🧱 Celebrating at Legoland, Windsor
With each year that passes, time seems to accelerate beyond comprehension. 2 weeks ago, it was the-toddler-gorilla's 4th birthday and despite life-before-toddler being a distant memory, the fact that he's now 4 years old just doesn't seem possible.
But it's happened, he's 4 years old and the-mrs-gorilla had the great idea of celebrating with a day at Legoland.
We Had To Get There First
As far as mornings and journeys go, we didn't get off to the best of starts. the-baby-gorilla had obviously picked up a bug and after eating his breakfast, he vomited it all down himself. So we had a decision to make... do we cancel? Or hope that he'll be ok? Since we needed to be in Reading the next day anyway, we decided to go and hope for the best... more on that later.
It's a 2 hour drive from our home to Legoland, not too bad but with 50 minutes to go, the-baby-gorilla woke up and screamed a little. the-toddler-gorilla didn't like this and decided the best idea would be to scream at him. Which made the-baby-gorilla scream louder and you'll probably guess what the-toddler-gorilla's reaction was. This lasted for approximately 40 minutes before they both fell asleep and missed our drive down Legoland Drive.
1st Impressions
When we reached the park, the car park was huge but fortunately, not too busy. Once we'd sorted out our stuff and made our way in (without having to queue at all), we were quite simply blown away by the place. It was huge. The models were huge and everything was so incredibly well spaced out. We were told there were rides but at this point, we weren't interested in rides. We were like kids in a toy store - jaws on the floor and amazed by everything.
The giant Lego dinosaur with the microphone was playing music which the-toddler-gorilla wasn't too impressed with.
The Rides
We did decide to go on a few rides though and we were very lucky with the day that we chose to go, I think the longest queue was a 15-20 minute wait with some rides having no queue at all. We went on a sky train which allowed us to see the entire model world...
...a fairy tale boat ride (which we went around 3 times because there was no queue and we didn't have to get off)...
...a hot air balloon that took you up in the sky, helicopters, a fire engine that you could drive and then squirt hoses to put out a "burning building"...
...and the-toddler-gorilla got to drive a little motorised car and earn his driving license. I took far too many pictures to share them all but hopefully the few that I've shared help you to imagine quite how amazing this place is.
Lunch
You might remember that I told you about the-baby-gorilla being sick in the morning... well at lunch time, we tried to give him a bit of food again whilst sat in the Duplo Theatre and rather unfortunately, he vomited all over the floor 🤮 We were good citizens though and asked somebody to find a cleaner. I went on the Duplo train with the-toddler-gorilla whilst the-mrs-gorilla waited for the cleaner with the-baby-gorilla.
Lego World
Having seen Lego World from the sky, we also explored it on the ground. Once again, far too many photos and even videos to share so I'll choose a place that I know well. Do you recognise it?
Final Thoughts
We had an amazing day and are already planning another trip (maybe even following @petface's suggestion of going to the Denmark version). We got lucky with the day we went - perfect weather, no queues and we still only managed to visit about half of the park.
We ended the day with an ice cream and a visit to the Lego shop... Since it was the-toddler-gorilla's birthday, we gave him free reign to choose anything as a present - he picked up a soft toy which I refused to buy him since it had absolutely nothing to do with Lego. After spending well over an hour in the shop and the-toddler-gorilla only wanting to sit at a Lego table and build little figures, we were the last people there and everybody wanted to go home so we managed to persuade the-toddler-gorilla to build 3 figures (one of which was a lady in a Chinese dress and shark head) which we bought (as well as a little something for myself) and finally made our way home.
We sometimes had the same experience. Shortly before a holiday or an excursion was to begin, someone became ill or unwell. Then you are faced with the decision: go anyway, postpone or not go at all...
We probably would have decided to go, as the little ones usually get active again very quickly. Well, you had a "relapse" after all ;-)
Why missed? Is this a shuttle to Legoland that runs regularly?
We have been to Legoland Billund (the Danish park) twice so far. The first time, we had a day when it was very pleasant like yours. The second time we couldn't do anything at all because there were long queues everywhere.
I think the Legoland Parks are quite similar. I seem to remember that there was also the "burning building" in Billund. :-)
You can see that Lego is a company that also wants to "sell" and not just "entertain". Especially in the shops at the end of the park. In the Lego Discovery Centre in Berlin, you can only get to the exit through the shop. It's very difficult to get through there with children. :-))
Nevertheless, I can really recommend Legoland for families!
P.S. I didn't spontaneously recognise the place :-)
It wasn't pretty - I'm just glad we weren't at home 😆
It's just the road that leads up to the car park. It's got a few large models on either side of the road so it's a great way to being the experience... The "missed it" in the sense of being asleep and not seeing it 😴
This is probably the reality of Legoland and having not experienced it like this, we'd probably be disappointed.
I'd been to the one in Windsor before (a friend's brother used to work there) but I couldn't remember any of it - it's probably 20 years since I last went and I since I can't even remember this morning, it's no surprise I couldn't remember it.
I think if we travel to Billund, we'd have to stay in the Lego hotel (which is cheaper than the one at Legoland, Windsor) so we'd probably get a lot more out of the trip. Is Billund far from you? I'm guessing you live in the North of Germany?
Yes, I live in the north of Germany, in the Mecklenburg Lake District, although it is rather a southern part of the north ;-)
It's too far to Billund for a day trip. It's still about 500 km, so about 320 miles. We had a holiday home in Blavand at the time. From there it was not far.
Time flies indeed. I love your Lego Land footer. The collage with the Steem currency logo in the middle is my favourite. I love that you included a first impressions paragraph. This certainly is something we tend to ask each other about when we have just arrived somewhere. So it does make your article a proper travel diary which I am glad that you put together and shared with us here. The boat ride is a fantastic, relaxing way to enjoy looking around. You were quite lucky with the weather and enjoyed the park, at least half of it, on a non busy day.
This must be Piccadilly Circus!
I do hope you visit Lego Land in Denmark. I find such family outings amazing and I believe that the kids would remember them.
Thanks. The images took me so much longer to put together than writing the post!! I created a PSD template some time ago for my fantasy sports updates so I have the logo and can split the screen into lots of different sections quite easily. The Lego took ages though... I eventually found some bricks I could use and painstakingly added each person for each of the different separators. In thinking that I wouldn't write about Lego again (even though I know that I will), I didn't save the PSD file and am rather regretting it now. Although I did save the PNGs so might be able to recreate a slightly lower resolution version 🤔
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Do you recognise this one...?
I do recognise it 🌏 This is the Forbidden City! I hope you are having a relaxing Sunday. Keep an eye out for my next post. It will be all about my auntie’s garden which I remember I told you about.
The screams!!! Must be so hard😂..
It's not ideal when trying to concentrate on busy motorways but by the end of it, the madness had set in and I couldn't help but laugh!
Oh you laughed, that's good to know that you weren't frustrated at least.. and mrs-gorilla, 🙂 how did she take it? She laughed too? She couldn't help calm them down?
Ha ha - we had to. And the-mrs-gorilla kept very quiet. the-baby had screamed earlier in the journey whilst the-mrs-gorilla was trying to get the-toddler-gorilla to be quiet. I told her that the-baby was crying because he could hear her and she got really stroppy saying "Oh, it's my fault is it??? It's always my fault."
Then it went quiet until the-mrs-gorilla said something which triggered the-baby-gorilla to go crazy (for 40 minutes). If a laugh could say "I told you so", it was mine 😆
🤣🤣🤣🤣omg.. I know marriage is not always fun but this scene right here looks like it! Like a plot of some movie, or maybe I'm seeing it that way because of the way you've written it.
She must have really been riled up by what you said. She thought she was being good for you all only for you to say that, aw😆🤣
You're a great husband and dad by the way, you really have time for your family, cheers!
the-baby-gorilla's been doing it for a while. He gets upset whenever he sees her and then gets upset whenever he leaves. So if he can hear her, he does the same thing... she already knew this but was feeling stroppy... until she set him off again and she had to laugh too 😆
Thanks - I do my best, that's all you can ask 🙂
Oh so she laughed! Finally🤣🤣
Babies will always be babies👶, you can never understand them.
Of course you do buddy. Take care!
Sounds familiar. My boys are 5 and 1.5 year old. The little one gets bored if a car journey lasts more than an hour and starts hitting his elder brother. I have to sit between them mostly to keep the journey peaceful. 🤷🏻♀️
The place definitely looks worth visiting.
I wonder if your youngest would still do this if the 5 year old hit him back 🤔
It was fantastic 🙂
Congratulations!
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