Ah, Legoland Windsor, so much nicer to see Lego turned into rides or scenes from around the world than making a clunking noise as the bricks disappear up my Dyson, or as they impale themselves into the soles of my feet as I walk across the boys bedrooms.
Needless to say if your kids (and husband!) are as obsessed with Lego as mine then they will love a day at the Legoland Resort Windsor.
We first visited the Legoland theme park for the boys birthdays last year. On the one hand it was great as Jake was under 90cm which meant he got free admission to the park. However, this also meant that he was seriously limited to the amount of rides he could go on as most of the attractions require a minimum height of 90cm even with adult supervision. For some toddlers this wouldn’t be an issue but Jake is quite the adrenalin junkie! I have an hilarious video from last year of Jake on the Duplo train (one of the rides he was tall enough to go on) where he is literally looking at me like ‘What is this?’ because it’s so tame. So it was great to visit again this year when he was a little bit taller. Granted, that meant we had to pay for his entry but he also got to go on so much which made for a much more fun family day out. He loved the Dragon’s Apprentice rollercoaster and the Junior Driving School.
Where is Legoland Windsor?
Legoland is located on the outskirts of Windsor. The scenic and historic town where that big castle is and close to that school where most of the male Tory MPs went.
Where is Legoland Windsor exactly?
Legoland can be found on the B3022 Windsor/Ascot Road just two miles from Windsor town centre. The full address for the Legoland Resort is: Winkfield Road, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 4AY
What’s at the Legoland Windsor Resort?
Over 55 rides and attractions zoned into various themes, including Ninjago, Duplo Valley, Heartlake City, Lego City, Pirate Shores, Knights Kingdom, Lego Mythica and Mini Land. The Resort includes two hotels if you’re feeling extra boujie (staying at these is not cheap but does look amazing).
Rides include everything from rollercoasters, through to trains, boats and submarines, as well as the more traditional carousel. All of the rides are, as you would expect, Lego themed and great fun. There’s also a splash park area. It was too chilly to use this during our visit but if you are intending to then pack swimming costumes and towels.
Alongside all of the rides there are plenty of opportunities to construct things from Lego and take inspiration from the various models dotted around the resort, as well as the fantastic Miniland which features landmarks from around the world recreated in Lego bricks. The models are constantly updated to include current world events. For example, when we visited the model of Buckingham Palace was celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee. More recent visitors will have seen the Buckingham Palace model with the Union Jack at half-mast in honour of the Queen’s passing.
Regular shows in the Heartlake City area and the Duplo theatre offer welcome respite to rest weary legs. We took in a particularly high-octane pirate-themed show at Heartlake and a cute retelling of the Three Little Pigs in the Duplo Theatre.
There are also two play areas – a pirate themed one and a Duplo themed one, should your little ones need to burn off any excess energy.
Although there are a number of places to eat throughout the resort I would recommend taking your own food as both times we have found the eateries disappointing and often quite dirty. The choice of food available is limited and when we visited most vendors had run out of ice creams by mid-afternoon.
Parking and other charges
Parking can be booked in advance on the website and costs £7 for standard parking (Vs £8 on the gate price) or £13 for priority parking (Vs £16 on the gate price). Both car parks are located very close to the entrance of the park so I personally don’t see the need to pay for priority parking.
The only other charges you will come across are the demands from your kids! There are many gift shops located throughout the park which undoubtedly your kids will ask for something from. There are also lots of add-on sales such as the option to try ‘gold panning’, get photographs of yourself looking ridiculous on the major rides and Lego themed driving licences from the driving schools. We managed to swerve these despite Elliott’s demands for a Lego sword and shield.
Do I need to book?
Depending on where you’re visiting from and when you’re visiting I would certainly recommend booking in advance. If you’re local and visiting during an off-peak period you may be OK. But for us travelling down from the Midlands and visiting during the summer holidays I don’t think we would have got in if we hadn’t booked. The resort gets very busy!
Booking in advance also gives you the opportunity to pay in advance for your parking, saving you time and money during your visit. You will also pay less for your tickets by booking advance (at the time of writing from £32 Vs an ‘on the gate’ price of from £62).Special offers are also available for parent and toddler tickets for visits during term time.
Don’t forget that some supermarket loyalty schemes allow you to transfer their vouchers into money towards entry to the resort which may be a good way of saving money (using your vouchers in this way often increases their value Vs spending them as cash in-store). If you work for the emergency services or NHS you may be able to save money by booking through your Blue Light Card.
What’s Legoland Windsor like?
Busy, busy, busy but brilliant. Everything is brightly coloured, brash and loud – exactly what you want from a theme park! The park is full of fun, with lots of helpful staff, opportunities for character meets, great photo opportunities, good signposts to help you find your way around. What I can only term ‘jolly music’ is pumped around the park and varies by location. Thankfully the music is varied enough to never get annoying as I know it can do at some attractions.
Expect to queue and don’t imagine to get on all of the rides in one visit. I think we managed seven rides on our most recent visit.
Also, I would say the park doesn’t really have any thrill rides so possibly not one to visit with older children who may be looking for more of an adrenalin rush.
Anything else I need to know?
Staying over at Legoland Windsor
If you can afford it and/or you want to treat yourself and the family the resort accommodation looks amazing. However, if you’re looking for a cheaper way to stay over when visiting the theme park consider staying in nearby Bracknell. Bracknell is an easy 20-minute drive from Legoland Resort Windsor and has a couple of Premier Inns as well as other cost-effective accommodation solutions. Bracknell also has a bustling town centre with lots of eateries and places to grab sandwiches and snacks for your visit. We stayed over the night before our Legoland visit and went to Pizza Express for dinner. We also stayed over on the night of our visit and headed into Royal Windsor on our second day.
Eating at Legoland Windsor
As I mentioned above, the food at the Legoland Resort is, in our experience, not great. It’s expensive, eateries are so busy that tables often aren’t cleared or cleaned, there isn’t a great amount of choice and outlets tend to run out of things quickly. Take sandwiches and snacks with you but instead of stopping for lunch eat these whilst you’re in one of the queues. This saves boredom and makes for a better use of time.
Queues at Legoland Windsor
Queues are unfortunately inevitable in any theme park but they do seem particularly long in Legoland for some reason (maybe it’s just when we visit). Make sure you get into the park as it opens and head straight to the ride that you’re most keen to go on to beat the queues. The Legoland app is a must-download for checking queue times and navigating the park. Plan for activities to keep little ones amused in the queue – snacks and plane spotting became the activities of choice for us. Thankfully the park is under the flightpath of Heathrow and so, plane geeks that we are, we started a ‘who can spot the most A380s’ competition. We even spotted a plane with Star Wars themed livery.
Also do Miniland on the way back to the car park. It’s a fairly long and uphill walk from the main resort to the park entrance so this is great way to break up that journey. There is also a train to take you back up the hill if legs are really starting to ache.
Toilets
Toilets are ample and even have mini toilet seats in-built to each stall which is cute and useful for mini visitors. If you have a little one who isn’t long toilet trained a portable potty is useful in case they get caught short in a queue. Baby changing facilities are also available as well as disabled facilities.
Random Fact
The Miniland area of the park which depicts landmarks from around the world uses over 40million Lego bricks!
Find out more
To book your day out at Legoland Resort Windsor or to find out more visit: https://www.legoland.co.uk
If you’re thinking of visiting over the coming months the resort hosts a Halloween party and Christmas themed days too.
Wrinkle Wrinkle Little Star 