Sea World or Legoland with young kids?

Jarmo

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 28, 2014
My kids will be 6, 3, and 2 for a trip to WDW next summer, but the trip is going to be extended a day since that saved $1000 in flight costs. It'll be about $850 to extended our 1BR at Animal Kingdom for a day (although this would include another day of free dining), so I'm looking at other options.

We've never been to Seaworld or Legoland. Which one is a better bet for a day and a half visit?
 
My kids will be 6, 3, and 2 for a trip to WDW next summer, ...

We've never been to Seaworld or Legoland. Which one is a better bet for a day and a half visit?

I would say Legoland for lots of reasons, including that they will outgrow Legoland before almost any other theme park, except for maybe the Thomas the Tank Engine one. Legoland is truly for kids in the best sense, which is one reason I love it. If I were you, I'd check out of WDW and check into one of the currently two, soon to be three in spring 2020, Legoland Hotels. The hotels are integral to the Legoland experience. Theming unlike the mostly tasteful so adults will appreciate it, too, at WDW, it's like stepping into a Lego set, with lots of fun surprises around the hotel. every room is suite-like, too, with a separate room (but no doors) for the kids to sleep, complete with bunk beds plus trundle bed.
A day and half is a perfect amount of time there.
Travel is what will be an issue. We're planning on trying Uber/Lyft when we go in January, to avoid a $150 towncar situation.
 
Legoland is great for younger kids! There are many rides and play areas for the little ones. One of my favorite features is that the height-restricted rides are usually right next to a ride for smaller children or a play area. So if you or your spouse want to go on a "bigger ride" with your six-year-old, it's not hard to split up. I think Legoland is geared toward your kids' ages even more than WDW is.

I wouldn't spend $850 for another night at WDW. You'll be driving nearly an hour each way, and the Legoland hotels are both more convenient and less expensive. You can literally walk from the hotel to the park. Another day of free dining isn't that much of a perk if you're not there to enjoy it, and the money you'll save on the hotel will more than pay for that day's food, plus the rental car.

Sea World has some of the wildest rollercoasters in Orlando. Not that little kids wouldn't enjoy a day at Sea World, but it would be more to see the animals because there really aren't that many rides for them. They'll enjoy it more in the future.
 


I haven't been to Legoland (although it has been my to-go list, but everytime we go, we don't have a car and Legoland is bit far away) but when we went to SW last year, my DD (she was 4) loved it!
She usually really likes rides - and quite enjoyed them at WDW, but at SW, she didn't care that she couldn't go on the rides and kept on watching the shows after the shows! She loved all of them and we also made sure we talk about how important it is for us to cohabitate with the animals, recycle, etc.
It might be more so, because we went in December and there are more shows during Holidays, I was told - like ice skating shows, Sesame Street Christmas shows, etc.

We're going back tomorrow and can let you know how it goes with new Sesame Street Land and other new rides.
I also saw a small splash pads area for kids and a parade.

As far as Legoland goes, I was told that it is great for younger children, so we plan to go next year. Given my DD loves roller coasters, but she is not quite at that height yet, we want to wait until she actually reaches the height requirement for that and go, so we do not disappoint her. Both my DH and my DD LOVES Lego (like DH wants Lego for his birthday.. hm...), but at this point, I think she likes animals more. According to my friend who went, told me that they spent more time at the Legoland hotel that night building Legos than at the Park itself. But her son (who was also 4 when he went) does not like rides, so that explains.

If you go in the summer, you also can go to the waterpark, which is a plus, I think. We always travel in winter, so their waterpark is always closed. :(

Lastly, my DH and I watched Youtube videos of both SW and Legoland parks by several people and discussed what would work better for our DD before we made our decision.
 


A day and half is a perfect amount of time there.
Travel is what will be an issue. We're planning on trying Uber/Lyft when we go in January, to avoid a $150 towncar situation.

Did you know they run a shuttle bus from Pointe Orlando that's $5 return per person? Will be way cheaper than Uber or Lyft - just so you know you have another option!
 
Did you know they run a shuttle bus from Pointe Orlando that's $5 return per person? Will be way cheaper than Uber or Lyft - just so you know you have another option!

Wow. What/where is Pointe Orlando? We're going MCO to Legoland to WDW, and could use any and all transportation recommendations.
 
Pointe Orlando is on International Drive and you can book the shuttle through the LEGOLAND website. We're heading over in 3 weeks time and have booked it! The only issue is that it leaves first thing in the morning and comes back when the park closes, so if you're not planning on staying the full day it's maybe not the best option.
 
Thanks all! We will have a rental for the whole trip, so transportation isn't a concern. Leaning toward Legoland!
 
I haven't been to Legoland (although it has been my to-go list, but everytime we go, we don't have a car and Legoland is bit far away) but when we went to SW last year, my DD (she was 4) loved it!
She usually really likes rides - and quite enjoyed them at WDW, but at SW, she didn't care that she couldn't go on the rides and kept on watching the shows after the shows! She loved all of them and we also made sure we talk about how important it is for us to cohabitate with the animals, recycle, etc.
It might be more so, because we went in December and there are more shows during Holidays, I was told - like ice skating shows, Sesame Street Christmas shows, etc.

We're going back tomorrow and can let you know how it goes with new Sesame Street Land and other new rides.
I also saw a small splash pads area for kids and a parade.

As far as Legoland goes, I was told that it is great for younger children, so we plan to go next year. Given my DD loves roller coasters, but she is not quite at that height yet, we want to wait until she actually reaches the height requirement for that and go, so we do not disappoint her. Both my DH and my DD LOVES Lego (like DH wants Lego for his birthday.. hm...), but at this point, I think she likes animals more. According to my friend who went, told me that they spent more time at the Legoland hotel that night building Legos than at the Park itself. But her son (who was also 4 when he went) does not like rides, so that explains.

If you go in the summer, you also can go to the waterpark, which is a plus, I think. We always travel in winter, so their waterpark is always closed. :(

Lastly, my DH and I watched Youtube videos of both SW and Legoland parks by several people and discussed what would work better for our DD before we made our decision.

Just so you know, driving to Legoland is really easy. I've never driven in Orlando before, but had no problems picking up the car from MCO, following my GPS, and returning the car to MCO. We did a long weekend trip (Friday night to Monday afternoon) with two days at Legoland, and my rental came to not much over $100.

The height restrictions at Legoland are fairly low, so your DD should be okay when you go. My DD was just about to turn 4, and met many height restrictions (but the dragon coaster scared her so she only rode it once).

There is also a great activity center that has tons of legos to play with. There are structured activities, but also tons of Legos for free play. They have bins that sandboxes, but they're full of Legos, so your kid can literally sit in a pile of Legos and build.
 
Legoland.

I am biased as I do not like SeaWorld, went last Christmas and loved the shows but I was indifferent about the rest. My seven year old struggled for rides to go on.

Legoland, on the other hand, we all love. There are lots of rides available for the children, a few a quite thrilling. The pirate show is fun and the model world is really cute. The queues are minimal.

The only thing I hate about Legoland is the photographs. We have bought the photograph pack and there are very few opportunities to have photographs taken. You can take photographs with the pirates after the show but there is no Legoland photographer and the pirates are there for a short period, they will leave a queue of disappointment children.

Legoland is a great park for young children, SeaWorld meh.
 
I haven't been to Legoland, but throwing in a vote for SeaWorld!

As someone mentioned above, they just built a Sesame Street area that the little kids will love. There is a parade and some great small rides. But what I like most about SeaWorld is that everyone at any age can appreciate animals. There are lots of great areas to just stand and watch the animals, and for some like the beluga whales, dolphins, and penguins you can really stand around for a while just watching. The shows are a nice change of pace from Disney, because instead of waiting on a 30 minute line for a two minute ride, you can get to the theater 15 minutes before (maybe longer before if it's a busy day and you want to claim a good seat) and watch a show for another 20-30 minutes. It feels like a bit of a lazier day than the Disney parks because once you figure out what shows you want to go to, you can float between them and the other exhibits. I will say there are some "big kid" rides that your kids wouldn't be able to go on, but there is still plenty to do. Also, it's a wayyyy shorter drive. For reference, SeaWorld is really only one exit on the highway north of the Disney Springs exit.
 
Seaworld is amazing.. they have a new sesame street. Our favorite thing about seaworld is the all you can dine.... you can eat /drink almost any thing every hour. Check out the seaworls thread for the menus.
We did one day at seaworld and one at aquatica but we could have easily done two days at seaworld. The kids still talk about it
Its a great family park that everyone enjoys
Its not all about rides even though they have a few new ones. Its nice cause you can relax and just be there together. We can not wait to go back.
I have to say legoland was fun the kids liked it we bought go orlando passes it has unlimted attractions for how ever many days you buy including legoland plus a lot of places on idrive
 
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We just returned from a Thanksgiving trip where we finished out our Sea World AP's. We also took one day to go to Legoland. My kids are 3 and 7. The 7 year old loved Legoland and the 3 year old did enjoy the day, but there was so much he couldn't do. Since he is about an inch under the 40 inch requirement for most rides, he did a lot of just sitting around waiting for his sister. With kids that are 2 and 3, you are going to be spending most of your day with your family split up. We enjoy Sea World much more as a family. The 7 year old can't ride the coasters yet, so we don't have to split up. We spend time watching the shows and feeding the animals together. Sea World is definitely slower pace and MUCH more relaxing.
 
Even though it's not a hard drive to Legoland it is not next door to Disney World.

SeaWorld for your age group would be more family friendly.
 

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