MattyH
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- GIIBBB
Went to Lego and Chessy last week, here's a trip report from Leogland, with Chessington to Follow soonish.
We arrived at the park about 9:45, the opening hours were 9:30am to 6pm. Using smartphones we had found out that the Dragon was shut currently but all other rides were open.
Into the park and through the beginning and then off down past Viking River Splash to Pirate Land, the park was as usual very busy.
Onto our first ride, this was Spinning Spider, a classic flat ride which we queued about 15 minutes for in the end.
We then walked through towards the Castle area, noting that the themeing in this area was beginning to show it's age in a few places now.
We then joined the quick 10 minute max queue for Knights Quest, before heading up into the castle to see if the Dragon was working. No sign of it coming back anytime soon, and we spotted what looked like a member of staff up on the break run.
We walked over to Ninjago land next, passing by Pirate Falls on the way which by this time was queueing out of the entrance and back towards the drop area. This to me really demonstrates just how much the park needs something else for the older kids, I know they're installing the Haunted House next year, which may help the park in this respect but another Coaster wouldn't go amiss, although I'm unsure where they could locate this.
Onto the Ninjago queue posted at 75 minutes but we were on within 60 minutes, I noticed the queue line was showing the effects of the public, although the ride system seems to be settling in a bit more compared to my last visit.
As we came off Ninjago, a quick check of the app showed that the Dragon had reopened and off we dashed and joined the queue with about a 20 minute wait. A front row ride on this was all I got, the themeing in the indoors section is still one of my favourite bits of ride theming in the UK.
Came off Dragon to find that the queue was out of the entrance so we quickly moved on to another area, we made plans to go on Viking River Splash but I decided to stop off at the Pirates BBQ on the way past to try the Bratwurst Sausage. This cost me £5.95 and although I couldn't use my Annual pass I felt this was a very reasonable price for what was on offer.
Onto Viking River Splash and queued about 30 minutes for the ride, and knowing that there had been several incidents on rapids around the UK we weren't expecting much, but even then we were left disappointed, there was no rapids, and the wettest we got was a slight spray. One problem with the Water Level obviously being lowered was that it meant that the boats were hitting the wall harder meaning a less than comfortable ride.
Once off, we continued up the hill and decided to have a quick look around Star Wars Miniland, we got there just as they began the hour dedicated for those with Autism and similar symptons, with increased light and decreased sound, but having seen the majority before this didn't bother me too much and nice to see the park being inclusive. One thing I did notice as we walked around was an old Rocket Racers sign on the exit corridor.
We then moved off down the slides to the imagination center, where the imagination of creating your own cars and sending them down a ramp is no more, instead it's been replaced with Lego Reef, which is an interactive fish building game, but the fishes all follow a set construction pattern. It's probably ok for who it's aimed at but personally the previous incarnation was better as it required you to use your imagination!
In this area, the mining platform actually shakes again now, I seem to remember being very disappointed when they stopped it shaking when the alarm goes off. Studio Cafe has replaced Papa Moles, the drinks and Ice Cream they actually sell don't seem too different though.
We walked through Miniland to look at the new Sights of the World and Miniland USA areas which have been put in next to the Space Centre area, The old areas that these replaced were aging a fair bit so this is a nice change with lots to see, it's well spaced out.
Down to Heartlake City as it is now, to see the Pirates of Skeleton Bay, we turned up about 45 minutes too early and so some of us went on Fairy Tale Brook, queued about 40 minutes for this and enjoyed going around an old classic ride. Back down the hill for the show which had it's moments.
We were soon down to just over an hour and a half of Park time left, and as it had been missed last year, we decided to do Coastguard HQ. The queue for this moved very slowly despite boats constantly coming in, the member of staff at the merge of the Q-bots and Normal Queue explaining that we weren't allowed to queue up the stairs as there's no staff member to catch us if we fall...
After about a 50 minute queue we finally got on, and with me in charge, the boating trip was a massive success with only a few minor collision and a full 360 degree turn involved. We also got a nice look at the construction area for the Haunted House and it was certainly bigger than I was expecting.
Our final ride was on S.Q.U.I.D Surfer, we queued about 20 minutes for this and it continues to be one of my personal favorites at the park.
Walking back through Miniland to the entrance and out to the car park, we were parked in E the overflow carpark. and we arrived back at the car by about 25 past 6, and in the most bizzare part of the trip, we were out of the car park and off Legoland property by 7! I'm not sure what they've done but somehow they seem to have cured the worse bit of Legoland visits.
We arrived at the park about 9:45, the opening hours were 9:30am to 6pm. Using smartphones we had found out that the Dragon was shut currently but all other rides were open.
Into the park and through the beginning and then off down past Viking River Splash to Pirate Land, the park was as usual very busy.
Onto our first ride, this was Spinning Spider, a classic flat ride which we queued about 15 minutes for in the end.
We then walked through towards the Castle area, noting that the themeing in this area was beginning to show it's age in a few places now.
We then joined the quick 10 minute max queue for Knights Quest, before heading up into the castle to see if the Dragon was working. No sign of it coming back anytime soon, and we spotted what looked like a member of staff up on the break run.
We walked over to Ninjago land next, passing by Pirate Falls on the way which by this time was queueing out of the entrance and back towards the drop area. This to me really demonstrates just how much the park needs something else for the older kids, I know they're installing the Haunted House next year, which may help the park in this respect but another Coaster wouldn't go amiss, although I'm unsure where they could locate this.
Onto the Ninjago queue posted at 75 minutes but we were on within 60 minutes, I noticed the queue line was showing the effects of the public, although the ride system seems to be settling in a bit more compared to my last visit.
As we came off Ninjago, a quick check of the app showed that the Dragon had reopened and off we dashed and joined the queue with about a 20 minute wait. A front row ride on this was all I got, the themeing in the indoors section is still one of my favourite bits of ride theming in the UK.
Came off Dragon to find that the queue was out of the entrance so we quickly moved on to another area, we made plans to go on Viking River Splash but I decided to stop off at the Pirates BBQ on the way past to try the Bratwurst Sausage. This cost me £5.95 and although I couldn't use my Annual pass I felt this was a very reasonable price for what was on offer.
Onto Viking River Splash and queued about 30 minutes for the ride, and knowing that there had been several incidents on rapids around the UK we weren't expecting much, but even then we were left disappointed, there was no rapids, and the wettest we got was a slight spray. One problem with the Water Level obviously being lowered was that it meant that the boats were hitting the wall harder meaning a less than comfortable ride.
Once off, we continued up the hill and decided to have a quick look around Star Wars Miniland, we got there just as they began the hour dedicated for those with Autism and similar symptons, with increased light and decreased sound, but having seen the majority before this didn't bother me too much and nice to see the park being inclusive. One thing I did notice as we walked around was an old Rocket Racers sign on the exit corridor.
We then moved off down the slides to the imagination center, where the imagination of creating your own cars and sending them down a ramp is no more, instead it's been replaced with Lego Reef, which is an interactive fish building game, but the fishes all follow a set construction pattern. It's probably ok for who it's aimed at but personally the previous incarnation was better as it required you to use your imagination!
In this area, the mining platform actually shakes again now, I seem to remember being very disappointed when they stopped it shaking when the alarm goes off. Studio Cafe has replaced Papa Moles, the drinks and Ice Cream they actually sell don't seem too different though.
We walked through Miniland to look at the new Sights of the World and Miniland USA areas which have been put in next to the Space Centre area, The old areas that these replaced were aging a fair bit so this is a nice change with lots to see, it's well spaced out.
Down to Heartlake City as it is now, to see the Pirates of Skeleton Bay, we turned up about 45 minutes too early and so some of us went on Fairy Tale Brook, queued about 40 minutes for this and enjoyed going around an old classic ride. Back down the hill for the show which had it's moments.
We were soon down to just over an hour and a half of Park time left, and as it had been missed last year, we decided to do Coastguard HQ. The queue for this moved very slowly despite boats constantly coming in, the member of staff at the merge of the Q-bots and Normal Queue explaining that we weren't allowed to queue up the stairs as there's no staff member to catch us if we fall...
After about a 50 minute queue we finally got on, and with me in charge, the boating trip was a massive success with only a few minor collision and a full 360 degree turn involved. We also got a nice look at the construction area for the Haunted House and it was certainly bigger than I was expecting.
Our final ride was on S.Q.U.I.D Surfer, we queued about 20 minutes for this and it continues to be one of my personal favorites at the park.
Walking back through Miniland to the entrance and out to the car park, we were parked in E the overflow carpark. and we arrived back at the car by about 25 past 6, and in the most bizzare part of the trip, we were out of the car park and off Legoland property by 7! I'm not sure what they've done but somehow they seem to have cured the worse bit of Legoland visits.
