Here's 10 tips for your next Legoland California trip!
1. Best Ages for Legoland
This theme park is best for kids under 12. Our 6-year-old and 3-year-old were both perfect for the park. Our 6-year-old could ride everything in the park. Our 3-year-old could ride everything except for a handful of rides.
2. Best deals on tickets
You can get cheaper tickets through Costco, T-mobile, or buy one get one free tickets on select lego sets (usually the $5 bag sets). You can also get BOGO tickets on their website.
3. Legoland Hotels
Legoland has two hotels — Legoland Hotel and Legoland Castle Hotel. We stayed at the Legoland Castle Hotel and loved it! It’s the most cheesy hotel, but the kids LOVED it.
The hotel had a playground, pool with giant lego bricks to build, movie at night, entertainment, and characters. Included with your stay is a great buffet breakfast and early entry into the park (an hour early on the weekends and ½ an hour early on weekdays). The hotel is literally steps away from the entrance — you can’t beat the convenience. The best discount I found for the Hotel was through AAA.
We got the Magic Wizard room!
4. Reserve 'N' Wait
The lines get really long at Legoland, and their line management is not as good as Disneyland, so a short line really ends up taking a long time! Next time we go I’m going to buy Reserve 'N' Wait (it’s their fast pass system).
5. Minifigure Trading
Throughout the park and at giftshops you can trade minifigures. We brought 3 of our own minifigures from home and then traded for different minifigures throughout the day. My kids loved it and I totally recommend it!
6. Pop Badges
At various rides, the hotels, and giftshops you can collect pop badges — they are free! My kids loved collecting these! Just ask employees if they have any — if they do they will give you some and if they don’t they usually helped us know where to get some.
7. Best Rides
Our 3 year old’s favorite ride is Coastersaurus. The line for this ride gets so long throughout the day so ride this at rope drop! He also loved the submarine ride, Deep Sea Adventure.
Our 6 year old’s favorite ride was Tecnic Coaster. This is the biggest roller coaster at the park (but still not too intense). If you have older kids, rope drop this ride (line gets long throughout the day!)
8. Things to do when it gets busy
When it gets really busy these usually have no or little lines: Ferrari Build & Race, 4D Movie, Mini Land, Story Brook boats, and Hideaways playground.
9. Food
Our kid’s favorite place to eat is the orange chicken (just like Panda Express) at Everything is Ramen in Lego Movie Land. Legoland is also famous for their Apple Pie Fries, try them out! There isn’t mobile ordering for food like at Disneyland unfortunately, so be prepared to wait in line for food.
10. Extras Events and Activities
We went during their Halloween event "Brick or Treat". It included trick or treating, Halloween shows, Halloween characters, and fun Halloween decorations. The event was fun and included in the ticket price. They also have a waterpark (we haven't been but it looks awesome), Aquarium, and other seasonal events.