So, you’re thinking of booking a trip to LEGOLAND Windsor or you already have a date in the diary? I have so much to tell you, so grab yourself a cuppa, this is going to be a long post.

We have not long come back from a LEGOLAND Holiday and have been asked by many of you online to document our experience. I’ve had questions about what we booked, along with our thoughts on the park, rides, hotel, and things we wished we knew before going with any tips we would recommend. We experienced LEGOLAND on a Thursday and Friday in 24-degree heat the first day and downpour rain the second day so I feel we have lots to share with you. 

I hope this helps if you’re planning a visit, I am always up for a natter if there’s anything else you want to know or for me to elaborate on feel free to message me on any of my social media platforms.

Part 1 – General info, taking the children out of school, prices, accessibility, what wish we knew before coming and more.

Part 2 – Ride and attraction reviews, what’s is good for what ages, what we would recommend queuing for and what we would skip with distance ideas and the routes we would take – COMING JULY

Part 3 – Offsite Hotel Review – COMING SOON

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Let’s get stuck in, we aren’t going abroad this year and myself and husband wanted to plan little weekend 2-night style stays throughout the year instead of one big holiday, something for us to look forward to and short bursts of fun for the boys. 

We had a look online and LEGOLAND stood out to us as a place to go, if your new and don’t know us, we have two boys, E who is 9 and L who is 7 we thought this age would be perfect. They’re not overly into Lego as in building or making but they love the films, games, and TV programmes. 

Taking the children out of school

E has additional needs and this would be our first experience at a “Theme park” with him, he struggles with ques along with many other aspects down to his ASD so we decided to book for a weekday and take the boys out of school, something we haven’t done with both being in full-time education. E goes to a special education school who are amazing and said yes, they fully understand the troubles we would have going on a busy weekend or holiday. L’s mainstream school we don’t know them on a personal level like Es, we asked for a leave of absence form from reception and wrote a very brief reason to why we wanted to take them and were honest in the fact it was for LEGOLAND, I know my child wouldn’t keep it quiet if his life depended on it.

The school were good, couldn’t authorise the time out as it wasn’t under “exceptional circumstances” but did say that we wouldn’t get fined if he was to return as usual on Monday and to “have fun” So with that out the way we looked forward to our trip. We booked for Thursday 19th and Friday 20th June in hopes we could miss the weekend rush.

Booking our holiday

We booked directly through the LEGOLAND website, we decided to stay at a nearby hotel Copthorne Slough Windsor (review on the hotel coming soon) we would have loved to have stayed in the main LEGOLAND resort, but it was crazy money and we couldn’t decide on who’s kidney to sell so we opted for the cheaper hotel. 

Altogether

• 2 nights stay in a Family room, Thursday Night, Friday Night with breakfast both mornings

• Tickets for the 4 of us Thursday and Friday (must be used consecutively) 

• With two days of parking in the park (cheaper to book online than pay on the day)

Total – £443

Extras we had to pay for, petrol to travel of course. The hotel has onsite parking which is charged at a discounted rate of £7 a day costing £14 for the two nights. They also charge £10 a family to use the swimming pool and leisure facilities per day where some hotels have that included in the price its worth checking directly with the hotel and looking on the own company website. 

Don’t forget to use cashback sites like Top Cash Back to get money back from your holiday.

Sign up for FREE here!

When booking a hotel be sure to look at the distance from the park, if they have onsite parking, is breakfast included along with how much the extra facility’s are if your wanting to use.

While booking the holiday we had an option of booking a few extras in LEGOLAND, one of them being a Digipass, which we should have done, it’s £14 for the day and you get all the photos from the rides that take photos (around 7 and the roaming photography.) If you pay for it on the day like us, it costs £20 so you would save £5. You can also upgrade for £10 on the day to use it for a second day meaning if you were to do both it would be £25 for all your ride photos for you to download for both days. 

Travelling to the park

We travelled from Coventry and it was an easy straightforward trip, taking us around an hour and a half. Close to LEGOLAND around 10 minutes away we came across lots of little pubs, an Aldi and Tesco, we stopped for toilet breaks here so we didn’t have to worry about going when we got to the park after our journey. We stopped to grab meal deal lunches to take into the park it saved us a fortune, along with time. The pubs would be perfect on the way out for dinner. 

(If you are planning to eat in the park, make sure to check what time the places open and close some are only open at certain times.)

Before you go download the app, it’s amazing as it shows you where you are in real-time, what rides you are close to, what the wait time for the ride is, and all the details and restrictions. If a ride is closed or not. All the show times it’s great and we used it constantly throughout the day. 

What we wore and took in our day bag

I would really recommend you take a day bag that has plenty of pockets and zips, a walking bag like this one here that’s durable and easy to throw about but narrow that it would fit by your legs on rides. I also wore a thin waterproof that has zip pockets for phones so it was handy for photos and the app but would be secure on rides. 

I swear by these Carabinier clips here I use them when ever we do family day trips it makes things so much easier to carry you can clip caps to them, lunchbox’s, all sorts.

Loads of snacks, these were perfect, especially for the kids to eat when queuing for rides, it was a great way to distract them and there are bins in most ques to get rid of rubbish. Zip lock bags for crisps and snacks meant we could easily stop and start if we got on a ride.

We also packed lots of bottles of water which I regrated. All around the park they have drinks stations like the ones you get at Five guys, the ones with all flavors of fizzy drinks. They sell cups for £15 and you get unlimited refills for the day, for the second day if you bring back your cup you can pay £6 to reset it. These machines also have free water which you can use with any bottle, so if we were to go again (which we are shhh don’t tell the children we are booked to go in July) then we would take the one bottle for water and use the machines to fill up. There’s lots of stations scattered all over the park so your never to far from a top up. I think the cups are only worth it if more then two of you will be drinking fizzy drinks. The boys don’t have them so to get our moneys worth me and Luke would have to have alot of pop. The cup is a cute souvenir still.

Suntan lotion is of course a must even when its cloudy! I have one that we can clip onto our bag, but a little hack for you. Buy a clip-on hand sanitiser bottle you can get them on amazon here then fill it with your suntan lotion. Easily clips onto your bag so when you’re walking about or queueing you don’t need to rummage you have it to hand the same with sanitiser they did have lots of hand stations when you got off rides which were great and i did see a couple of suntan lotion stations which is amazing I’ve never seen that anywhere before.

I would recommend taking a battery pack like this one here we have 3 of these and love them! In the park you use your phone a lot throughout the day not just taking photos but on the app, parts of the park have interaction spots where you scan QR codes, so an additional battery is needed. I forgot mine on day two and felt bad not letting the kids run about interacting with everything!

I wore sports leggings and a long top the first day when it was scorching hot. On the day it chucked it down I wore a dress with cycling shorts underneath, I felt so comfortable in the cycling shorts and dress combo which surprised me. On some of the rides, you get wet so I dried off quickly. There were mums in maxi dresses and sandals I defiantly would not recommend. I can imagine getting in and out of some of the rides would have been a challenge. You want to wear something that covers your bum, you don’t mind straddling things with it and are fine if it blows up from the wind on rides if that makes sense will go into more detail in my ride post. See my ride review coming soon. Some of the rides make you take your shoes off too if they aren’t fitted well and loose.

Shoes I 100% recommend sketchers all day! They are the comfiest lightest trainers ever these are the ones I have here, I’ve got them in all black and grey with pink. No laces to worry about, your feet don’t get too hot in them, no blisters, true to size, there just the best. On day two my feet only started to hurt right towards the end considering the amount of walking we did.

The boys we got them to wear their beach shoes, these have been a godsend for every trip and adventure we have been on. They’re super cheap as well we get them from here and the boys say there comfy, which means their feet can get wet and we don’t have to worry about them. They also dry super quick, have a good grip on the bottom and are perfect for water parks, streams, rides that get you wet and of course the beach. I would defiantly recommend getting some of them. The day it chucked it down they were fine. On the first path in the park there’s a little water stream that runs down the hill. The boys were straight in it no worries about soggy trainers and socks. 

Navigating around the park

Parking when we got to LEGOLAND was easy, we parked in carpark B which was a short walk to the entrance. They check your bags on arrival and then you head over to where they check your tickets. I had pre-printed ours off which helped massively there was no faffing about with phones and the internet.

LEGOLAND does have its own WIFI so you can easily hook up to that. 

On arrival, you can pick up maps, but you can also use the app which we used as mentioned above it’s the best way to get around. We kept a few maps for the children’s memory boxes. We also used them back at the hotel to plan the next day, the kids loved looking at them in the car. 

As soon as you enter there are toilets to your left which had huge queues. If you’re like me and panic about where toilets are the next ones are a 5-minute walk, you go down the hill until you see the Lego giraffes and the LEGO REEF attraction. These are great and they also have lockers outside, so if there’s anything you have brought like wet clothes for the water park then this is a great place to keep before or after so not to have to carry it around its also not too far from the water park section. 

The park is massive, I wish I had my watch on that day to track all our steps. When we go back, we will do all the walking at the start and walk right to the back of the park. This way i think you will be ahead of the crowds and the walk back at the end isn’t as long and tiring. It’s also a good way to fermiluise yourself with the park and places of interest to you. There are lots of little play bits along the way for children to help keep them going.

Our favourite toilets which seem to be central were right next to the big lake where they perform shows. These were ace, no ques and their individual toilet rooms with two toilets and sink dryer etc so perfect if you have little ones. Also, the ones who don’t need the toilet had a show to watch while waiting. 

Accessibility

A few weeks leading up to the trip I reached out to LEGOLAND and asked them what they do for people with additional needs to help and they said they give out access passes which gets you to the front of the queue. We had to apply and they granted the pass to use on one of our days (my fault I didn’t send all the information over in time) 

Basically how it works is you use an app and select what ride you want to go on. You join the separate access que which takes you very close to the front of the ride if not straight to the front. The special que is more accessible as well in regards to how far you have to walk etc. They will then ask to scan the QR code it gives you on your phone. If it says the wait time is 10 minutes, then your app will start to count down from 10 minutes. Once that 10minutes is up you can use the app again, so your queueing but virtually if that makes sense. It stops people from going round and round again. 

Highly recommend doing it, the first day we didn’t have the pass and queued 35mins for the Duplo Coaster the second day we waited not even 5mins and the que time was at least 50mins.

The access pass is for the person with needs, and they can have their family members with them. I’m not 100% sure on the number of people who can be with them but for us as a family of 4 it meant we could all stay together. 

Did you know you can get an access card if you have a disability? No, I didn’t either.

It’s basically a card which you can use to identify to places like LEGOLAND you have an additional need of whatever sort to get this access passes easier without having to show your DLA forms. I’ve applied for one, I may do a separate blog post on this so keep an eye out! Here’s the link 

I believe tickets wise you can get a free carers ticket, it’s something we should have investigated but getting the holiday in the bundle it wasn’t clear. Looking back now I should have enquired and found this out we could have saved some money.

Accessibility around the park, the paths are flat but it’s downhill at the start and of course uphill at the end, lots of parents with prams looked exhausted towards the end we were all knacked and that was us just walking not needing to push or carry little ones. 

They have wheelchairs and mobility scooters for hire with a charge they also have pushchairs and buggy hire too which would be super handy if the boys were little, you could use for part of the day if needed instead of lugging one around all day. 

Leaving Legoland

On a weekday the park shuts promptly at 4 pm it was like someone cut the power! We said to the children lets do rides and then get in a play park once everywhere had shut, well they were kicking kids out of the playparks at 4 pm too, the only thing left open of course was the LEGO shop by the exit they keep that open for an extra hour.

The queues for the LEGO shops were insane, my husband described it as being like a scene from an American Christmas film and he was spot on, people were shopping like there was no tomorrow. Ques for the till went down fast but just waiting to get into the store took a good while. 

The end of the park is when I would recommend looking around Miniland as there were no staff rushing people you have to walk past it anyway to get out.

Ques leaving the car park. Horrendous. I expected it to be bad but this was another level, no organisation.

We waited for over an hour, our car had hardly moved, and fights looked like they would break out it wasn’t great so I would definitely keep snacks and something to entertain the children just for the exit alone. 

We would recommend going as far left in the car park as you can basically the last queue so it looks like you will be stuck for ages but you will get there first. Being sandwiched in the middle we just didn’t move. Then the roads leaving the park naturally with everyone leaving the traffic was chocker so bear that in mind. I feel so sorry for the residents having standstill traffic every day. Must be even worse on a weekend.

What we recommend/wish we had known

Do we recommend two days? Yes 100% bearing in mind we went school term time, and had a fast pass ticket for the second day there were rides we didn’t get a chance to go on, and we didn’t see any shows or 4D cinema stuff either. 

Day two was so much better in the sense we knew where to go, and had our bearings. I’m looking forward to going back in July as we will know the place and what we want to do, however, we still managed to miss a chunk we didn’t even realise was there, it’s the fire station area, it’s sandwiched between other areas and easily missed, we only noticed it the second day when we followed the crowd to get out the place. 

Search the website high and low, there website I personally feel is shocking. It’s not clear what’s open and closed. We went towards the end of may thinking the water park areas would be on depending on the weather, obviously, if it rained, we wouldn’t expect but the weather leading up to when we went and on the first day had been so warm but sadly it wasn’t open. They did however have it running, which was so strange, the kids were gutted they could see all the cool water areas and how they poured and sprayed water but couldn’t use it. On the map, it says it opens at the very end of may start of June. 

In hindsight, I would google the question I want to know the answer for like, “what rides are open at Legoland” The Vikings ride had closed for maintenance and that wasn’t clear on the site.  

When looking to buy tickets see how much a year membership is, it may work out better for you if you are not 100% on doing two days in a row with overnight stays you may find out it works better for your family to get a pass and then you can visit other attractions too. 

Wow ok, that’s a lot of information I have thrown at you, but I really do hope it helps, again message me if you think I’ve missed anything and I’m more than happy to chat over it more. Keep an eye out for the next posts coming and I may do a little updated version after we visit in July.

We are going in the Summer holidays so wish us luck!

If you go or have been would love to hear all about it, how was your experience is there anything you recommend? Share with others in the comments bellow to help, thanks

Saff xo