at LEGOLAND.  I really never expected to see something this grand made out of LEGOS. My boys were so stoked as this combined their two loves of Star Wars and LEGOS.  The X-Wing is a 1:1 replica made of five million LEGO bricks that took a team of 32 Master Model Builders more than 17,000 hours to construct.  It was built in Russia and then shipped to the USA.  The model weighs more than 45,000 pounds, stands 11 feet tall and 43 feet long, with a wingspan of 44 feet. I believe this is only on display through January 2014.

Here is another HUGE LEGO model.  I believe this is a Volvo.

MINILAND USA:

Make sure to save plenty of time for MINILAND USA.  This is a huge area of different model cities from around the USA.

The Capitol Building

Los Angeles

A wedding!

Las Vegas

New Orleans ~ Mardi Gras

INTERACTION:

LEGOLAND is very interactive.  There are lots of places to take pictures and get "in" the models.  Careful as you walk down the street, a LEGO lady watering her LEGO plants might get some water on you.  A polar bear will jump out and roar and LEGO instruments will come to life to play music.  You can even sail LEGO boats around MINILAND Harbor.

WHAT WE MISSED:

There was an entire Star Wars MINILAND that we missed.  I know, I can't believe it!  We knew it was there, but well, this photo explains it all.  ;-)  We were just beat, and it was pretty cold and a little rainy the day we went.  So that will have to be for next time.

WHAT I'D LIKE TO SEE:

Better shopping!!  I swear, we were trying to spend money at LEGOLAND.  There just wasn't anything to spend it on.  I would love to see some sort of LEGO hat - LEGOLAND's answer to Disneyland's ears.  Maybe a yellow beanie with a LEGO face or something.  Or a hat in the shape of a LEGO head.  Give me some cool sweatshirts with mini figures or LEGOS on them.  A mini figure hanging off the zipper would be awesome!  A better selection of LEGO sets and sets that are exclusive to the park would be a nice incentive to get the LEGO enthusiast to visit.  Christmas Ornaments!  We visited in November and I would have loved to see some cool LEGO ornaments.  The only ones were mini figure sets in a plastic ornament ball.  Lame.

OVERALL REVIEW:

Overall, I would say my family had a great time at LEGOLAND.  The LEGOLAND Hotel was a huge part of our enjoyment.  Gabriel says he would like to go again this year, and I think we might try to add on a day to do that on one of our Disneyland trips.  A warm day so that we can take full advantage of the water parks.

I hope this helps plan your family's trip to LEGOLAND!  Do you have something you want me to blog about, leave me a comment.  

Don't forget to click here to enter to win a trip for four to LEGOLAND!