Just back from 2 days at Legoland Florida

[jkstewart1800]

also, and this may matter more to others... not many of the rides are made for pooh sized people. they are kiddie rides... I am 150lbs and 5' 8" - and I couldn't sit next to another adult on some of the rides because they seats were so small.

 

[jkstewart1800]

We were toying with the idea of planning a Legoland/Sea World trip for this year since we just went to WDW this past August; but I am reconsidering the whole idea of going to Legoland based not only on the feedback from this thread, but also feedback from other threads/posts about Legoland on these boards and other sources. For a park that is supposed to be targeted to families with young children, I don't think they designed/planned the park to account for: the logistical needs of families with multiple children considering the child/adult ratio needed for most of the rides, having rides that can accommodate the whole family instead of only children over 36 inches tall accompanied by one adult, how to efficiently manage the queues, the inefficiency of slow loading/low capacity rides, and the lower value for your dollar when the cost of admission is contrasted against the park's limited hours of operation. The theming looks beautiful from photos I've seen and it seems like it is a fun park, but I am starting to gradually lose interest. My kids enjoy Legos, but they aren't Lego fanatics and were just as happy to visit the Lego Store/Center in Downtown Disney during our recent WDW trip. If we ever go to Orlando to visit other (non-Disney) parks, we will probably just stick with Universal and Sea World.

The two other things that really disapointed me was 1) I had hoped for more Lego-y stuff to do, create, interact with vs. rides and 2) the rudeness of the CM (which most likely was due to the fact that they were themselves under staffed and over whelmed) One CM actually said to us guests waiting in line "could I ask you all to start sitting 2 or 3 to a boat so we can get done and out of here? We're supposed to be closed by 7:30."

 

[DOOM1001]

The two other things that really disapointed me was 1) I had hoped for more Lego-y stuff to do, create, interact with vs. rides and 2) the rudeness of the CM (which most likely was due to the fact that they were themselves under staffed and over whelmed) One CM actually said to us guests waiting in line "could I ask you all to start sitting 2 or 3 to a boat so we can get done and out of here? We're supposed to be closed by 7:30."

The CM's at Legoland obviously don't have to go through any kind of training or class that shows them how to use courteous words or etiquette like I'm sure they go through at Disney.From my experience of visiting the park I could tell right away even though it was a super nice park I don't think I want to visit it on a very busy day,I just don't think the park,the employees or the rides are suited for huge crowds,actually hold on,the parking lot is huge,the parking lot can handle some good crowds.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

The CM's at Legoland obviously don't have to go through any kind of training or class that shows them how to use courteous words or etiquette like I'm sure they go through at Disney.From my experience of visiting the park I could tell right away even though it was a super nice park I don't think I want to visit it on a very busy day,I just don't think the park,the employees or the rides are suited for huge crowds,actually hold on,the parking lot is huge,the parking lot can handle some good crowds.

This is what I've been hearing about this park. I didn't want to come across as completely negative towards Legoland in my previous post and I am sure it is a fun park for what it is, but it seems like it wasn't designed or planned for vacationers, particularly vacationing families with multiple small children. If we were Florida residents or closer to Florida, then I could see the possibility of doing a day trip or short getaway to Legoland; but considering all the logistical and operational issues I've heard about, I don't think it would be feasible for us to go out of our way to spend a day there. This is primarily because our family would only go to Florida for a vacation since we are so far away and for us that means traveling during the summer months or school breaks, and from what I've heard Legoland wouldn't be the ideal theme park to visit in the summer months or busy periods. I know comparing Legoland to WDW is like comparing apples to oranges, but at least our family knows that if we go to WDW in the summer (which we have) that there are a lot of indoor and air conditioned attractions/queues and that the park hours are long enough so that we can take an afternoon nap/pool break and come back in the evening; or if we go to WDW during a busy period we know that WDW is really good with managing crowds and queues and that we can take advantage of rope drop and fast passes. It is possible that Legoland is just going through some growing pains since it is a new park and needs more time to get it together; but by the time that happens my kids really won't be into Legos or care about Legoland anymore.

 

[jkstewart1800]

It rained while we were there, that kind of Florida rain which vacillated between misty breeze and down pour every 20-30 minutes. What really struck me was that the employees operating the outdoor rides (the carousel specifically) was provided NO protection from the rain... the guests in line weren't either... but NO umbrella for that poor girl standing in the rain seemed liked they weren't even trying!

It was stuff like that that made me shake my head.

 

[alloyd1170]

We did a Legoland/Clearwater Marine Aquarium trip for our 6 & ~10 year olds. We were at Legoland on the 28th and what a madhouse! I knew it would be crowded, but it was unreal. The news that night said that all the theme parks closed due to record crowds.

Thankfully we got the 2 kids tickets for free through Pepsi because we only got a few rides in. Lines were 90+ minutes for a short 2-3 minute ride. The food lines were almost as bad. For example, the carousel was probably the shortest line all day. It cycled 5 roatations, yet took longer to unload/reload. The CM had to inspect every rider (it's a 2 story ride) to be sure everyone had a seatbelt on, including adults. At the boat ride, they announced there would be no single riders, yet boat after boat went by with single riders!

I would not want to do the park in the summer. The bugs were awful. I believe they were Mayflies, and they were all over the Legos in Miniland USA. Everything is pretty much outdoors too, whereas at Disney, you can escape inside for many attractions. The water ski show while somewhat cute with the costumes, was not very impressive. We heard from locals that the fireworks are pretty good, and they give you glasses that make them look like Legos. However, we did not stick around to deal with the parking lot aftermath. We also wanted a real meal down the road before the restaurants started filling up.

The other real disappointment was the shopping. The selection was not very good. We bought a few park souvenirs, then headed to Downtown Disney's Lego store on our way home. There they had a much larger selection, more space, and the biggest bonus-I could use my Lego VIP rewards to earn and redeem certificates. You can't use it at Legoland which is really dumb.

On a side note, if you've seen the movie Dolphin Tale, then check out the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. It's a small place, but they know how to manage a crowd. Normal daily attendance is 400-500 but when we were there it was 5200! They did a wonderful job spreading the crowd out by offering free trolley rides to their new Dolphin Tale exhibit in town. They also gave us free entrance to it, plus 20% in that gift shop. We got to bypass the long line to buy tickets at the aquarium and bought them at the exhibit (you can also buy them online). Once back at the aquarium, we walked right in. The staff there is amazing...friendly, informative, and very willing to talk to anyone who will listen. We ended the day with dinner at Frenchy's Rockaway Grill which is right on the beach. Our kids played in the sand while we enjoyed a sunset and quiet meal.

 

[jkstewart1800]

We were there on the 26th and 27th. It sounds like you had about the same experience as we did. What killed me about the lines being so long is that they never filled the rides to capacity most of the time. If a family had an odd number of people in it or less than the ride took they would just send the cars/boats/whatever on their merry way!

 

[tink20]

I was thinking of taking DS, he is 10. Do you think 10 is too old? I just wanted to take him before he got any older and had no interest. or....Would Busch Gardens be better? He isn't in to thrill rides, Splash and BTM are about as thrilling as he goes. Do you think we should do the 1-1/2 days, and how do you get the extra day, online it only has 1 day ticket for sale. How much are tickets at AAA? Is it worth getting a membership?

We would be going end of May, first of June, if that matters and would a weekday be better?

TIA

 

[jkstewart1800]

I was thinking of taking DS, he is 10. Do you think 10 is too old? I just wanted to take him before he got any older and had no interest. or....Would Busch Gardens be better? He isn't in to thrill rides, Splash and BTM are about as thrilling as he goes. Do you think we should do the 1-1/2 days, and how do you get the extra day, online it only has 1 day ticket for sale. How much are tickets at AAA? Is it worth getting a membership?

We would be going end of May, first of June, if that matters and would a weekday be better?

TIA

We had one 10 year old in our group and he seemed to like it just as much as the 5 year olds did. I think one day is fine because there are some rides that he will choose not to go on because they are very obviously for little ones.
I am sure weekday would be better than the weekend.

 

[momto2js]

I was thinking of taking DS, he is 10. Do you think 10 is too old? I just wanted to take him before he got any older and had no interest. or....Would Busch Gardens be better? He isn't in to thrill rides, Splash and BTM are about as thrilling as he goes. Do you think we should do the 1-1/2 days, and how do you get the extra day, online it only has 1 day ticket for sale. How much are tickets at AAA? Is it worth getting a membership?

We would be going end of May, first of June, if that matters and would a weekday be better?

TIA

I would wait to make the decision about a late May/ early June trip until you read some feedback about the park in the heat. It has occured to me that this is the first legoland park in a place that can be "hotter than the face of the sun". It is indeed MOSTLY outside and I can't imagine what it will be like in the summer afternoons. It will be interesting to see if the feedback is as bad as I think it will be.

If you are paying full price, then I'd opt for busch gardens. But BG is one of our favorite parks.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I would wait to make the decision about a late May/ early June trip until you read some feedback about the park in the heat. It has occured to me that this is the first legoland park in a place that can be "hotter than the face of the sun". It is indeed MOSTLY outside and I can't imagine what it will be like in the summer afternoons. It will be interesting to see if the feedback is as bad as I think it will be.

If you are paying full price, then I'd opt for busch gardens. But BG is one of our favorite parks.

I agree and I am curious on what the feedback will be from summer visitors. We went to WDW in August and our saving grace was the fact that there are a lot of indoor air conditioned attractions and queues that we were constantly in and out of and the park hours were long enough that we could visit the parks in the morning, take an afternoon break by the pool and out of the heat, and go back in the evenings when the temperature wasn't as intense. It seems like most of the attractions at Legoland are outdoors with limited shade or cover and the shorter hours of operation don't give you much of an opportunity to tour the park in the evening. Also, what about the usual summer afternoon rainstorms in central Florida? I would hope they would keep the park open later in the summer months to account for this. We are still interested in this park, but I am keeping my eyes on the reviews as the months progress and I am hopeful they will work out their growing pains at the management/operational level.

 

[wikiwiki3]

We are going in 2 weeks with a 6yr, 4yr and tall 2yr so I'm not sure how it'll work but I'm guessing DS#2 won't be riding many rides. We got the free kids tix so we aren't out of pocket too much. This is helpful tho - good to know what to expect!

Do they let you do rider swap at all so we can all wait in line and then one of us waits with the youngest one while the other goes with one of the older kids?

 

[HLAuburn]

We are going in 2 weeks with a 6yr, 4yr and tall 2yr so I'm not sure how it'll work but I'm guessing DS#2 won't be riding many rides. We got the free kids tix so we aren't out of pocket too much. This is helpful tho - good to know what to expect!

Do they let you do rider swap at all so we can all wait in line and then one of us waits with the youngest one while the other goes with one of the older kids?

When we went, I didn't see anything like a child swap. There were a few times where I saw people boarding the ride at the exit, but I noticed that had special bracelets on, so maybe they are something that you purchase (like Universal's Express Pass) or special needs.

We went in October with my 2 year old (she just turned 3 Dec 29th). She was probably right at 38" when we went and there were a lot of rides she could go on, including the wooden roller coaster (her first!). Everything she could go on, she did go on. For the rides she definitely wasn't tall enough for (bigger coasters, older kid driving school), either DH or I would take DD7.

Have a great trip! We're headed down next weekend and we are really looking forward to Legoland again!

 

[tink20]

I would wait to make the decision about a late May/ early June trip until you read some feedback about the park in the heat. It has occured to me that this is the first legoland park in a place that can be "hotter than the face of the asun". It is indeed MOSTLY outside and I can't imagine what it will be like in the summer afternoons. It will be interesting to see if the feedback is as bad as I think it will be.

If you are paying full price, then I'd opt for busch gardens. But BG is one of our favorite parks.

Thanks, I was actually considering Busch Gardens. There is a SeaWorld/BG combo ticket. I guess if I decided on LegoLand, it will be a last minute decision.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

Found out that Legoland will be open daily (7 days a week) from 10am-8pm during the summer months (June-August) based on the operating calendar on their website. I'm still trying to figure out how our family would plan a summer day there since the location would not afford us the option of retreating back to the hotel for an afternoon break out of the heat; and even if we were to take advantage of their water park for a couple hours in the afternoon, there is still the question of how to retreat from the summer afternoon rainstorms when there isn't much indoor stuff there and how that would affect the operation of the water park area. So, I am still trying to figure out if a visit to Legoland would be worth the cost and effort in the summer

 

[mdurette]

We went to Legoland on Thursday, Jan 5th. Did later on in the week to avoid the holiday crowds as much as possible. I think this park has alot of potential once they get their staffing issues dealt with. They also need to take a second look on how the load riders onto their rides. It doesn't seem to me that it is done as effectively as it can to move the lines along.

Some issues we had:
Dragon Coaster in Medeivial Land: Small coaster with a big line. They were only running one car and the ride has a "preshow" so they are really only moving people 1 car at a time every 5 minutes or so. Makes for a very long wait. After 45 minutes we made our way to the front and they stopped us to add a 2nd car to the track.

Jousting Horses/Jungle Safarie Ride: Their loading system is slow. They load 3 at a time. But, while getting the 3 horses/cars filled there ends up being lag time. At some points there were just as many empty horses/cars empty waiting for people as their were on the track.

Roller Coaster with the Dangling fee: Not sure what it was called - but I wasn't impressed when they squished my friends kid hand in the saftey harness when they brought it down.

Driving School: What a MESS both of these rides were with just 1 worker each. The 3-5 year old track. Some kids were simply too small and didn't "drive" the poor worker had to follow kids around the track, bent down stearing for them. Poor guy when he had 2 like that the same time.

The 6+ track is large with about 25 cars everywhere. All getting stuck. One worker trying her best to get them all moving. My DD got stuck in the back from the get go....waiving her arms the entire time. She was never spotted and came off in tears cuz nobody came to her rescue. I am thankful she stayed seated. If she would have come out, that would have been a big issue with all the other kids driving around.

Food: Humm....sandwich shop they had there had premade sandwiches like a 7 Eleven. The granny smith fries are worth a try - yummy. The fried chicken place on the map was serving pannies. Most was very so -so.

2 children with 1 adult: yes, you will have a HUGE issue. Especially if your child falls in the catagory that they need an adult to ride. What are you going to do...leave your other child waiting in the load area by him/herself? not me

So...in the end. Is it a cute park, with nice rides. Yes, would recommend for 6-10 year olds. But, I would not go on a busy day and I would not go until the reports of their staffing seem to be resolved.

I'm glad we went - but probably will not go again since 45 minutes out is a bit much with so many other things to do in the Orlando area.

 

[loveysbydesign]

Thanks everyone for your opinions! Kids really want to go there but I;m thinking we may wait a year til they get their act together!

 

[jkstewart1800]

We went to Legoland on Thursday, Jan 5th. Did later on in the week to avoid the holiday crowds as much as possible. I think this park has alot of potential once they get their staffing issues dealt with. They also need to take a second look on how the load riders onto their rides. It doesn't seem to me that it is done as effectively as it can to move the lines along.

Some issues we had:
Dragon Coaster in Medeivial Land: Small coaster with a big line. They were only running one car and the ride has a "preshow" so they are really only moving people 1 car at a time every 5 minutes or so. Makes for a very long wait. After 45 minutes we made our way to the front and they stopped us to add a 2nd car to the track.

Jousting Horses/Jungle Safarie Ride: Their loading system is slow. They load 3 at a time. But, while getting the 3 horses/cars filled there ends up being lag time. At some points there were just as many empty horses/cars empty waiting for people as their were on the track.

Roller Coaster with the Dangling fee: Not sure what it was called - but I wasn't impressed when they squished my friends kid hand in the saftey harness when they brought it down.

Driving School: What a MESS both of these rides were with just 1 worker each. The 3-5 year old track. Some kids were simply too small and didn't "drive" the poor worker had to follow kids around the track, bent down stearing for them. Poor guy when he had 2 like that the same time.

The 6+ track is large with about 25 cars everywhere. All getting stuck. One worker trying her best to get them all moving. My DD got stuck in the back from the get go....waiving her arms the entire time. She was never spotted and came off in tears cuz nobody came to her rescue. I am thankful she stayed seated. If she would have come out, that would have been a big issue with all the other kids driving around.

Food: Humm....sandwich shop they had there had premade sandwiches like a 7 Eleven. The granny smith fries are worth a try - yummy. The fried chicken place on the map was serving pannies. Most was very so -so.

2 children with 1 adult: yes, you will have a HUGE issue. Especially if your child falls in the catagory that they need an adult to ride. What are you going to do...leave your other child waiting in the load area by him/herself? not me

So...in the end. Is it a cute park, with nice rides. Yes, would recommend for 6-10 year olds. But, I would not go on a busy day and I would not go until the reports of their staffing seem to be resolved.

I'm glad we went - but probably will not go again since 45 minutes out is a bit much with so many other things to do in the Orlando area.

Thank you for posting your review and confirming what we also experienced!

 

[loveysbydesign]

bumping to see if anyone has been there recently!

 

[jkstewart1800]

Would love to hear about more experiences !