Our experience @ Legoland Windsor - April 2014

I am an "old" mum, and boooring: Oh, how I miss the times when the kids were very young and we just had to push their buggy around the park... Now they need adventure and action to burn energy and I get tired only to talk about it! Let me tell you how we have spent part of our Easter break:

Our second visit to Legoland Windsor after exactly 2 years - And this time it's been much better for the boys than 2 years ago... maybe because they were a bit older?  Or because this second time we were not in a hurry, anxious to see everything, to try every attraction and watch every show in the park (our biggest mistake back then). Probably a bit of both... What is sure is that my bones are not the same anymore after this trip, (I know, I know: old and booooring)

(third kid is our nephew, who's been living with us for the past couple of years)

We bought a package online from the Legoland UK official page: bought both the tickets and the accommodation at the same time which made things much easier. 

The hotel

Tried to book the one inside the park (amazing and very expensive but this was a big occasion and decided it was worth it) - impossible to book less than 2 months in advance, and knowing us, that's basically impossible: we're the "last minute family". Fully booked when we tried it (good advise if you want to go - don't be like us! )

From the options we had, the one we liked most was St Anne's Manor, in Wokingham. It was very good and had a much more reasonable price due to a very good offer we got - totally met our expectations! 

There was a nice swimming pool with jacuzzi that the kids enjoyed on our first day - the 5 year old one, who is lazier than his mum, or even a bit more, found the joys of the jacuzzi!!!! what a great discovery for him :-)

The food (breakfast was included and we had dinner the two nights we stayed) was also very good. 

The Park - Our Top Attractions

We had bought the 1 Day+1 Extra Day free pack, so we had initially thought of trying all the attractions we wanted to try on the first day and then on the second day just repeat the ones we liked more... good strategy that proved to be "mission impossible" for us: the boys kept dragging us to the same places over and over again

Our first and best attraction was THE DRAGON, a roller coaster in the Knight's Kingdom area. Big enough to be exciting for both kids and adults, but safe enough for a 5 year old to try it and love it! (if he is taller than 1m). I lost count of how many times we went on it after the third... actually I'm pretty sure that we would still be there if Dad and I had not decided to stop when our heads couldn't bear it anymore :-)

Great attraction, I have to say (now that the kids cannot hear). It starts and finishes in the castle which is so well built. Even the tiniest details were taken care of!

The STAR WARS MINILAND MODEL DISPLAY was also our first and best attraction (we had two!) as this was just to visit and admire. 

It features 7 famous scenes of the StarWars saga films, mainly battles. My oldest son is a Star Wars expert, and having him beside me while we were seeing this exhibition made things completely different!. I learnt that some clones have names...Please meet Rex

...and I met many others. I have to say all clones used to look the same to me before. How could I live with that???!!!

He kept on explaining: "Mum this is the battle of xxxxx where xxxx happened" in each scene he would patiently explain all details about it. I was so impressed, and found it really interesting!

Read somewhere that 1.5 million Lego bricks were used to build the whole thing, so I'm pretty sure we can build one in our corridor with exactly the same number of bricks (we have Lego bricks in all the corners of our place, I swear!), aaand have a tour guide - my son - to explain the scenes to our visitors (good business, I tell you!)

I've always kind of liked Darth, I have to admit...

Another one we really liked was the ATLANTIS SUBMARINE VOYAGE, in Adventure Land: a submarine ride around a huge aquarium full of different species of flora and fauna (both real and lego!) The sharks and rays you see through the windows are just amazing! 

Through the journey, you believe you're part of an underwater mission, because of the commentaries that can be heard in the submarine. These commentaries encourage the kids to interact, pressing buttons and touching the different screens. 

For me, this the best attraction of the park (my kids say I'm old and boring though, so don't trust my opinion that much)

I cannot forget the LASER RAIDERS in The Kingdom of the Pharaohs: a must-try for the young Indiana Jones followers of this world (I have three at home, including Dad who loved this one as much as they did): a car, provided with laser guns, takes you into an ancient Egyptian temple where you have to shoot the different marked objects. Fun for all ages and both girls and boys!

The list could go on and on... The Viking's River Splash, in the Land of the Vikings (leave this one for last, as you get wet!) was another popular one worth mentioning.

In general, there are attractions for ALL tastes and ages, even for the youngest members of the family, specially in the Traffic area (Driving School, Boating School or Balloon School are specially designed for younger kids)

The park is big enough to keep anyone entertained for at least two days, as there are not only attractions:

- There are nice shows to watch on different times during the day. We loved the pirates one and watched it twice: it's performed by some very good acrobats in Lego City - very entertaining

- There are three different trains in different areas in the park. I'd strongly recommend you the Orient Expedition, not a very long ride, but very interesting. All along, you see all kinds of things built with Lego pieces, mainly animals: pandas, tigers, zebras... It's a big train and the ride is short, so the waiting times are very reasonable.

- There is an Xbox gaming zone with many Xbox consoles and Lego games for the kids to relax for a while: we spent quite some time in the fantastically located cafe just opposite this attraction while the kids played a few games :-). This is a very good option if you have some rain during your visit - it's an indoor area (also the cafe has some room inside!)

I could go on and on about the things we saw and did. The whole made our three day vacation just unforgettable for all of us.

Now it'll take me another two years to recover and be ready for our next visit!!!