• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Legoland Windsor

They've removed the race car building section and replaced with a new fish building section. But you just follow the blueprints, no imagination needed. When I was young Legoland was magical, but some of the great attractions have been replaced with things that require less imagination and creativity.
 
I vividly remember the old Legoland Windsor.

Having visited almost every year since 1997, the original park featured countless models, displays, intricate walk ways and interactive features. This included animatronic lego models not just in miniland, but in pathways and next to rides.

Attractions in the early years featured much charm. Whether that be the simplistic but effective story telling in Fairy Tale Brook and Pirate Falls “this way not that way”, interactive walk throughs like Magic Theatre and Explorer’s Institute and the beutiful landscaping throughout much of the park.

Sadly since 2007, much of the above has begun to diminish throughout the years. Attractions have been rethemed/replaced with ones using less impressionable storylines and less sophisticated effects, many of the walkthrough attractions have been removed and the original landscaping is lessening, as a result of less creative and logical thinking. The increasing appearance of concrete foundations and exposed warehouses/ride buildings.

Don’t get me wrong, the park isn’t necessarily bad now. However there is definitely less charm and creativity compared to the early years, especially when a charming selection of mazes is torn out for a ‘concrete hesvy’ Rapids and eventually a screened dark ride where 70% of it’s walls are exposed.

As exciting it may be, the Haunted House Ride will probably have similar result, at least cosmetically. The park was once a charming attraction, but is now very commercialised in the U.K. and worldwide. As a brand atleast.

There’s no denying Lego’s values have changed too in the years. The 80’s/90’s brought us Pirates, Castle and Adventure, whereas a lot now is popular IP’s such as Super Heroes, Star Wars, Jurassic World and pricey exclusive models such as the Ghost Busters HQ and Voltron model.

I guess demographic markets have changed a lot in time.
 
Tim said:
So earlier this year then?
Click to expand...

Swear it's been closed a lot longer than that surely?

Or at least when they changed it to a generic Merlin ice cream shop?

Change my point to when Rocket Racers V1.0 closed then...
 
Benzin said:
Swear it's been closed a lot longer than that surely?

Or at least when they changed it to a generic Merlin ice cream shop?

Change my point to when Rocket Racers V1.0 closed then...
Click to expand...
Nope, was only rebranded around June time this year haha. And what was wrong with Rocket Racers V2?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Islander said:
Nope, was only rebranded around June time this year haha. And what was wrong with Rocket Racers V2?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Nothing was wrong with it, you can just pinpoint the first closure as a time when things started going downhill, like when Chessie started adding Fastrack onto things like Truckers and Seastorm...
 
I'm surprised they haven't cashed in on the Lego Movie stuff yet. Or will that be part of an expansion I'm not aware of that is already in the works?
 
Benjsh said:
I'm surprised they haven't cashed in on the Lego Movie stuff yet. Or will that be part of an expansion I'm not aware of that is already in the works?
Click to expand...
Merlin have said that they're adding Lego Movie Lands to all of the Legoland parks over the next couple of years. Rides will include a Splash Battle and a Flying Theatre according to Merlin's renderings.

On a random note, do you guys reckon Legoland will install a new coaster any time soon? If they do, I personally think a family wooden coaster from Gravity Group would be a good fit, like Oscar's Wacky Taxi at Sesame Place:
 
Has anybody else had experience of something like this happening? We booked a stay at the hotel back in July for April next year, only by chance was I looking at the site yesterday and noticed that the park is actually now closed on the 2 days we booked for, (24th and 25th of April) it wasn't closed when we booked! (we've sorted it now but took a day of stress and phone calls)
 
davey_will1980 said:
Has anybody else had experience of something like this happening? We booked a stay at the hotel back in July for April next year, only by chance was I looking at the site yesterday and noticed that the park is actually now closed on the 2 days we booked for, (24th and 25th of April) it wasn't closed when we booked! (we've sorted it now but took a day of stress and phone calls)
Click to expand...
I didn't think the park was advertising its 2019 operating calendar yet...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tim
Islander said:
Booking hotel stays yes, but not yet advertised when the park will be open - hotels are open year-round (more or less), park isn't.
Click to expand...

It's not a debate, the park is listed as open when you book a stay next year, it says 2 days in the park.
Not sure what your point is? After a full day discussing it with their reception they came back and agreed the park was open those days but they've since decided to close it (sounds like they've hired out to a corporate event?)
 
Islanders point was that he wasn't aware that the park had posted their official calender for next year yet. I wasn't either. Neither was the person at the Hotel based on how long it took you to get a simple answer.

Although you wouId like to think the park and hotel use the same booking system most parks operate the resort semi-independtly of the parks. This is fine if the opening dates are announced around the same time but it's not uncommon for a hotel (which relies on bookings) to start selling rooms before a park has finalised it's operating dates.

I think we can all agree though that if this is the case they should at least inform customers of this at the time of booking. A simple banner on the website saying "Opening dates yet to be confirmed" would be enough.

I must say it's very strange for the park to be closed then as a quick Google search shows it to be in the Easter holidays. May I ask where you've found the opening days as the main website stops in December?
 
Tim said:
Islanders point was that he wasn't aware that the park had posted their official calender for next year yet. I wasn't either. Neither was the person at the Hotel based on how long it took you to get a simple answer.

Although you wouId like to think the park and hotel use the same booking system most parks operate the resort semi-independtly of the parks. This is fine if the opening dates are announced around the same time but it's not uncommon for a hotel (which relies on bookings) to start selling rooms before a park has finalised it's operating dates.

I think we can all agree though that if this is the case they should at least inform customers of this at the time of booking. A simple banner on the website saying "Opening dates yet to be confirmed" would be enough.

I must say it's very strange for the park to be closed then as a quick Google search shows it to be in the Easter holidays. May I ask where you've found the opening days as the main website stops in December?
Click to expand...

I do get his point to be fair and I know what he's trying to say, however I wouldn't have paid £360 for a hotel room alone I'd kind of intermated that I knew the park was 'open' due to what I'd said.

If you go from the main page, there's a search bar at the bottom, if you go through most of the other links it's stops you going to December as you say, I'm guessing because they are mostly 'deals'? The bottom search however lets you go into the next year, and easily as far as April and even July. When you click through and attempt to book it shows it as being 1 Day + 1 Day free 2019 deal.

The girl took so long as I wasn't willing to pay the extra £60, they've increased the price since we originally booked, and I don't see why I should be punished for that, she also had to check out my story about the park being open, and confirmed that it was listed as open on those original dates.

We're annoyed as we were going as two couples and both had booked Ninjago rooms, of which they only have 1 left on the only other day we can both go.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tim
Matt N said:
On a random note, do you guys reckon Legoland will install a new coaster any time soon? If they do, I personally think a family wooden coaster from Gravity Group would be a good fit, like Oscar's Wacky Taxi at Sesame Place:
Click to expand...


I personally doubt it, unless they have land to expand from the Dragon area across, the other side of the park is too close to residential property and they complained about Jungle Coaster.
 
Hi all,

Just back from a few days at Thorpe Park Legolamd and Chessington and thought I'd give my views sorry long post warning .....

Started off the day at Thorpe Park on Saturday and managed to get all the Pin Badges as. We hadn't got any this year from Thorpe. Managed to try Waliking Dead ride and que was advertised as 50 mins but we queued up only 10 mins tops, so I think the waiting times were inflated to push Fast Pass. Left the park at 12:00pm midday and went to legoland.

Managed to get on Ninjago ride for the first time and really enjoyed it even though it was an hour queue. Now being about 4pm we decided to go to Pizza Pasta Buffet. My fiancée has allergies so we always ask if they can make her a pizza without the cheese and chicken and we were told that's fine. We've done this at Alton Towers Chessington and Warwick Castle plenty of times. The pizza was brought out to us and it was cold. We had the staff member check as soon as he put it down and he agreed it was cold and went to get another .

By this time she had waited 15 mins for the 1st pizza and 15 mins for the 2nd pizza and when that came it it was barely cooked. We called the manager over and he has that no way could the pizza be cold and that's impossible. We said that a staff member had checked and agreed that it was cold and we showed him the 2nd pizza. The manager just kept saying there was no way it was cold it comes out the oven and that we were basically lying about it. We even pointed out the staff meaner who checked out the pizza.

I pointed out that the ice cream machine had 7 cartons of milk being balanced on the top of the machine and allowing to slow pout into the machine. Problem was that the staff member hadn't shut the machine off for use so it was milk going in and milk coming out. The manager asked how I know how it works..... I used to work as a manager in The leisure industry and we had the exact same machines.

We were told that there was nothing that could be done and that the food was correctly heated even though we had proof that the pizza was cold. He said that he'd been talking to us for 15 mins and that there was nothing that could be done. No refund or partial refund or replacement. We went to Guest services and spoke to the main Food and Beverages Site Manager who apologised and gave us a refund and apologised to us. My main concern was that we had proof from a member of staff who did back us up so we were not there to blag it as such.

Fast forward to Sunday and the Burger Kitchen at Chessington. Ordered a kids plain burger meal as my Fiancée didn't want a big meal (this was about 11am) and the fries were cold. We pointed this out as son as they were put on the tray at the counter. This time they were replaced with hot fries that were cooked for us. At least it was a direct problem solve.

My main gripe is that how can Merlin be so shoddy on the food at two separate parks within the space of 2 days. Do they not check the temperate of the food before it's put to the customer?? It takes 2 seconds to feel the food or measure how long they have been sat In the warmer. It's just grinder my gears that this is the level of service that can be passed off as par at the attractions now and kind of angered me but hey pin badges was the reason we went.

Went to Blackpool pleasure Beach on Wednesday and food was brilliant and even the ride Ops were very chatty towards us all around the park. I've always been ferociously Merlin/Tussards Loyal and had an Annual pass fromday one of launch way back in 2000 but I feel myself swaying to not renewing next year and just going to Alton with BOGOFs. Blackpool Pin Badges 3 for 2 as well

Very sorry if this post came across a bit ranty I just thought I'd share what my experience was and in the end 4 parks in 3 days and 36 Pin Badges collected woohoo.
 
You've basically answered your own question, Merlin is this huge corporate entity who generally employs school leavers on minimum wage, and where they do employ older people, the faceless lack of a personal "profit first, pride second" touch means nobody gives a toss whether your day is a good one or not, they'll still be employed tomorrow unless they do something drastic, so why bother making the effort.

BPB is still a family owned and run park, predominiently employing local people and despite sometimes amusing opinion from certain members here, generally overall most people working there take pride in doing their job properly.

Outside of management and a very occasional RBO staff member or ride op, I've never met anybody employed by Merlin who gives a shit, when we went to Blackpool, we were blown away by the difference in attitude.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top