Family Fun at Legoland Florida

If you know almost nothing about our family or our son, you probably know our son is a Lego fan. He and Lego go way back–he’s got the Lego camps and Legofest and Brickfest trips to prove it, but the one thing he didn’t have was a Legoland trip.

Back in January, I started looking for a fun family trip for us to take the boy on around Spring Break. We were hoping to enjoy some one-on-one time with our guy before a baby made its debut. I inadvertently thought the days marked for standardized testing were the days marked for Spring Break, booked our trip, and never looked back. Until I did. And saw that now the boy would be missing school and I would be missing work. Oops. We kept it all under wraps until we didn’t. While we wanted it to be a surprise, we always wanted him to be able to build some anticipation and get excited. (Plus, we had already pulled off the big surprise in Cloudcroft this year, but that’s another blog for another time–like January, when we went.)

Turns out, this booking pre-Spring Break was not a terrible mistake. We flew out Thursday evening after school and work. It made for a late evening getting into Florida, but the airport was easy to navigate, we grabbed our rental car, and got into our Airbnb pretty quickly. (Not an Airbnb fan? Don’t knock it ’til you try it! We have found some truly great places to stay that way! Try it here. Referral link; you get a credit and I get a credit.) We skipped the Legoland Resort the first night since we would be getting in so late, but they were very accommodating when we arrived for our early entry (a resort perk) the next morning. We left our luggage with the concierge, headed to the resort entrance of the park, and waited for security. I read previously to start at the back of the park and work forward, so when we got in, that’s just what we did. Although we had early access to the park, the rides didn’t open until the park did. It still gave us time to get to the back and get situated before the main gates opened. We waited for the Ford Driving School first because the boy had seen something about it on YouTube and was really looking forward to it.

Once we got to the back, though, the boy was dying to get back to Ninjago World, which had just opened prior to our trip. We went on and did the rides between Driving School and Ninjago World while we were back there, but he wasn’t so sure about that idea! I think we rode Ninjago World three or more times when we got to it. (I won every time.)

We continued to work our way back to the park entrance, with plenty of time to do rides multiple times, stop and rest, or browse the shops (again, we’re talking the Friday prior to the Friday when most places’ Spring Break would actually begin). A couple of roller coasters were closed while we were there, but the boy had no interest in riding them, anyway. Mr. Gray and I made them little mini-dates!

 

When I was booking this trip, I had no idea what we were going to do after 5:00 when the park closed. Turns out, that’s what the resort is for! They completely entertain your kid until well after their normal bed time. We didn’t book the meal plan (because it was for four, and it was cheaper for us to just pay for our three meals) for supper, but we did eat there one night prior to the pajama party. They had a buffet with foods of every kind. All of us found something we were able to enjoy.

We anticipated Saturday would be a little more crowded at the park, so we took the day to drive into Orlando and watch a spring training game at ESPN World. Great venue, great set up, super hot!

We made it back to the resort for some pool time and pajama partying before heading back up to our room. (Did I mention we did the pirate room?)

Sunday morning, we headed down for breakfast at the resort and back over to the park for early entry. We didn’t go quite as early this time since we knew the actual rides wouldn’t be open early. We did go on back to the back since Driving School got fairly crowded Friday afternoon and required quite a wait. We knocked out all the must-dos first and then made our way around to things we didn’t get to Friday.

We were only in the park until about mid-afternoon. Then we grabbed our stuff from the concierge, loaded up, and headed back to Orlando. We were staying at the airport hotel to catch the early flight out Monday morning.

Overall, I don’t think we could have planned a better trip at a better time. It fun for all of us, and the heat wasn’t terrible yet, so we could do the whole day in the park if we wanted.

Things we would do again:

  • Go on a non-holiday or school break time
  • Start at the back of the park
  • Eat the pizza buffet for lunch
  • Stay at the resort
  • Book park tickets through the resort
  • Fly in the night prior to planning to be at the park
  • Not spend the extra money to stay at the resort when getting in late
  • Purchase the photo pass (and the additional day)
  • Watch the pirate show
  • Go on an event weekend; we loved the different activities for Lego Batman Movie Days

Things we would do differently:

  • Add an extra day at the resort (the boy had so much fun meeting other children and playing in the downstairs common area)
  • Check out Legoland Beach Retreat (it hadn’t opened yet when we were there)
  • Not rent a car from Budget (man, what an experience that was)

 

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