My eldest started school back in September last year and perhaps one of the things he’s missed the most is the random days out at theme parks we would do to take advantage of term time midweek periods. I really don’t deal well with impatient little ones in long lines, so the idea of theme parks in the school holidays fills me with dread.
However, it’s his birthday coming up and he really wanted to visit a theme park. So we decided to make a trip to one this week.
We had a bit of a false start at the beginning of the week, having planned to visit Drayton Manor again only for it to be closed due to flooding. So we decided we’d work in our first visit to Legoland Windsor while were staying close by for a short break.
Legoland Windsor in February Half Term – The Quick Version
Don’t want to see the full review? Not quite feeling the long version? Here’s the super quick Legoland Windsor Review:
Well, in a nutshell we give it:
[pipdig_stars rating=”4.5″]
The good:
- Fantastic day out
- Queue times not so bad and one ride even had Lego in the queue area to entertain little ones waiting
- Good value entry fee
- Would definitely go back!
The bad:
- Food and drink expensive (more so, I think, than other theme parks)
February Half Term – Brick Week
I believe that February 2020 marks the first February half term that Legoland Windsor has opened its doors. It ran “Brick Week” all week, whereby not all rides were open but there was a selection of around 20 or so rides and attractions available. This included two rollercoasters, two trains, cars, boats, a haunted house and small ferris wheel style ride amongst other things. So there was plenty to do for youngsters.
How much did tickets cost?
All in, tickets were £16.67 each for me, my husband and our 4 year old. Our 2 year old went free, meaning the total ticket cost was £60 for our family of four.
Legoland Queue Times
The bit I was dreading… queueing. Our four year old is not patient, not in the slightest. So we knew anything beyond a few minutes of waiting and we risked a nightmare scenario.
We downloaded the app to work out queue times in advance. However, a bit of a warning. We found it massively inaccurate in some cases. At one stage, the app was advising a 5 minute wait time for the Express Train but in reality it was just short of half an hour.
That’s about the longest we waited for anything though. And the boys handled the waiting times well.
Highlight of the Day for the Youngest (and me) – Mini Land
Honestly, I’d have paid the entry fee just to wander round Mini Land and marvel at the models. Plaques alongside many of the replicas highlight how long it took, how many people were involved in building it and how many bricks were used.
For someone who groans at the 15 minutes it takes to straighten her hair in a morning, my mind was blown by the fact one single human spent 422 hours solo modelling Edinburgh Castle from Lego.
I’d have wandered around here all day and our two year old absolutely loved it here too, perhaps more than anything else in the park.
We were fortunate, after two back to back storms this month, that it was a dry day. So we were able to spend a fair amount of time here just roaming around and looking at the sculptures.
Our 2 year old agreed as this is the face he made when I asked him what he thought of Mini Land…
Lego City
For our 4 year old, Lego City was the winner. Home to the driving and the boat rides, we spent a fair amount of time here.
The Roller Coasters
The other thing our four year old loved was the roller coasters. He rode both the Dragon’s Apprentice and the Dragon. Children from 90cm can the Dragon’s Apprentice (those under 1.3m accompanies by an adult). And at 1m, children can ride the Dragon accompanied too.
Our eldest absolutely loved both of these, queueing around 20 minutes for each.
Legoland Ride Height Restrictions
The great thing we found is that there were rides there that even our youngest could do on. From 90cm, children can go accompanied on a really decent number of attractions.
Shows
We didn’t watch any of the shows. Honestly, even if our boys had wanted to (which they didn’t) I’m not sure how we’d have fitted it in to what was a really crammed day.
Food and Drink
We thought the choice of food outlets (even in a week when much of the park wasn’t open) was great. They included an all you can eat pizza and pasta place, lots of hot dog and snack stands and plenty of coffee shops selling sandwiches.
We settled on the latter. We got 4 pre-packed sandwiches, two cartons of juice and 2 coffees. Literally just the plain old pre packaged sarnies you’d get in any supermarket or coffee shop. It came to £28!!!!!
You sort of always expect to pay over the odds in theme parks, but I’m pretty sure Legoland Windsor is now the record holder for most expensive pre-packed sandwich I’ve ever bought.
Tips for Visiting Legoland Windsor
So here are our tips:
- Download the app from the start of the day. All the information you’ll need is in it and it’s really very good. We found queue times to be inaccurate in some cases, but they were a useful guide and the app helped us navigate our way around the park
- As tempting as it is to skip Mini Land and head straight for the rides, do make time for it. It’s incredible!
- The rides got quieter towards the end of the day, so doing Mini Land and other non ride attractions early on was a winning strategy
- Our biggest mistake was doing the shop last. In hindsight I’d rather have done it early and hired a locker if I didn’t want to carry them. It was INSANELY busy at the end of the day
- Think about bringing a picnic if you want to avoid cafe queues (and don’t want to pay £28 for 4 pre packaged sandwiches and drinks)! 😆
Legoland Windsor – Thumbs Up from us
We had a brilliant day and would definitely return. There was plenty we didn’t get chance to see in a relatively short day and our boys would love to go back. Hopefully at some stage in the future 🙂
