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What a great day. Our fourth trip this year!
The rain held off so apart from it being rather dull and a few bits of light
drizzle we didn't have to wear coats or even bother carrying any.
Boy was it quiet. Some pre-school kids and one set of really well behaved school
group. We didn't have to wait for anything. In fact we stayed on, on most of the
rides. After going around the Castle Dragon ride for the third time without
getting off we decided we were feeling either hungry or sick. There were about 4
people in the Castle restaurant and we were given "extra" Lego mini-sets while
sitting eating our lunch. As the weather wasn't that warm we managed to keep off
most of the wet rides. We did go on the log flume and we did get wet. We could
have stayed on that and gone around and around but just the one ride was enough.
We watched the 12:00 and 16:00 show. On both occasions Nath & Jon were first to
positions 3 & 4 ready to soak the baddies. Nath worked out that by twisting the
water jet in just a particular way he could get the thing pointing into the
crowd. As the crowd at that point consisted of his brother and Mum & Dad he was
persuaded not to try it during the show!
There seemed to be loads of Playstation consoles running Lego Star Wars at most
of the covered activities. Nath enjoyed himself entering some of the funnier
cheat codes. There were big changes afoot in mini-land with the whole of London
being dug up. Nothing new there then ;-)
Nath went off for a Mindstorm session. I think they only ran one session as it
was so quiet. We couldn't persuade them that Jon at 6 was really 8 so he spent
the 45min building the mini-kits and seeing the 4D show. Of which there always
seems to be something not working. It was the water spray as the racer comes out
of the snow bank. It was quite funny though as there were obviously loads of
kids who hadn't seen the show before as there were loads of screams when things
came close up in 3D.
No real bargains in any of the shops. Mrs. S-J picked up some LLW Tee-Shirts at
half price at the bottom shop. These were full price at the top shop, very odd.
We generally work on the basis that just as something is at the bottom shop
doesn't mean it'll be at the top shop or at the same price. We had a close look
at the new big Bionicle set which looks good and has gone in at Number 1 on
Jon's Xmas list.
The outside warehouse had its usual mix of stuff. Loads of pink things that the
boys avoided at all cost. We picked up an Apollo Moon Lander for £15. The best
buy, however, were the key rings. 50p yes 50p each for pass holders. Compared
with £3 each or £5.40 for 3 for pass holders inside the park 50p was a complete
bargain. They had a good range to. One lady handed us one having spent 10
minutes herself rummaging through one of the crates having found a rare one.
Talking of crates they were even selling the crates themselves. The lids had the
Lego logo on but they weren't anything special.
On the way back “up north” we pulled off the A404 towards Henley and stopped at
the Red Lion Pub. Actually it’s the first pub on the Henley road off the A404.
The food was really good. They were the sort of place that would do anything for
you. i.e. a Kids portion of an Adult meal off the lunchtime menu in the evening.
A fine selection of beer (or diet coke as yours truly being the nominated
driver).
So is that another year over? No way. There's another teacher training day at
the end of October and of course my birthday in December and Christmas yet.
Having just got back I can't wait to go again.
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The kids have teacher training tomorrow so we're off to Legoland.
The wife did suggest that as I didn't have much holiday left she could take them
on without me. What! Anyway I'm going. The kids are happy too as the wife
doesn't like going on any of the wet rides. Bring it on say me and the kids.
There’s nothing like walking around on a cold day with wet pants! The last time
we went we got the restricted pass which meant we couldn't get in during the
summer holidays. As we weren't due to go during the summer this worked out quite
well.
The kids are looking forward to some of the bigger rides. The Dino Safari was
really disappointing last time. It either needs a bit of time to grow or they
need to hide some of the dinosaurs so you can't see them while waiting in the
queue. The dino dipper is a good ride. Last time we were then only people on it
as we headed straight for the bottom rides. As it's been shut the last two days
we're hoping it's not too busy tomorrow. I'll report back.
Meanwhile if anyone knows of any good bargains to be had either inside the park
or in the clearance warehouse I'd like to know in advance. Also can anyone
recommend a child friendly pub somewhere between Legoland and the M40.
Robins
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This is probably old but it was on BBCAmerica tonight.
on BBC's I'm Alan Partridge: "Never Say Alan Again":
Alan (radio announcer): Who're you with and what're you doing?
Caller: I'd like to go round Legoland with Sean Connery and then afterwards we'd
go for a lamb lunch in the center of Windsor.
Alan: Gotta say Roy, I don't think that's Connery's cup of tea. *I* think Sean
would rather do something like wander the wildfowl park in Haverstock with a
*butterscotch.*
Caller: I don't agree, I think he'd go to Legoland. Bye.
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In lugnet.general, Arne Lykke Nielsen wrote:
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It has just been announced on the Danish news, that LEGO sold 70% of the
shares in the four Legoland Parks to American investment company Blackstone.
They will now be placed in Merlin Entertainment Group, together with the parks
Sea Life, Earth Explorer and Dungeons.
Arne, Copenhagen
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(crossposting to the various Legoland groups)
This looks like it will be good news - by reading this article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4678213.stm
it looks like there may be new parks in the future and they want to make the
park destination resorts - so this is good news.
The offical Lego PR can be found here:
http://www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=pressdetail&contentid=15584&countrycode=2057
but hey - as long as they keep the Commemorative Brick program at LLCA and FIX
the fabrik machine at LLD I will be a happy man ;)
Mark P
http://www.promobricks.com
(FUT .legoland)
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All I can say is ummmmmmm... what?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10126875
Dubai bids for Legolands as it seeks home for oil wealth
23.05.05
JORDAN - Dubai's Government buyout fund is bidding for Lego's Legoland amusement
parks two months after acquiring London's Madame Tussauds waxworks museum as the
emirate uses its oil wealth to invest in Europe's entertainment industry.
"We will look to consolidate in the theme park sector in Europe through
Tussauds," Dubai International Capital chief executive officer Sameer al-Ansari
said in an interview in Jordan.
"We can't comment on how much we bid for Lego's parks," he said
Dubai is part of the United Arab Emirates, which is using a windfall profit from
record oil prices last year to double revenue from tourism in the next decade.
Billund Lego, based in Denmark, put its amusement parks up for sale in October
as it tried to revive its business making toys such as Duplo building blocks.
The company had its third annual loss in five years last year.
The Dubai fund in March paid 800 million ($2 billion) for Tussauds Group, whose
London waxworks includes models of celebrities including David Beckham, Brad
Pitt and Kylie Minogue.
The Chessington (England) company also runs theme parks such as Alton Towers and
Chessington World of Adventures.
Legoland runs four parks in Denmark, Germany, England and California. The parks'
attractions include lifesize Lego models of giraffes and hippopotami.
Buyout firms including Blackstone Group, Palamon Capital Partners, Spectrum
Equity Investors and Apollo Management may make offers for Legoland worth more
than 400 million, the Financial Times reported last month, without saying where
it got the information.
"We expect the sale to be completed in the summer," Lego spokeswoman Charlotte
Simonsen said. She declined to give details about specific bids the company had
received.
Dubai may spend US$3 billion ($4.2 billion) to US$5 billion a year over the next
five years to buy assets around the world, al-Ansari said. In January the
emirate bought a US$1 billion stake in the German carmaker DaimlerChrysler AG.
- BLOOMBERG
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