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Visit Report
9th April 2006 previous visit Oct 2005.
Our first visit to Legoland this year. With news of a few new attractions
expectations were high. After a very pleasant trip down the M40 we found
ourselves at the park just before 10:00.
We joined the building queue ready for the park to open proper. It could have
done with some sort of countdown to raise the excitement even further. We had a
plan and it worked. Get Nath booked into Mindstorms, more of which later. Then
down to the bottom to join a very short queue for the Jungle ride. Then slowly
work our way around the park in no particular order.
The new Digger ride was a mixed event. Other than you get to control a real
digger, or in lots of cases young kids sat in the cabs while dad's leaned over
and did the controlling! the ride itself lacked something. There was very little
noise. it needed some construction noises in the background or some element of
competition. The cabin where you found out about the ride was quite good. it
reminded me of trips with my own father to work sites years ago. Only this was
cleaner and didn't smell of smoke.
By the Digger ride was the Discount Tent that has moved from outside the park to
the bottom. It was closed at 11:00ish but open at 2:00ish. Not as many bargains
as usual but key rings at £1.20 for members is a steal.
From there we went to Mindstorms. As at 11:55 only Nath was registered so I
added my name. Typically two other kids joined in at the last minute leaving me
feeling like the oldest kid on the block! Much fun was had by all and I couldn't
resist reprogramming the RCX to do what I wanted it to do. No sign on NXT and it
didn't seem worth asking about it either.
The new London area in miniland was very impressive with the Gherkin being
beautifully modelled. It's a pity the view of the new tower blocks isn't so
great from the top of the park as the best building is obscured. Either way we
were all impressed.
We joined a very long queue for the new 4D Spellbreaker 4D attraction. We were
the last people let in which was lucky and even managed to sit on the front row.
The Video itself was more like 3.5D as we only really had wind and snow. There
seemed to be quite a few places where a little water was expected but nothing
happened. So beautifully rendered in 3D but it didn't have the excitement of the
Racers 4D video.
The rain started as were inside queuing for the Dragon ride which stopped on its
entry back inside leaving us slightly damp, not that it worried us. Talking of
damp, MrsS-J wouldn't let us on the Extreme Challenge ride, my favourite but not
one for a chill wind. Having said that the queue never stopped, nor did the
togged up kids in the Duplo splash area. By which the Fairy Tale Brook was
closed. A shame as it's the last small ride our kids will go on.
We were a little surprised that they hadn't done anything with the start of the
Maze area but at least it was all clean and well tendered.
The kids had a tattoo each which although a little expensive looked a lot better
than the stick on types. Nath had the Leo brick, cool. Mrs S-J didn't let me
have one but then I’d have to explain it back at work. The log flume didn't soak
us for a change, but others came off suitably soaked!
The park itself was reasonably busy. There seemed to be loads of 3-5 year olds
with Nath at 10 looking quite old, but that meant the queues for the bigger
rides were smaller than the number of people would suggest. A good selection of
wheels and axles in the build and test area, even if it was all on the floor! We
did a few more rides which I won't bother listing but what we went on was fine.
The restaurants were packed!!! The food was okay but it seemed odd that you
ordered drinks at the start of the queue which was at least 10 minutes long,
which meant the drinks were cold when you sat down. We were totally confused of
what was available at the pasta restaurant. We couldn't work out what were kids
portions or adult portions and what drinks came with what. However with 25% off
for members we all ate and drank for £12 which was pretty good.
The pick-a-brick shop used to sell stuff in little pots. It now sells it in bags
at £40/kilo. I managed to get Jon to just get £3 worth so got away lightly
there. In fact there weren't any good buys but then there never are. A chap
tried to use the Lego Shop Loyalty Card but it wasn't accepted as Lego Windsor
isn't owned by the same people!
We left before the 10 year anniversary show which went on until 9:00 as we had
to drive home.
So was it a good trip? Of course. Not as good as the first time you go to
Legoland but we'll be back again before our annual membership runs out. We
didn’t feel the need to go on every ride but rather we enjoyed the day.
I hope you enjoyed my little report and it encourages you to make a visit soon.
Robin
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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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