July 4th Legoland w/ ECV, gluten free

Prof Drake

Earning My Ears
Joined
May 26, 2016
We did a two-day trip with two kids: a 10-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy. (The 4yo was about to turn 5 — we were in part celebrating his birthday.) My wife and I are gluten free and I’m in an ECV, so I’m also sharing things relevant to that.

We started with a half day in LA and took the kids to the California Science Center. The main experience is free, but I definitely recommend paying $3 each to see the Space Shuttle Endeavour. It was the 10yo’s favorite part and our 4yo also enjoyed it. If the special exhibit is still Dogs, however, I don’t recommend that for families with young kids.

Our first day at Legoland was the 4th of July. We headed out with swimsuits under our clothes, water bottles, and a bag with towels, a change of clothes, and snacks.

We stopped for breakfast at Naked Cafe in Carlsbad, and I loved the tacos. My wife didn’t enjoy the gluten free pancakes with banana and blueberries, because the fruit was baked in and the combination wasn’t quite right. The kids were happy and we decided to go back the next day. My wife had plain GF pancakes the second time and liked them much better.

The first day we arrived a little after 9:30 and started with the Ninjago ride. It was definitely too intense for our 4yo, who hid his face. For everyone else it was basically a screen-based shooting gallery in which it’s hard to figure out how to shoot (each of up to four people in a vehicle has a sensor you wiggle your hands in front of to fire). Won’t be doing that again.

Also, there’s a part of the Ninjago sign that says handicapped should go through the line for Reserve ‘N’ Ride (Legoland’s paid line reduction product). We waited in that line, then got told the handicapped entrance is through the exit. That’s through the gift shop, so head straight there if handicapped.

Next the Lego Technic Project X coaster. This starts with a nice drop, then the rest is a series of relatively high elevation switchbacks. We enjoyed it, but the kids weren’t clamoring to do it again. Also, the ride staff told me that I should have an Assisted Access pass, which I could get from Guest Relations.

So I headed that way while everyone else went to the Lost Kingdom Adventure (a shooting experience with physical sets and traditional controls, which they liked better than Ninjago). The Guest Relations line was huge. It filled the room in a series of switchbacks. I literally was almost out the door, and the people behind me were. However, that appeared to be the signal for them to send an employee to work their way up the back of the line — so I actually got my pass very quickly.

The pass is a physical brochure with space for a list on the back. Each time you go into the handicapped entrance for a ride, the staff write down the next time you can use it, based on the current wait for their ride. Then they let you on their ride, usually in a cycle or two.

I reached my family just as they were finishing their ride. Then the kids had a blast playing in Pharaoh’s Revenge (red foam ball play area) for a while. We had a nice talk with the employee outside, who recommended we ride Lego City: Deep Sea Adventure (the new sub ride).

We did that next, and she was absolutely right! I believe this is Legoland’s newest ride and, if this is where they’re going, they’re going to move up a rank as a theme park. The ride vehicles move through a tank of well-done Lego scenes and live sea life. Individual screens in the vehicles both deliver story information and are touchscreens for an interactive scavenger hunt. Our adults were impressed and our kids wanted to do it again.

This ride, by the way, required a wheelchair transfer outside the ride. Luckily my wife’s familiar with pushing a non-electric wheelchair. Also, it’s a continuous loader, but they can stop a sub to make handicapped loading easier.

The subs are right next to Granny’s Apple Fries, which are Legoland’s signature snack and gluten free. The kids went off to play at The Hideaways, while I waited in line and bought two packs. It was a good decision, because we all enjoyed them (paired with some nuts I brought in with me).

Legoland does a good thing of making most play areas have only one entrance/exit, so my wife and I just hung out there, expecting the kids to play a while. Unfortunately, The Hideaways was, for some reason, not fully operational — and you would think that July 4th would be a day to have the park running all cylinders. The major disappointment was that all the big slides were capped, according to our 10yo, which I could also see was true of the one by the entrance. So we left pretty quickly.

Next we backtracked to the Royal Joust (for the 4yo) and Knights’ Tournament (for the 10yo). The Tournament is a robotic arm ride for pairs of people, with intensity settings from one to five. They were super serious about the height restrictions with the 10yo, deciding that, after they made her take off her hat, she was just barely too short for the more intense versions. So we did setting two, which was actually pretty intense! If there’s someone into thrill rides in your group, this should be a priority (and it’s slow loading, so early in the day is probably wise).

Next we headed to the water park, which is pretty extensive. Since we had two days, we decided to do the original water park the first day and save the Chima and Pirate areas for the second.

In short, we had a blast there. I was glad to be able to do some things with the family (like the lazy river), there were little slides aimed at the 4yo’s age, and also bigger slides good for our 10yo, but nothing that was too much for her. The orange slide has family-sized rafts, so you can all go together.

I’d heard the water park food isn’t very good, but we got hungry. So we ate snacks from my bag (which my wife got from our locker, because only one person can wear the wristband for opening the locker — and it’s “void if removed”). But the need for a real lunch, plus our 4yo getting chilly, is what drove us back to the main part of Legoland. (It was in the low 70s that day, so not too hot in the main park but a little cold for the water park.)

We had late lunch at Urban Kitchen. They had Kids Kits that the kids liked (there’s no vegetarian option listed for kids, but our daughter was pleased to hear they’ll do vegetarian pasta on request). I had the vegetarian curry, which is gluten free, and pretty good, if not at all spicy. My wife had a salad.

At that point the nearby Driving Schools (trackless driving for kids) had short lines, so they did those. I think the 10yo felt a little old for hers, and the pitch to buy a $16 “driver’s license” was a little much, but I’m still glad we fit that in the schedule.

Next we went to the Duplo Playtown, where we split up. The 10yo and I did the Kid Power Tower, where she was proud to pull us most of the way up — with no help from me.

Next we walked past the construction (something is opening next year) heading toward the front of the park, where lines were now shorter. It was after 5pm at this point.

We stopped first at Mia’s Riding Camp (a carousel) with little wait. Then Fairy Tale Brook, a cute boat ride through fairy tale scenes (many with odd anachronisms, like a smart phone) also with almost no wait. Next to Coastersaurus, which had some wait, and is a pretty short ride without a lot of theming (there’s one Lego dinosaur in the ride and two outside). I could tell the 10yo didn’t really feel it scratched her coaster itch.

Coastersaurus exits near a play area in which kids can “excavate” sand-covered dinosaur bones. Usually our kids are into this sort of thing, but late in the day everything was all uncovered. They had some fun trying to cover things back up, but when I said that, if we hurried, we could see a 4D movie, they jumped at it.

We saw the new “Lego City 4D - Officer in Pursuit.” It has ridiculous, self-conscious over-use of 3D, with everything from running water to hot dogs popping out at the audience. Also smoke effects we could see and water effects we could tell other people were feeling, but which didn’t reach us in the top level, end-of-aisle handicapped seating.

The kids enjoyed it, but wanted to return the next day for better seats and a different show. We parents agreed to that — which it turned out was a bit foolish. The other two 4D movies only have one showing a day, and one of them is Ninjago (not a great choice for our 4yo) so we were left with a single, 3:45 showing of “The Lego Movie 4D A New Adventure” to plan our next day around.

Next we headed to the Coast Cruise, a tour through impressive scenes of legos with a live-commentating captain. I thought it would be the Legoland equivalent of Disneyland’s Storybook Land Canal Boats. But it was actually their equivalent of the jokey, corny Jungle Cruise. We enjoyed it.

One thing we’d underestimated is how much the kids would get into minifigure trading. Lots of the employees wear badges with minifigures on them, and they’ll trade you for any complete minifigure you have. We’d brought four for each of our kids, which clearly wasn’t enough, so my wife took the kids to the big store. She found three-packs that were on sale, and bought one for each kid.

Meanwhile, I went to check out something intriguing. On our way to the movie we’d seen a tent, on the Coastersaurus side of the main entry area, with a sign advertising free return tickets. I thought we might not qualify, because I got our tickets through Tickets at Work. But they gave me four one-day tickets good for early September through the Friday before Thanksgiving.

We’d been told that the best fireworks viewing would be in Miniland, so we took the kids there. My wife claimed a piece of the edge of the lawn, while the kids went to play employee-organized games in the middle of the lawn, and I went to get us all ice cream from the castle-themed area. But then my wife was told they’d changed the fireworks location (shooting from the employee parking lot this year) and our viewing location was a bad one. So she took the kids back to Duplo Playtown and I met them there with somewhat melted ice cream.

Our 4yo decided he really wanted to ride the train, even though the fireworks were about to start. They actually ended up seeing the beginning of the fireworks while riding the train. The 10yo and I watched from our spot. It was a great view and a well-done display.

The kids were exhausted, but super happy. We left, even though we knew the parking lot would be a mess if we didn’t wait a bit. Once we got out, we picked up some late dinner to go, then all got to sleep with ease.

We didn’t make a point of trying to be there at park opening the second day, instead arriving around 11am. We headed straight for the back of the park, where wait times were shorter.

We started with Captain Cranky’s Challenge, a boat ride that swings and rotates, with almost no wait. The kids loved it and wanted to do it again later, but we decided not to because at that point the 4yo had a bit of upset tummy.

Since it was already warm, and it was nearby, we went to Pirate Reef, which also had almost no wait. This is a straightforward ride that takes a ride vehicle up, does a curve on its track, drops you down into the water, and then drives you under pouring water. Somehow that is hilarious and everyone on our boat was gasping and laughing. (Don’t take or wear anything on this ride that shouldn’t get wet. If you’re also going to the water park, the ride can also be entered from there.)

Then we went to Splash Battle, which should be a bunch of spraying water canons back and forth between boat-shaped ride vehicles. But they were slow releasing our boat (maybe because of handicapped loading) and then slow releasing the boats after, so we only got to spray, and be sprayed by, people using a few canons mounted on the walkway by the ride. But we still enjoyed it — and saw people behind us experiencing the ride as intended, which looks like a lot of fun.

Next we saw the Star Wars miniland, which is impressive. The full-size Chewbacca and Vader are amazing (making the smaller figures pale a bit in comparison) and the giant, detailed scenes showing the worlds of different films were interesting even to our 4yo, who hasn’t seen any of the source material. Personally, I would have enjoyed it more without such a high percentage of the space given to the awful prequel films. Maybe they can add more scenes for the new films over time, so the prequel percentage is smaller.

After a snack, we then repeated the sub ride, the only non-water ride we ended up doing twice. This time we noticed that the gift shop at the end includes an interactive area, where kids can design lego sea creatures on individual screens, then release them onto a large screen showing an ocean scene.

We should have had lunch at this point, at the Garden Deli and Cafe, which has gluten free sandwich bread, but the 4yo insisted he wasn’t hungry. So we headed to the Sea Life aquarium.

This is a nice, relatively small, quite linear aquarium. If you’re used to the Aquarium of the Pacific, or the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it might seem a little dinky. But our 10yo, who has always been fascinated by fish, and has been to much bigger aquaria, was totally into it. And our 4yo showed more interest in the tanks than he sometimes does, maybe because they sometimes contain lego decorations. The centerpiece is a large tank with sharks, rays, other creatures, and an elaborate lego scene of divers exploring ancient ruins. You enter through a clear tunnel and then get several other angles on it. Very well done.

We ate at the aquarium cafe, which had gluten free sandwich bread (if a narrower range of sandwiches) and a vegetarian Kids Kits option (grilled cheese sandwich). It was fine. We used the outdoor seating, even though it overlooked a construction site — apparently adding something for the aquarium.

After that we rushed off to the Lego Movie 4D showing. This time we learned that there’s a ramp down one level, letting you access handicapped seating that is right in the middle of the viewing area. A much better choice. And I think we all preferred this movie to Officer in Pursuit. The Lego Movie one has dialog and a plot, rather than just being one long chase scene. Though it doesn’t push things out toward the audience nearly as much, so I can imagine some kids having the opposite preference.

By then it was a little after 4pm, and the water park was closing at 7pm, so we headed there. It turns out we’d been a bit fooled by the water park map. The Chima area really only has two things: a wave pool and a water play structure (with a single slide). The Pirate area was closed except for the ride we’d already been on. (Again, what a strange weekend not to have everything open.) So we used our time a bit differently than we’d expected.

After getting a locker in the Chima area (quieter than by the main entrance) we started with the wave pool, which our 10yo loved but our 4yo found intimidating. There were no visible clocks, but we probably spent 20 minutes there before moving to the Chima play area. The water in the play area was strangely cold, but it was much more the 4yo’s speed. We stayed there until the 5:30 break (each area has break times listed on its sign).

We felt done with the Chima area, so went back to the original water park’s lazy river — which had a shorter line than the day before, probably because it was getting late. We went around three or four times, mostly relaxing and enjoying, though it was hard to keep our group together, so we had to assume there was nothing important to communicate. I was glad we’d told the 10yo a backup meeting location.

The kids wanted to do the orange slide again, with the shared rafts. After that the 4yo was done, but the 10yo wanted to go back to the wave pool, which was now very quiet. She ended up staying until the water park closed at 7pm.

With that it was time for us to get changed and make our long-deferred trip to Miniland USA. This is an outdoor, walk-through series of elaborate lego scenes based on locations in the US (New Orleans, Las Vegas, New York City, etc). It was really impressive and our kids were ready for something low key. We talked with them both about the amazing lego work and about the places represented. One thing that surprised me, and that others might want to prepare for, is that the lego 9/11 Memorial prompted our first conversation with our 10yo about that event — and I overheard that happen for a couple other families, as well.

The sun went down just as we finished our Miniland tour. My wife and our 4yo went to get pressed pennies and then shop. We’d noticed earlier that the Legoland stores have about the same prices on legos that you’d see in Target (bless them). We gave each kid a budget to get something.

Our 4yo had wanted pressed pennies themed to lego Pirates and Ninjas and, unfortunately, neither machine was working. Legoland, by the way, has switched over to pressed penny machines that take a dollar (instead of two quarters) and provide their own “pennies.” This is something of a disappointment to folks like us, who carry uncirculated, pure copper pennies with us when we visit theme parks. Anyway, the good news is that our 10yo wanted ones from the sub ride gift shop, castle area, and dinosaur area, all of which were working, and we got some for the 4yo at the same time.

The 10yo had also wanted to fit in riding the Technic coaster one more time. But like a lot of rides we passed (including Coastersaurus) it was already closed. So don’t wait for the last minute for something you really want to ride. This isn’t a “jump in line just before closing” park, it appears.

We wrapped up by making our lego purchases, then headed out to a parking lot much less crazy than after the fireworks the night before. The kids were exhausted, but really wanted to put together some legos before sleep. So that, appropriately enough, is how we ended our second Legoland day.

Bottom line: Legoland might be a “one day” park when the water park is closed (as I’ve heard some say). But if you’re going in summer, and you think your family might enjoy the water park and aquarium, you can easily spend two full days and still have a few things you missed (we never made it to the Safari ride, or the Fun Town Fire and Police Academy, which I’d heard was good). Also, the gluten free food options we tried were good (for theme park food) and the handicapped accommodations were appropriate. Overall, I recommend Legoland for families with kids ours’ ages (four and ten), but probably not much older (unless they’re mature enough to enjoy watching littler ones enjoy themselves).
 
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The food *is* good at Legoland. As a whole the park is inefficient when compared to Disneyland, but I've always been impressed by the quality and freshness of the food.

Sorry if I missed it, what hotel did you stay at?
 
We tried Airbnb for the first time. We had a very positive experience with hosts in Oceanside. Glad to hear the Legoland food is good in general!
 


Helps with my planning for our upcoming trip with a 4 & 7 year old!

Glad to hear it! I found this board really useful when planning for Disneyland, but haven't been able to find as much good information for Legoland or other spots, so that's why I wrote such a long post. :)
 

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