Just got back from Legoland today. If you are staying on or near Disney property, be prepared for about a 40 minute drive to Legoland. I imagine there are shuttles there from someplace, likely a tour bus. LL is a nice park, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get there in your situation.
Lego is perfect for little kids, but I would rent a car or not go at all.Dh wants to take the kids for a day while we are in Florida. We won't have a car, and also each kid is still either in a car seat or a booster. Is it a logistics nightmare to coordinate transportation for the day?
Lego is perfect for little kids, but I would rent a car or not go at all.
If you take the bus, you have no flexibilty as to when to leave. That's fine with older kids, but with little ones I would not want to be at the mercy of a bus schedule. Someone gets sick, or tired, you are in a world of bus-waiting hurt.
You can get a child in free for each paying adult here
Just got back from Legoland today. If you are staying on or near Disney property, be prepared for about a 40 minute drive to Legoland. I imagine there are shuttles there from someplace, likely a tour bus. LL is a nice park, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get there in your situation.
My family went to Legoland in Dec. We were fortunate enough to get in for an insanely low rate as part of a school group. I'm glad we went, but honestly, I would never pay full price to go back. If our family of four were able to get in for $100 or so, we might consider going back in the next year or two. We were probably somewhat disappointed just because we are Disney regulars and this is a definite step down by comparison. Perhaps it would be better if we weren't used to Disney standards.
That said though, there are pluses. There's a cute pirate show with Lego men and jet skis and water skiing. If you go late in the day, the sun is likely to be in your eyes or reflect strongly off the lake, so wear sunglasses. Driving school was a hit with my boys because they got to practice driving behind the wheel of their own car. Just be prepared, as they will have a briefing before driving in which they are only under staff supervision, but you can watch them when they come out to drive. Boating Scool was also fun for the family, once you get the hang of it... Though we had the longest wait here as people load very slowly. There was a ride that was like you were standing on a waverunner, but it goes around and around, and you have a little control to lean out further from the center or come in closer. There is a good deal on a pizza buffet there... I think it was around $10 for adults and $6-8 for kids, but there is very limited seating. (Beware there irate also limited bathrooms at this restaurant, so find another to use beforehand.) The best part was seeing all the cities built out of Legos! Amazing! New York, Washington DC, Las Vegas... with such details!
Know ahead of time that this park was geared toward the under 12 crowd. Some seats are quite small... Like the Lego safari ride, so we let the kids ride themselves and we watched. The roller coasters are relatively tame. If you can handle Big Thunder at MK, you can handle these coasters no problem. We only avoided one coaster in the center of the park because of a big drop my family didn't want to experience.
Some things were corny though... the shooting ride... I think it was in or near the Egyptian area. If you're expecting Buzz Lightyear, you will be disappointed. But it was fun for something more interactive than just a ride. We also found the 4D show corny... think MuppetVision 3D or Philharmagic, but created by wannabe imagineers... There were scenes with wind, but they crank up these absurdly noisy fans to create the effect, which kinda made it hard to hear the Lego men dialogue. Something was dripping on my husband thru most of the show too. And the stories were geared toward kids, with little for adults to appreciate, unlike the way Disney is able to capture multi-generational audiences. And the park likes to boast about a whole bunch of themed lands, but there are really only a couple small things to do in each land.
So I hope this helps. Have fun on your trips!
We have been twice, once in November and once in January. Both days the weather we in the mid seventies and school was in session for the locals. My kids are 5 and almost 3. If I were in your shoes, I would send dad and your oldest in a rented car, I would bring an in expensive booster seat on the plane. I would not spend the money on the extra adult and younger kids and here is why:
EVERY ride has a minimum to ride hight and then a minimum hight to ride alone (in most cases this is 48"). This practically means that EVERY kid under 48 inches must have an adult to ride. The cars are not big enough to fit an adult and 2 kids with few exceptions. (We did fit the three of us in a boat at boating school) So in your case, unless you have a really tall one year old, one adult will have to stay with her, and one of the other kids will one child and parent wait in line and ride. Then you will have to have one parent and the other kid wait in line to ride when they are done and the first group can wait with the youngest. Even if your youngest is tall enough to ride you still have the issue with only being able to ride one at a time because someone will have to stay with the non-rider.
This applies to MOST of the rides. There are a few attractions that are age based. So for my family it ment that my 2.5 year old was riding splash mountain one day, and was not old enough to ride a slow "horsey" ride the next. (you must be 4 for the jousting ride) For my kids and I approached stangers that appeared to have older kids and asking if they would ride with one of my kids so we could all go. But it was stressful and a HUGE PIA!! I had buy one get a kid free but would not have paid full price for the hassle.
For a park marketed to younger kids, this is a huge problem for families where the kids out number the parents. Do I think your DH and son will have a great day, YES!! My kids love the park and are still talking about it. But, for the cost and added complications for your family, I'd send DH and older son, and then do a resort day and let the youngers ones get some rest, or add a disney park day and take the younger kids to MK for the day were you can do all of the rides as a group of 3 with no problem.
hmm, we are going on a Disney cruise in May, the plan was to get off boat and go to Legoland, which I knew was 45 min drive,, and i am seeing LL is only open like 10-5 so not even a full day in WDW standards, LOL,, but I guess I was wondering if we should go immediately after cruise or wait til next day, we don't have any other plans besides cruise & legoland for this trip?