I've been meaning to go to Legoland for a while.  My daughter has been asking me and my husband to take her for the  last two years.  So when we finally said she could go, we were able to get a  good week's good behaviour out of her in return.   A good result.

We went on a Thursday and got there as soon as the gates opened. Definitely a good move as there weren't too many others there.   As soon as we got through the turnstile we were faced with the decision of whether to get a QBOT or not.  This little mini computer
that straps onto you and costs £10 pounds per person.  For that you get
 to pre-book a place at the front of the queue for all the main rides in
 Legoland.   Although I had a few moral issues about this slightly brutal form
of paying your way to pushing to the front of the queue, I couldn't help but
go  for it.   And it was the best decision we made all day.
 I loved Legoland, there seemed to be no expense spared. And lots of staff
 around in a very un-English but very American way - which always makes a
theme park work better.

We loved the dragon ride which was a great introduction to rollercoasters-
 pretty steep but nice and short. In fact all the rides seems suitably nice
and short so there was no room to get bored.    And we loved the Viking boat
ride which  whirls you around the water.  (please note that you definitely get
wet on this - but the £2 per family  body dryers really helped.)
 The food was better than we had imagined but it felt a little bit pricey.
 We loved Mini-Land - a model village made out of Lego.  Especially the newly
opened London Eye.

We found the free map quite confusing and if we are going to be really pick-
we found the paper it was printed on, quite thin, so it kept ripping. But it
could have been just us.
 But the highlight of the trip was  without doubt the Fire Academy.
This is definitely one for the Dads to do as well as everyone else in the
family.  We had such a laugh doing this. You run to your own fire engine  -
racing all the others in their engines and pump the engine  between you with a
piston - until you get to the end.  Then you pump the fire hydrant to put out
a pretend fire - run back in your engine and rush to get it back to the end.
It was so fun we did it three times

 By the time we'd gone to The Outdoor Theatre play of Cinderella,  Bob The
Builder's  4D show in the Amphitheatre,( take your anti-bacterial wipes)
and the Lego zoo. The day was practically over.  It is a big place and it
would take two full day trips to discover it all.
Definitely bring your buggy if your child is 4 or under. Or hire one of
Legoland's pushalong car-shaped buggy  which will save the day.

Some do's and don't.

DO get there early
Do get a buggy thing if you are planning to stay there all day.
Do bring a packed lunch - food and drink is allowed in.
Do get a QBOT queue jumper.
   Do grab three or  four maps.


Don't
Do the extras that you have to pay for ...there is no need. There is so much
to do included in your ticket price that you don't need to sieve for gold or
get a charicacture done.

Don't under any circumstances feel tempted to try the 'win a prize ever time'
stall at the beginning of the trip - only do it on the way out.  The prizes
are literally the size of a fullygrown man.  And the amount of people holding
a huge man sized teddy at 11 o'clock in the morning - looking a bit annoyed
was lesson enough.  Especially when it started raining.

Don't queue for more than 10 minutes for the Mini train ride as you go in.
There was a huge queue for non QBOTTERS and once on it - it only lasted for
about 4 minutes.

Reopens 12 March 2012