Legoland – 17/06/18

This was our second jaunt to Legoland and like the trip in 2016, I planted the seed early in Reuben’s brain about what he wanted to do for his birthday. Eva had a Star Wars-themed Perform party with her entire class invited and I wasn’t up for another party six weeks later. Legoland it was.

We were keen to see what had changed in the last two years and the first thing that had changed was that the Windsor Lad – our Harvester breakfast stop – now didn’t open till 9am so we had to sit in the car for a bit. Also, they’ve started selling Blue Cheese juice:

The bottomless breakfast worked wonders last time to fuel up for the day and it was a good call again this year. Eva had the £1.70 Breakfast Bar option so it didn’t matter too much that she only ate a tiny bit of Weetabix, some fruit and half a crumpet. Roo, on the other hand, had got the fuelling up memo and destroyed a cooked breakfast plus fruit and an extra crumpet. It meant we didn’t have to think about food again for quite a while, so we could concentrate on having fun once we got in.

A tip tho on how we got the tickets – I used Clubcard Boost to get one adult and one child ticket online and then a Kelloggs voucher BOGOF to get the other two tickets at the gate. I’m not sure if Clubcard Boost still works but there you go – £52 for the whole family to go to Legoland and £24 for a breakfast that kept us going all day.

Reuben had made it very clear where we were headed to first and it wasn’t “Heartyake City”, as Eva suggested. It was the Star Wars dome, which we didn’t even go into last time as it was before the kids really hit the Star Wars obsessional phase.

This year though, they knew EVERYTHING. Everything . The exhibition covered episodes 1-6, with a different section for each episode and the sequels well represented in the gift shop. Obviously Eva yuvved the Rey and Leia figures the best:

And all the kids had to have their photo taking battling Darth Vader. Nathan included:

Roo’s next target was the Lego Driving School but it was almost the opposite side of Legoland from where we were, so we stopped on the way to have a go on “Desert Chase” in Land of the Pharaohs, which looked a bit like a carousel to me but what do I know?

Eventually we made it to the driving school and Nathan and Roo joined a substantial queue to get in – not surprising as it’s one of the most popular attractions. Eva could have gone it as she’s just turned 6 but she preferred to go for a wander around “Heartyake City” instead.

She quite liked the idea of going on “Mia’s Riding Adventure” but took one look at the track it went on and changed her mind. I think she was too short for it anyway:

Now I don’t know whether it’s because Legoland is on a steep slope and we were at the bottom but I realised after separating from the boys that I had no reception on my phone and therefore no means to find them again unless I managed to connect to the Wifi. So we went old-school and just hung around the last place we’d seen them – the driving school queue – until they popped out near the front of it. Eva wasn’t too thrilled at the “standing around and waiting to see Reuben drive” part of the plan but hey, it wasn’t her birthday.  Roo really enjoyed his driving experience and look, we got an excellent view of the back of his head:

After we’d done so much queuing/standing around, we felt like the kids needed a stretch out and we were very close to Duplo Valley so they went for a play and a run around in the playground there while Nathan went to get us a refillable drink. I’m still not sure whether it was good value or not – we had four or five refills for £8.50, which is way cheaper than buying five drinks at £5 each but it did involve a lot of standing in kiosk queues, especially as the drinks machine in the kiosk near Chicken Joe’s wasn’t working. But still, sweet sweet caffeine for us adults and the kids had water bottles in their bags so they were fine.

Next stop was the Duplo Valley Airport, which was a short queue and we managed to get on all together with me and Eva choosing the red helicopter that she so badly wanted. I don’t think she was a professional pilot, despite her claims as she flew the helicopter pretty bumpily. Across the way, Nathan seemed to be having a similarly rough ride at the hands of Roo:

Then we decided to split up again. Reuben was hungry and so wanted to walk back up the hill to our locker and get his sandwich. Eva was desperate to get to the 2PM Lego Friends show back in Heartlake City. We agreed a time and meeting place and went our separate ways. I am about to make two major mistakes so please, read and learn.

The first was to do with the Fairytale Brook. We just about had time before the show, it was on the way and it was one of those rides that Eva wanted to do but Reuben didn’t. It all seemed to be working out until I made a ridiculous dyspraxic misjudgment getting into the boat. Eva was already in but I’d allowed her so much time that I had to rush my own boarding. I stepped into the wrong part, tried to climb to the front and slammed my knee and shin into the middle of the boat. It doesn’t sound like much but it’s five days on and I still can’t really walk on that leg. It’s no-one’s fault but mine but if you’re of a similar klutz level to me, watch out when stepping onto moving things.

The second mistake was that I didn’t give the boys the locker key. They made it all the way up the hill (the train wasn’t running) before they realised and phoned in the middle of a riotous show, while I was still in some degree of pain, asking me to come meet them by the lockers. It was a no from me. Eva was having way too much singing and dancing with the Lego Friends and learning the true value of friendship. She even met them after the show:

So Nathan and Roo were a touch hungry and grouchy by the time they’d made it down the hill to meet us. I fuelled the boy with some crisps and we set off back up the hill, with me limping a bit, to retrieve our sandwiches and water play stuff. A slushie from the very exciting 6-flavour-slushie dispenser got both kids energised again and I think I even persuaded them to pay for it themselves. I know, I’m winning. Apart from the leg thing.

Water play you say? Why yes, we were headed back towards Duplo Valley to splash around Drench Towers and Splash Safari. Like last year, it wasn’t the ideal weather for water play but the kids are British and hardy and they enjoyed it anyway.

We were running out of time and we still had two big rides we wanted to do – the Atlantis Submarine Voyage and the Viking River Ride. Atlantis had a big queue but it moved quickly and we had these fellas to look at on the way:

It was worth a queue – it’s such a cool little ride, with sharks swimming about beneath your capsule. We jumped straight out when it finished – well, I limped out – and ran – kinda – to the Viking ride, which we had just enough time to go on before park closing at 6.

Last time we went, Reuben had declared the river ride “awesome” and Eva was terrified. This time, she thought it was awesome too. We didn’t even get that wet – I think because they no longer have water guns that random people can use on you as you float by. Pity as I had full changes of clothes for us all and we barely got to use them.

And then we were done. Just time for Reuben to go back to the Star Wars shop and buy a ridiculously ostentatious lego set that I think was Poe Dameron’s X-Wing or something. He’d discovered a stash of cash in his wallet that had accumulated from various birthdays and Christmasses so technically he had saved up for this set but kinda inadvertently. He asked to put a photo of the finished item on Facebook, which I agreed to on the basis that it was more tasteful than his initial request to put a photo of him holding all his money. It’s almost like we’re bringing the boy up in Essex.

It was hometime. Nathan and I hadn’t really had lunch after that epic breakfast so were starting to get hungry by 7PM. Last time, we’d returned to the Harvester for dinner but the kids were so knackered they weren’t really restaurant-worthy. Burger King at Heston services it was then! As seen in “Hot Fuzz”!

So we were all exhausted and a bit bruised but it was a fabulous day out and a great bargain considering what we’d paid. If you fancy the thrills and spills of “Yegoyand”, have a lookie here for more info. Just watch your step if you’re a bit clumsy tho…