Legoland Windsor 14/2/22

[Thameslink Rail]

I decided to go to Legoland because it has the most substantial half term lineup near me, about 3/4 open I'd guess. The closures were the outdoor water rides, Legoland Express, Jolly Rocker, Sky Rider and Hill Train.
This felt like enough to justify the trip down and it was. I wasn't sure what crowds would be like and if 10-4 would be long enough but despite the park feeling busy, the queues were generally quite short although often severely overestimated on the boards. A 45 minute wait for Lego City Deep Sea Adventure was actually 15 minutes and a 40 minute wait for Haunted House Monster Party was actually 10 minutes. Interestingly the path from the entrance to Pirate Shores via Viking River Splash was blocked off so that side of the park was empty for the first hour, I was surprised to get walk on Lego Ninjago and The Dragon!
Another thing I liked was the street theatre, as well as the standard meet and greets, I saw part of a 'Knight training' show which had a good audience and participation.
The main thing I think they needed to work on was food options. I went to a rather manic Pizza Pasta where they had to put in an extension queue (which wasn't long enough), it was near impossible to get to the buffet table because of the sheer number of people and the chefs were struggling to get the food out quickly enough. Perhaps they could have done with another restaurant.
I am hoping that Merlin see the half term event as a success and work on improving offerings at Chessington and Alton Towers.

 

[JAperson]

sounds like you had a good day Mr Rail, seems like if you live relatively close LEGOLAND might be worth a visit in the Feb half term.

 

[geo4chg]

We were there on Saturday 12th with our 2 children. I was expecting it to be far busier than it was, a lot of rides remained walk-on all day (including The Dragon and Haunted House Monster Party), we timed the Driving School well towards the end of the day so was only a 5min wait (had been 40mins with longest queues in the park earlier in the day) and Flight of the Sky Lion was a 25min queue (unfortunately it had a temporary pause of about 15mins just as we were about to board so ended up waiting around 40mins for it). Ninjago was 10-15mins most of the day.

I was really impressed with Flight of the Sky Lion, feels almost too good for Legoland compared to most of their other rides. I think a flying theatre like this would make a really great addition to Alton Towers (perhaps in David Walliams?). My children, aged 5 and 8, loved the Haunted House as well, it's amazing how changing the theme to be "fun" rather than "scary" makes a huge difference to how children perceive the ride compared to Hex. Thought Ninjago was pretty poor though, the screens are too basic looking (almost looks like a PS3 game) and the motion sensor fighting is too hit and miss and you end up just waving your arms around for the duration of the ride, makes a standard blaster ride feel accurate by comparison.

Overall we had a really good day, much better than I was expecting when we set off from Manchester at 6:30 in the morning. We took a picnic so didn't try the food.

 

[Thameslink Rail]

We were there on Saturday 12th with our 2 children. I was expecting it to be far busier than it was, a lot of rides remained walk-on all day (including The Dragon and Haunted House Monster Party), we timed the Driving School well towards the end of the day so was only a 5min wait (had been 40mins with longest queues in the park earlier in the day) and Flight of the Sky Lion was a 25min queue (unfortunately it had a temporary pause of about 15mins just as we were about to board so ended up waiting around 40mins for it). Ninjago was 10-15mins most of the day.

I was really impressed with Flight of the Sky Lion, feels almost too good for Legoland compared to most of their other rides. I think a flying theatre like this would make a really great addition to Alton Towers (perhaps in David Walliams?). My children, aged 5 and 8, loved the Haunted House as well, it's amazing how changing the theme to be "fun" rather than "scary" makes a huge difference to how children perceive the ride compared to Hex. Thought Ninjago was pretty poor though, the screens are too basic looking (almost looks like a PS3 game) and the motion sensor fighting is too hit and miss and you end up just waving your arms around for the duration of the ride, makes a standard blaster ride feel accurate by comparison.

Overall we had a really good day, much better than I was expecting when we set off from Manchester at 6:30 in the morning. We took a picnic so didn't try the food.

It wasn't quite that quiet for most of the day, I suspect that is because the weekend was a silver/gold pass blackout.

 

[jon81uk]

I am hoping that Merlin see the half term event as a success and work on improving offerings at Chessington and Alton Towers.

I don't see Alton Towers doing a huge half term thing again as the weather for them is too unpredictable. They had issues with snow and cold temperatures which prevented may rides opening. I think they have decided to focus on Christmas instead and keep half term as a hotel only thing.