LEGOLAND Windsor

Cost of tickets:

We booked online with lastminute.com at 40% cheaper than gate price. We paid £60.50 for 2 adults and 1 child. The only difference to paying on the door was we had to specify the day we were going. Oh and you cannot use the ticket to upgrade to an annual pass but I would not do this in the park anyway as you can get annual passes online or with some voucher much cheaper.

What was there?

What wasn't there it was an amazing day! We visited here two years ago and were very dissapointed but since then the park has been refurbished and has had new villages added too. We arrived at 10:30am and parked in VIP parking just outside the entrance at a cost of £5 per or you can park for free in the main carpark. If you want VIP you will need to be there early. We had to get in a 15 minute queue to have our pre-booked tickets checked. The other queues were longer if you were paying at the gate. Bear in mind this was a school holiday day so may be different at other times of the year.

We went to get on our first ride and saw the hour and a half queue and quickly went to get a Q-BOT. Q-BOT is similar to a fast-pass but better, with fast-pass you have to go to the ride put in your ticket and are given a fast-pass ticket for a certain time. The Q-BOT is a handheld device on a keychain and you scroll through a list of rides and it tells you when you can go on each of them without having to go near the ride - this definatley saves the soles of your feet. Once you pick a ride and 'book' it is locked until you go on the ride and it is cleared by an attendant or cancelled by you so you are in a 'virtual queue'. It costs £10 per person and you can have up to 6 people on each device. Well worth the money though.

There are more rides than last time, based on height Sam is 120cm's so could get on most rides but needed to be accompanied by an adult. We went on 'The Dragon' which was great but very short. Laser raider was as expected a ride though dark rooms with targets to shoot, it's the same as the Men in black ride in Universal Florida or Buzz Lightyear ride in Disneyland Paris, this kind of ride is always a hit with the boys! The water rides have big drops and I did scream alot and Sam looked terrified on one of the photos (photos are £6 each). There are too many rides for me to tell you about but I will vouch for the fact they are all great for all the family. If you have kids 5 or under there are loads of rides for them too, check out the parks website for a list of them all. The pirate show was a crowd pleaser and was a Cinderella show for the little ones.

There is a 4D IMAX style cinema called the imagination Theatre. We saw Spellbreaker which we al thought was fantastic. There are a few surprises in there so watch out. Sam was petrified when we went last time (he would have been 3)because of the effects but loved it this time (now he is 6).

Waterworks is fun for kids on a hot day. It was scorching when we were there and I had packed a pair of swim shorts for Sam and a hand towel (much lighter than carrying a big heavy towel) to dry him off. It is not a pool just a playground with fountains, waterfalls and water cannons. Beware, I was taking a photo in a dry area and then a fountain shot up behind me and I got wet!

At the end of the day we got on the Hill Train to avoid the walk back as we were ready to drop. We did actually go on this a few times and never queued as is very frequent. The park was open until 8pm that night but by half five we were shattered.

Beware of the fair style games in a street aside the pirate show, it is easy to win after a few goes and we ended up walking around with a great big 5 foot green banana the rest of the day!

We could have easily spent 2 days there. You can book a legoland holiday where the tickets and hotel are included and the prices are very reasonable via lastminute.com.

Food:

Restaurants of every kind and minimal queues. Prices are typical for theme parks we had foot long hot dogs which were around £3.75 each and the bottles of drinks are £1.60. A burger and chips was around £5.95. I suggest taking picnic food, there are many areas set up for this. There are lockers near the watersplash area where you could leave your bag if you did not want to carry it around. The lockers are slim so a backpack better than a coolbag.

Facilities:

Giftshops galore!!! But lego is normal RRP you can get it much cheaper online!!! Loads of toilets and baby changing facilities all very clean and accessible with wheelchairs and puchchairs.

Our opinion:

Sams - Amazingly fantastic!

Debs - Wanted to go back next day, one of the best days out in England all year!

I have always loved Legos, my family loves Legos, we were sooo looking forward to this, with our family of 7 who loves theme parks and roller coasters but alas it is not even owned by Lego any more. and It shows! lines were all 1-2 hours long, and the rides were lame!! my family enjoyed our local wild wave park better. Local village fairs in Swindon, had better rides and value (yes I know scary). the mini-land (Lego Museum) was cool but you could tell it was built from times past. we spent more on admission than major theme parks, big let down! lame, lame, lame! Like swimming in a urine filled kiddy pool, expecting to swim in an olympic sized swim park :) save your money, it is better in your mind :D

It is owned by the merlin's pass people do not be sucked in, waste of money.