Legoland -- How far away is it?

[DisneyMom&Fan]

Looks like we'll be heading down to Legoland during our 3 day stay at Disney. I would prefer to leave on Sunday about 1:00. How long will it take to get there? I only want to spend a couple of hours there - you see, my DS7 is ADDICTED and OBSESSED with Legos, so I am keeping this a surprise until our trip (also, just in case it doesn't happen ). I've already told him that we can't go, but he is so sad that I don't want to disappoint him. Really, I spoil the child...

Can anyone tell me how the traffic will be on I-5 and if a couple of hours at Legoland is "doable"? Thanks!

 

[AFMom]

Don't want to rain on your parade - but you're looking at a 3 hour drive - and that's in good traffic one way. I would highly recommend NOT doing what you're thinking of doing. Either committ to a whole day and possibly a night in San Diego, or don't bother.

 

[degrapevine]

Hi, DisneyMom&Fan!

I see your trip is in April, so you should know that the hours for Legoland on Sundays are either 10-5 (on the 2nd, 23rd, and 30th) or 10-6 (on the 9th and 16th).
If you left around 1, by the time you'd get there, it'd almost be closing time!
We went to Legoland last summer and are going again during our DL trip next Thursday.
The park opens at 10 and we will leave DLR around 7:30 AM to get there for park opening.
Last summer we were there all day, from 10-8 (in June) and still left feeling like we wanted more time there, especially to ride that Knight's Tournament ride!
Don't underestimate Legoland!
It may be a small park, but there is a lot to do there, especially if your son is as much of a Legomaniac as my 2 DS's are!
Leave early and make a full day of it ... and don't forget to try Granny's Apple Fries - They're delicious!
Please PM me if you have any questions about Legoland.
Happy planning!
Rose

 

[DisQueen]

We love Legoland, especially my ds - also 7. He's a certified Legomaniac. If your son truly loves legos, two hours would be much too short and he would probably leave more disappointed than if you had skipped it altogether. The drive is more like 1 to 1 1/2 hours each direction with good traffic. The worst time to drive south on the 5 is Saturday am - everybody heading to San Diego for the weekend. The return on Sunday pm could be bad also - everybody returning home. I agree with the other suggestions to make it a full or day or nothing. You can always visit the Lego store in DTD. Great lego supply and a few lifesized (or bigger) lego statues.

 

[rsjj]

yes...you should get there early. it is approximately a 2 hour drive, give or take time for traffic. and like someone else posted...their hours of operation is somewhat "limited", so you don't want to miss that. and i think they aren't open on all days...but maybe sunday, it'll be open. you should double check that too!

if your DS is into bionicles, (like my DS6) he'll love it even more!!

and if there's traffic on the way home...there's a nice little outlet right outside of legoland (company stores at carlsbad...or something called that!) and you can shop/walk around, and have dinner and then, drive home. we did that one time, coming back from san diego. didn't want to deal w/traffic, so we got off at carlsbad, shopped around, had an early dinner, and headed back on the freeway home. and it was smooth sailing!! have fun on your trip! planning is half the fun, i know!!!!!

 

[DisneyMom&Fan]

Wow! I guess my plan is busted! I just don't think we will have enough time to get down there and back in the time that I'm willing to give up. I think I'm gonna have to think real hard about it.

Thanks for all the replies!

 

[AFMom]

We must have hit bad traffic!

 

[MsYumiBr]

Did you take the 55 to the 405 or go straight down the 5? Taking the 405 would add an hour to the trip and would take 3 hours to get here. 5 is a straight shot down and takes 1 hr 45 minutes to get here without traffic. Legoland is about 30-45 minutes up the road so it I would estimate more like 1 hour without traffic down the 5 adding time to get to and from the freeway from Disneyland, about a half hour. Traffic can add a half hour to an hour depending on how big of a mess it is. If they shut down the freeway, turn around and go shopping. lol.

As an added deterrent, I went alone with two little kids. The park at the time was designed for one adult-one kid (we are talking little kid) ratios for most rides. So, for $80 for one adult and one 4 year old and a 1 year old, we were able to go on about 3 attractions; the "knight", the "lego figures" ride and I can't remember what the other thing was at the moment. We spent a lot of time looking at everything which was okay for my kids but we have never went back and never plan to. I kept telling them we'd go with daddy (because of the pairing ratio) but now they are bigger and ready for Magic Mountain. There is one ride at Legoland now that looks pretty cool for bigger kids but that is only one ride.

 

[Snow Brite]

Wow...this is a tough one! My 7 year olds always ADORE Legoland as they are Lego-maniacs also. This park is exactly right for 7 year olds and it would be a shame for your son to miss it if at all possible.

I am not sure you need the entire day, but you WILL need more than a couple of hours. Just looking a Miniland will take at least an hour for a real Lego builder.

If you could leave first thing in the morning and be there before they opened, and skipped the little kiddie rides, I think you could do it in 5 hours and be satisfied you had seen most everything. My sons loved the Driving School, the Motorboat Cruise, Knights Tournament, the Driving School, Dragon rollercoaster, the water shooting thing (cant remember what its called!), the Driving School, the build a lego car to race thing, the boat tour of the lake,the tour of the Lego factory to see where they are made and I loved the Fairytale ride. The Driving School is cool to my little boys as the cars are not on a track like Autopia. They are on these little miniature streets with stop signs and traffic lights and they just think they are the coolest thing to get to drive like a real adult. Also, up in the Castle area, there is a place that sells Granny Smith Fries that are to DIE for. They take apples and cut them into french fries, dip in cinnamon batter and deep fry them, served with vanilla cream dipping sauce. I tell ya, I would go there just to get an order of those! The food is generally pretty good there.

Things you could skip would be the safari, the animals are cool but its not very exciting ride, the firetruck thing unless you have another adult with you, the dumbo knockoff ride, the knight ride where you ride around on the horse, and anything else that looks too little kid.

That all being said, I am not sure I would give up a day at Disney to go. If you went on a day Disney was open late, left early enough to get to Legoland when it opened, stayed 5 hours and then came back to Disney you could still have dinner and the evening at Disney. Its a tough call though.

 

[MsYumiBr]

Driving School! That was it. LOL. Okay, that was worth the money. To be able to watch my 4 year old ignore all the stoplights, drive on the wrong side of the street and be oblivious to the whole thing was worth the whole day of frustrations. Oh, they split the kids into the little kid side and bigger kid side so the more knowledgeable drivers can be safer.

 

[DisneyMom&Fan]

I called Disney this morning (we have the kids fly free package) and tried to arrive a day earlier. No luck - no free flights for kids available. So, here's our schedule and maybe you guys can tell me where I should fit in Legoland. As Snow Brite said, I would really hate for my legomanic to miss this -- especially on his b-day trip.

Arrive Sat. April 22 @ 10:30 a.m. at LAX - going straight to Disneyland
Sun. April 23 - Character Breakfast in DL for DS b-day @ 9:00 a.m.
Monday - Disneyland - Depart LAX @ 7:55

So, where could I fit it in? Should I move the character breakfast to a different day? Would going on Monday risk us missing our flight out of LAX?

Thanks everyone for all your help. You guys rock!

 

[Tink33]

This probably means nothing coming from me, as I celebrate my kids' birthdays with over the top celebrations. Having said that, I would tell my child that he can choose either Disneyland or Legoland for his actual birthday. His birthday = his choice.

You can spend all day at Disneyland on Saturday. How about a break in the evening for a character meal at Goofy's Kitchen?

Wake up Sunday morning and drive to Legoland. On a Sunday morning, the drive should take 60 - 75 minutes. Sign him up for a lego workshop when you arrive. Hit the bigger rides first thing before the crowds show up. If he wants to stay all day, that is his choice. If he wants to stay for a few hours, you can drive back to Disneyland for an evening of more fun at that park.

If you do stay all day at Legoland, I will be happy to give suggestions for a restaurant in the Carlsbad area for a fun dinner.

 

[bjakmom]

Tink33 - give us the suggestions for fun dinners in the Carlsbad area !! We'll be spending 3 nights/ 3 days in Carlsbad (I booked at Grand Pacific Palisades - looked like a good location) and spending one full day at Legoland and one full day at WAP (arrival day will be spent checking out the area and relaxing at the pool) - then driving up to DL/CA on a Sat AM. So excited to hear these great reviews of legoland - DNeph (8) is a huge lego fanatic !!

 

[Snow Brite]

Arrive Sat. April 22 @ 10:30 a.m. at LAX - going straight to Disneyland
Sun. April 23 - Character Breakfast in DL for DS b-day @ 9:00 a.m.
Monday - Disneyland - Depart LAX @ 7:55

So, where could I fit it in? Should I move the character breakfast to a different day? Would going on Monday risk us missing our flight out of LAX?

Thanks everyone for all your help. You guys rock!

You have a pretty short trip there already...Monday is going to be your best day at Disneyland with the least crowds, and you would miss that if you went to Legoland you dont want to be stressing out coming back from San Diego with rush hour traffic trying to make a flight.

I am not sure what I would do in your situation. If you are trying to add on days...try Thursday night or staying another day and going back on Tuesday? We have stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn near Legoland and it is pretty cheap. If you came in on Thursday...drove directly to Carlsbad, spent the night at a cheap hotel, went to Legoland, slept another night at a cheap hotel, got up early and drove to Disneyland, you would gain a whole extra morning at Disneyland. That would probably be what I would do. But that might be out of the budget or not possible with the flights.

 

[rsjj]

I called Disney this morning (we have the kids fly free package) and tried to arrive a day earlier. No luck - no free flights for kids available. So, here's our schedule and maybe you guys can tell me where I should fit in Legoland. As Snow Brite said, I would really hate for my legomanic to miss this -- especially on his b-day trip.

Arrive Sat. April 22 @ 10:30 a.m. at LAX - going straight to Disneyland
Sun. April 23 - Character Breakfast in DL for DS b-day @ 9:00 a.m.
Monday - Disneyland - Depart LAX @ 7:55

So, where could I fit it in? Should I move the character breakfast to a different day? Would going on Monday risk us missing our flight out of LAX?

Thanks everyone for all your help. You guys rock!

do you have a car? how about driving down to san diego on sunday morning, and spend the day at legoland. and leave early, if need to, depending on your child, his b-day, etc. and you can still have an evening at disneyland, if you want. and book a character breakfast for monday, and finish up your day at dl/ca, and fly back home.

or.....if you can fly into carlsbad (is there an airport near there?), and spend the day (saturday) at legoland. (since dl would be definitely crowded!), and drive up to dl to stay at your hotel. (assume you're staying in anaheim? or you can stay in carlsbad, and drive up on sunday morning) and visit dl on sunday & monday, and you can do a later character breakfast on sunday, or even character dinner on sunday.

whatever you decide, i'm sure you'd have a great time. or...how about saving carlsbad/san diego for another trip? good luck!!

 

[DisQueen]

It looks like lots of people are interested in Legoland. Have you all checked legoland.com? It gives you a great overview of the park, etc. On the site you can also sign your child up for the Lego Brickmaster club. It's a year membership. Every other month, your child receives a small lego set in the mail. It has a few other perks, one of which is a free child's admission to Legoland. (at least it did a few months ago, double check me on that). My son and his friends all joined the club and LOVE the magazines and sets. We enrolled him for a birthday gift and visited the park for his b-day. Loved it so much that Santa brought us all AP's for Christmas

 

[DisneyMom&Fan]

With all your helpful suggestions we decided to cancel the character breakfast at DL and go to Legoland Sunday morning (be there when it opens), spend the day, or however long DS wants to stay, and then head back to Disneyland (which will be open 'til Midnight). Yeah, it's a tight trip, but I think it is important for DS to experience something he is SO OBSESSIVELY interested in. Besides, it's his birthday that day. How could a Mom say no?

Plus, it will be a surprise -- there's no way in H-E-double hockey sticks that I'm telling the little dweebo!

Thanks again for all the wonderful advice.

 

[joanne1968]

We are staying in Carlsbad 2 nights in April and want to do 2 1/2 or 3/4 days there (need to fit some scrapbooking shopping in also at Ever After) does anybody have any ideas for restaurants we are staying at the Beach Resort?! Just a mum and her daughter so nothing fancy, we are then spending 3 nights in SD.

 

[DisQueen]

Sounds like a good plan - tiring, but good. I think your DS will thank you for making the change. My DS7 prefers Legoland to Disney. Hmm...I probably shouldn't admit this on this site. In a few years, the lego addiction will fade and the Disney coasters will take over. Have a great trip. Feel free to PM me if you have specific legoland questions.

 

[ilikemickey2]

We are going to DL in August and I was planning on taking my 11 year old granddaughter to Legoland. From reading the posts here, I am now worried that she is too old and will not be able to ride much or enjoy the park at all. Has anyone else taken a child her age to Legoland? She is also tall for her age. Thanks in advance for any information.