A wonderfully brilliant experience and a cracking day out! (Legoland Windsor)

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	Legoland Windsor
Date:	08/07/09 (132 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: So much to see and a universal appeal to all ages!

Disadvantages: Too much to get round in a day- there is just so much to see and do!

A good friend of ours working for a popular burger chain was recently able to..ahem.... "acquire" several half-price entry tickets for the popular child-friendly theme park that is LegoLand in Windsor and, having always wanted to go and with the British summer being amazing this year, we decided to make it a joint family out. I am happy to report that I was not disappointed though anyone wanting to share my experience should be warned that this is far from a cheap day out! Even with our vouchers, admission cost £37 for us both and my daughter only got in free because she was under 3! One woman we later spoke to told us her son, aged 5, had been charged £28 to get in which is not far off the adult price. When you multiply that by however big your family is, it doesn't leave you with much change! I was thankful that our vouchers pretty much ensured that really one of us got in for nothing! Anyone thinking of going would be advised to check up on the 'net as I hear that there are always discount vouchers etc floating about and it is usually only if you pay on the day that you can expect to pay full-price! omeone mentioned to me recently that if you buy Persil at the mo you can get cheaper tickets to this and other attractions so that may be worth checking out....

Admission cost aside, there is plenty to see and do at LegoLand and you more than get your money's worth. Skimming through other people's reviews, I see some grumbles about queueing times for rides etc but surely you get that at all theme parks don't you? We went last Thursday and although it was busy, we never had to wait too long for anything we wanted to go on so I guess it just depends on being careful when you choose to go.

We arrived at half past ten, gates open at ten, and the park shut at 5pm though shops near the exit were open for longer in order to squeeze you of every penny you might have left. There is a wide variety of shops all around the park that specialise in clothing ranges, sweets or a wide array of soft toys (including a soft Lego-man which we regretfully never got a chance to buy) and of course sets of Lego and Duplo which are available in abundance!

The park itself is split into zones and there are plenty of places to get something to eat though how reasonable they are I do not know as we all took picnic lunches. (There were thirteen of us in total so eating out could've been pricey!). One thing we did think was good was that for £4.90 you could buy a refillable plastic cup/ flask and get unlimited refills of fizzy soft drink of your choice! This we thought an excellent idea especially on a hot day like it was last thursday- one of the hottest days of the year so far!

The different zones are all clearly sign-posted and each cleverly themed. We did not get a chance to visit them all even spending all day at the park but they included a Duplo zone for toddlers that came complete with a water fountain area which was great for cooling down in and a kiddies play area with swings, slides and rides. Other themed areas included a land of the Pharohs new for 2009 apparently, a 4D theatre complex where you could watch a Bob The Builder adventure with special glasses and other zones where you could act out being a fireman (available for adults and their children to act out together), a boating school and a driving school open to 6-13 year olds only unfortunately and all manner of rides designed for adults and kids alike.

Of course, being kiddie-friendly, the rides are not quite white-knuckle but they are still quite fun to experience. These are rides solely designed to break you into bigger and badder theme parks much later on. Me and my friends got a chance to go on the log flume twice (it broke down in the first instance due to a power surge that swept across the park for about ten minutes and we had to be rescued!), a barrel ride which sweeps you along white-water rapids (and which I was the only one of our party to get wet twice!!), a vary on the traditional spinning tea-cups ride complete with a wgheel you can spin to make you go faster and a jet boat ride that swings you round a large water area whilst jets of water randomly shoot out at you. I don't normally do rides but caught up in the moment with everyone else piling on (whilst grand-parents got lumbered with the kids!) I found myself quite literally having a whale of a time! There is even a pirate ship ride that swings you round and about though not as ferociously as you might expect from other more grown-up theme parks, still it is powerful enough to be lots of fun!

Honestly, I could go on and on about how brilliant LegoLand Windsor is all day and I haven't even mentioned the model village yet which features scenes from all around the world including Mount Rushmore, The Millenium Eye and Big Ben, Venice, Amsterdam and all manner of exotic locales all made out of Lego! Honestly the place is amazing especially for big kids like myself and I would not hesitate to go again. It is easy to find, situated as it is off the M4, and parking is free unless you want to pay extra to get your car right up near the entrance. I cannot sum up in words just how impressed I was with the whole place and it was an experience I sorely hope to repeat in the future- if only to visit the bits we had to miss due to time constraints. As I mentioned previously, there were thirteen of us in our group of mixed ages from 22 months to 50 years plus and not one of us had a bad word to say about it! It was a long day for us with a three hour drive to get there but it was worth every single moment and I cannot wait to go again sometime in the not-too-distant future!

Summary: Lego but as you might not have seen it built before....