Legoland California

Three and a half years later…
Welcome to the 50th post of The Beautiful Wandering,
and a new approach to how and what we share.

Here is what we thought and what we recommend about Legoland California!
Let us know what you think in the comments.

Legoland California: It was really fun! I would say that it is great for people that don’t care to get all the big rides. I would also say that a lot of the rides there are interactive – great for kids (like me).

Here are my top five things to do at Legoland California:

1. Build stations – These are only at Legoland. If you like to build, there are different themes that will fit all of your family’s interests. (A couple stations pictured above.)
2. Lego Ninjago – This is a 4D ride. If you have been on Web Slingers (Disney’s California Adventure), it is like that (a little less intense, but still). If you think it sounds fun, be ready to wait 60+ minutes.
3. Unikitty’s Disco Drop – In my experience the line took 5 minutes max. This is an outdoor drop ride with music playing. It is a fun, thrilling ride.
4. Driving School – This is a car ride. The only difference from Autopia (Disneyland) is you are fully in control. Parents you can not ride.
5. Lego Technic – If you are a thrill seeker, this is the best you are going to get at Legoland. Also, this ride that has a big drop at the beginning. (See video below.)

(SECRET TIP FOR PARENTS: If you want to stay in the park for a little more time, but your kids don’t want to go on anymore rides, there is an awesome part of the park called Miniland, USA. There are a lot of interactive elements that will keep your kids occupied for an hour or so.)

Legoland Hotel: The hotel is very close to the park, and it is very kid-focused, so it’s really bright and loud, and in-your-face decorations. I thought it was really fun! Out of the five themed room, we stayed in the Lego Adventure room.

Here are my top five things to do at the Legoland Hotel:

1. Nightly Dance Party – It is a fun little room that has a light up dance floor and fun music playing. This is a great end-of-day thing.
2. Lego building areas – These are cool areas around the hotel with Lego bricks that you can play at while your parents are doing whatever you don’t want to do!
3. Whoopee cushion floor – This is a fun little element right next to the elevator that makes fun whoopee cushion sounds!
4. Disco elevator – On the elevator up to your room there will be a disco ball and various songs playing. This makes for a great dance party… especially when you are first getting there. (See our first elevator dance party above.)
5. Daily Scavenger Hunt – In your room there will be a vault that each day will be restocked with different Lego sets. To get into that vault you have to find the secret code by finding different clues around the hotel.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjoSk9VnEXq

Whereas on other vacations or even at Disneyland we all have our own agendas that we have to work with, at Legoland, the grownups didn’t care. The kids picked where we went, what we rode, and what we ate. For Rob and I, there was nothing we had to do. This was a nice change of pace. Being able to just be, and not drive the ship for a day was really enjoyable. AND (obviously), THE KIDS LOVED IT TOO!! We did have to split up occasionally to please the preferences of the two different kids, but that was it, and that allowed for some good one-on-one time with each kid in different settings. I also really enjoyed the rides that the kids did choose to ride. Everything is high quality fun!

Favorite Ride: I think the absolute highlight of the park for all of us was Driving School (pictured above). The car ride is for kids ages 6-13, meaning parents can’t ride. Kids line up for the ride (without parents, if you are comfortable with that) and then get to pick their car and freely drive the track when it’s their turn. There is a huge cement seating area surrounding this ride, so grownups can sit, watch, and relax as the kids get to exercise some independence and learn the rules of the road. On our second day in the park the kids rode this over and over, giving my very sore legs some time to rest in the warm So Cal sunshine, while I enjoyed watching them have an awesomely, independent time.

Unique Feature: Another thing that was very cool about Legoland, that both the kids and Rob enjoyed, were the build stations, located in all parts of the park. Themed to each different area, you could go and build with Legos, making Dream Chasers, boats or cars to race, roller coasters, and so much more. Though I really struggle with Legos myself (they always fall apart on me, until I want to separate two bricks and then they’re as good as glued together), I love to watch the kids and Rob use their imaginations and create!

Coolest Surprise: Through a separate ticket there is a fantastic aquarium right next to Legoland. Sea Life Aquarium was included as a park hopper ticket with the package we purchased this time, and we decided to check it out just before leaving Carlsbad on our last day. Though we were a bit rushed, we were so glad that we did. This small but impressive aquarium is highly interactive and educational, with a strong focus on conservation. We were only able to spend about 45 minutes exploring the area, but I think one to two hours would be a perfect amount of time to take it in without feeling rushed.

The Food: It was good! We enjoyed ramen and rice bowls at Everything is Ramen for lunch one day, and salads and sandwiches from Fun Town’s Urban Kitchen the other day. The meals are pricey but on par with other theme parks, and they were really good. Nothing out-of-this-world, but certainly nothing to complain about. We also snacked on popcorn, pretzels, and churros on our visit, and all was standard. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to try the famous Granny’s Apple Fries, as they were closed for the season, but we remember loving them from our visit years earlier. Definitely worth seeking out if they are open during your visit.

Legoland Hotel
What I Loved: Overall, the hotel is nice and fun, and DEFINITELY geared toward kids. The rooms were my favorite. We stayed in a fully themed room, which had very cool Lego adventure decoration throughout the main bedroom, bathroom, and especially the bunked kids’ area. Along with the cool decor, the amenities within the room were great. The room was restocked with bottled waters and Honest juice boxes, daily. And, they had places to refill your water throughout the hotel. (AND THE WATER WAS GOOD!) Along with staying hydrated, the kids were entertained the entire time we were in the room. New Lego sets were hidden in the room vault each day for the kids to retrieve after they enter the code from their scavenger hunt. The other thing that I loves about the hotel was that you walk out the hotel doors and you are literally at the entrance gates to Legoland.

What I Didn’t Love: Though there is a Legoland app, I didn’t think it was as useful as it should have been to help us access parking and early entry into the park, with our hotel stay. Upon returning to the parking lot and attempting to get into the park for early entry, we were asked for our hotel booking confirmation email. An email that had been sent months prior and was mixed in with the million other emails Legoland had since sent me. Both instances were stressful and took way longer than they needed to. (So tip, take a picture of your confirmation email info so you have easy access to it when needed.) However, I think this whole thing could be resolved if the hotel reservation was also available on the app like the park tickets had been.

The Food: There are a few different dining options in the hotel, but we only ate at Brick’s Family Restaurant for breakfast every morning and dinner one night. Here’s what we thought…. Our stay at the hotel included breakfast every morning. The buffet offered at Brick’s for breakfast was great. There were plenty of options to keep both the kids and parents happy for the three days that we were there. Now, regarding dinner. Again, it is a buffet, and there was a lot to choose from but we were much less impressed. I think this was partly due to the price tag. It was over $100 for the four of us to eat here. I also think buffet dinners are just harder to be content with. Too many types of food and nothing was spectacular. If we were to do it again, I think we would have tried one of the other restaurants at the hotel for dinner. Or go off-premise, just around the block, and have a great dinner at Karl Strauss, like we did on one of the other nights. Cheaper and great food! If you do decide to eat at one of the on-site restaurants, be sure to make reservations (even for your included breakfast) as tables are in high demand.

“If you don’t like some Lego figures that you have, bring them to Legoland and you can trade them all around the park and in the Legoland Hotel! I didn’t bring mine, so we couldn’t trade until the end, after we bought one. You can buy figures at the park and still trade them. That’s what I did. It’s just like at Disneyland, where you can trade pins.“

As we ventured away from Legoland, we found some great gems around the Carlsbad area. Downtown Carlsbad (known as Carlsbad Village) was a quaint little area with shops and restaurants. Being there on a Sunday afternoon, we found it vibrant and bustling, which was a lot of fun for the family!

• Lunch at Pizza Port was the perfect mix of traditional “pizza parlor” and modern brewery. The kids even got to play a little pinball! I also loved that they have football and surf movies playing in the back round, a great San Diego mix. 
• After lunch, a drive up and down the beautiful coastline was necessary. We stopped at South Ponto Beach around sunset, which was a lot of fun for the kids. They looked for shells, rocks, and dipped their toes in the Pacific Ocean. 
• Although we didn’t make it down to San Diego this trip, it’s a great option that’s about 30 minutes away. Drive the coastline there if you can for amazing views. Exploring Balboa Park, the Gaslamp Quarter, and Sunset Cliffs are a few of the many things you can do in this wonderful area.

Carlsbad as a whole was a memorable experience for the family and gave us so many more options than we expected. Be sure to take it all in on the days you are not enjoying Legoland, you will not be disappointed.