Are you an adventurous family who loves to travel together? Do you like road trips? What about trips a bit further away? So do we! Here’s our experience at LEGOLAND.
We ended up at LEGOLAND California by accident. My children don’t have regular access to commercials but when they were watching the LEGO Movie in our car one day, they saw a commercial for LEGOLAND.
“Mom! There’s a LEGOLAND in California!” my daughter exclaimed. “And we’re going to California! Can we go?!”
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I only thought about it for a split second before saying yes. We’re always trying to make sure we balance the princesses and castles in our lives with other more STEAM-heavy locations that encourage engineering and building. We’ve visited your typical theme parks and we’re saving up for a big amusement park trip in a couple of years, but we’ve also made the drive to New Jersey for Diggerland, a construction theme park. So, LEGOLAND is right up our alley. Then the kids wanted to know if we could stay at the LEGOLAND Hotel too.
Of course!
Then the research and planning started. I didn’t know how expensive it would be so I was a little surprised. We opted for a 2 day park pass and one night at the hotel to keep it as economical as possible. Now that we’ve experienced LEGOLAND, I wish we had been able to stay two or three nights at the hotel and opted for the 3-day park pass. I found that the trip was actually a great value and we could have really filled a few more days with all of the fun available at both the resort and the park. This just means we’ll be back.
Finding Discounts on LEGOLAND Tickets
We spoke with everyone we knew about the most economical way to get to LEGOLAND and there were many options. Costco has seasonal deals on passes and those were a good deal. Our military friends have access to passes at a special rate that might have been a great option, but we found the best deal for the week that we were in town was simply available on the LEGOLAND website. We took advantage of the Kids Stay & Play Free package.
We had a LEGO-themed room, a free breakfast buffet, and free 2-day park hopper tickets for our kids. When you book your visit, there are deals on add-ons for your trip. I say go for it!
LEGOLAND Add-Ons to Save Money
Instead of booking online, I called the resort so I could ask questions. After I booked our room, I was offered a deal to add on a character dinner at the Bricks Restaurant (I said yes) and valet parking at a discount (I said yes). There are two other items that I wish I had paid for in advance, as it would have saved me some more money; the multi-day Digipass photo pass and the two-day unlimited refills souvenir cup.
The LEGOLAND Hotel in San Diego
The LEGOLAND Resort was everything I thought it would be and more! The bright colors, the LEGO characters, the play areas, the kid-centric service and setup — everything was awesome. The lobby had a big LEGO brick pit for kids to build and a large pirate ship play area with nooks and tons of LEGO bricks. There was a scavenger hunt that resulted in the combination code for a locked treasure chest in our hotel room that was full of LEGO model kits for my kids. The evening was full of activities for the kids; a dance party with a DJ and brick or treating (trick or treat).
Our hotel room was perfectly set up for families with children; a stool in the bathroom, a box of LEGO bricks to build with in the room, a separate sleeping area for my kids, LEGO sculptures in our room, themed decor and refreshments.
LEGOLAND Hotel Dining
A breakfast buffet was included in our resort stay and the food was wonderful! An omelet bar, pancakes, french toast, potatoes, and more were all features of this breakfast bar at Bricks Restaurant. The restaurant also featured a kid-height buffet that had all of the favorite items that most kids enjoy. In the evening, the Skyline Cafe and Bricks Restaurant were both open to serving families.
We paid the add-on fee to attend the Character Dinner at Bricks and it was worth every penny! In addition to the fantastic children’s buffet, there was a meat area with freshly cooked turkey, tri-tip, muscles, salmon a salad bar, and tons of different sides and other entrees.
Families can also enjoy the Skyline Cafe for lunch and dinner. I love the sharp decor of this space and families will enjoy the made-to-order menu items like pork belly tacos, poke nachos, shrimp cocktails, soups, salads, loaded fries, flatbreads, hamburgers, sandwiches, cocktails, beer, and wine.
For grab-and-go service of snacks, coffee, beer, and wine, Mini’s Lounge is located in the same area as the giant pirate ship play area and where many of the evening social activities take place at the LEGOLAND hotel.
Things to do at LEGOLAND California
The activities and adventures at the LEGOLAND Hotel were exciting enough, but the park was the best part of the entire visit. On our first day, we only went on two rides and instead spent our day at the water park and then running around the park to get photos with our favorite LEGO characters, participating in a robotics STEM class, and exploring Miniland USA, the largest LEGO layout of cities and monuments that I’ve ever seen!
LEGO Minifigure Trading & Collecting
On the first day, we discovered a whole world of LEGO mini-figure trading. Kids would stop LEGOLAND Model Citizens (fancy for employees) and trade LEGO mini figures or even parts of their figures. We hadn’t brought any figures with us, so we decided to pick some up at the gift shop the next day. Lucky for us, at breakfast, a Model Citizen gifted each of my children with a minifigure! Throughout our second day, we would trade parts and figures with the ride operators, the cashiers, and the maintenance people. It was so much fun and even made the lines seem to move quicker!
LEGOLAND Early Admission
On day two, we had early access to the park because we were hotel guests. In that half hour of early admission to LEGOLAND, we packed in four rides that would typically have long lines. Afterward, we took the kids to get their driver’s licenses at the LEGOLAND Driving School because this was the part of the commercial that none of them could stop talking about. Then we explored some LEGO brick building areas and continued to ride the rides throughout the day.
LEGOLAND 4D Movies
We discovered the LEGOLAND 4D movies late in our trip, so we only saw two of the titles they were showing, but I wish could have seen them all! The 4D movies were visually beautiful, full of laughs and squeals as we were sprinkled with water throughout the film, bringing us even more into the film. If you can only see one, my favorite so far is the LEGO City 4D Officer in Pursuit.
LEGOLAND Unlimited Digital Photo Pass
One of our splurges was the two-day LEGOLAND Unlimited Digital Photo Pass. This gives us access to download all of the photos taken of our whole family on the rides we go on, the photos taken with LEGO characters, and when available, one in front of the park (but we never found this opportunity to be available, even when we requested it.) Also included in our package was a photo storybook with two printed photos of our choice AND a LEGO brick photo of our family. This was a nice option so that we could be in photos with our children and not have to constantly be snapping our pictures.
When we decided that LEGOLAND was the perfect spot for an overnight during our already planned trip to California, I figured that my kids were the perfect age, 3,5,7, and 9 years old. They would each enjoy the park and then we could check LEGOLAND off of our list and “graduate” to other theme parks.
We’re not finished with LEGOLAND.
All of us want to return to the park, and finish riding all of the rides, I think we need at least 2 more days to finish seeing the park and doing everything, plus LEGO Movie World is set to open in Spring 2020 and we only saw one part of the waterpark. Plus, we’d like to stay at the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel and spend the night in a few different themed rooms other than the castle one we stayed in; Ninjago, Pirate, Adventure and Friends. AND THEN, we need to do it all over again at LEGOLAND Florida.
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