Florida is FULL of parks; lots of them in fact, so why should you choose Legoland Florida as one then? Clearly, a love of Lego is helpful to those that visit the park, but don’t be fooled, Legoland Florida is more than just a vehicle for our little yellow friends…
Water Ski Stunt Show is spectacular
Legoland in Florida has three shows available for you to watch, but if you have kids, then the best show to take in is the Pirate Cove Stunt Water Ski-ing Show within the park. Full of fun, puns, and amazing stunts; it’ll appeal to the young and the old with you.
Our kids loved it, and it was the highlight of our day within the park. Yes – some of the lines are corny, particularly from the main pirate character that introduces the show, Salty, but the location, and the Water Ski-ing, as well as some of the humour, and the lego character soldiers, more than make up for this.
You might just find that your kids adopt the “Lego Wave” after watching the show too, just like ours have!
Cypress Gardens is a hidden gem
Legoland Florida was opened on the site of the Cypress Gardens park, which was established over 75 years ago. The opwners of the park have made every effort to preserve the history of the garndes, and in particular the wonderfual Banyan Tree, that was planted within the park in 1939.
This tree is truly stunning, and well worth taking a little time out of your ride-focused, Lego-centric day for a little reflection and a wonder about. The flowers, frees, and views onto the water are almost work the entry fee alone. Even with your kids in tow, you might even be able to grab five minutes peace from the crowds too.
My husband remembered coming to Florida as a child, and visiting these gardens, and was pleasantly surprised to find that Legoland Florida was now located here. A huge added bonus to have somewhere so beautiful to escape the crowds…
Queing times are manageable (with one exception)
Legoland is not as busy as “some” of the other parks within Florida, that I really don’t need to mention *we all know what I am talking about*
Yes; there are times when you will need to queue, but we went on a Tuesday and didn’t have to queue for more than 20 minutes for any of the rides except one of them, which is simple not managed well as far as we can tell….
You really don’t seem to need to Awesome Awaits passes that you can buy in some admissions packages. Prices start at just over $70 per person per day, so do a little research beforehand using a crowd calendar to find the best day to go there, and take a chance on the queues if you have a little flexibility in your timings. The best thing to do would be to go on a weekday though, rather than a weekend.
The Ford Driving School was a ride my son really wanted to go on, so my OH queued with him to ride it, even though there was no waiting time available for the ride outside it, we thought that as a good number of children (10) go on the ride each time, the queue should go down quickly. Sadly though, the way the queue is managed means that even though the riders only get 2 minutes each on the attraction, there is a good 10 minutes beteween each set of riders, meaning you can queue for a long time to get on. We waited for 60 minutes on a day when generally, the rides weren’t too busy. So watch out!
In addition, do be warey of some of the marked waiting times too, particularly towards the end of the day. A couple of the rides we tried, The Dragon and the Coastasaurus, both had marked waiting times of 60 minutes, but it took us only between 15-20 minutes to get on them.
Rollercoasters are a gentle introduction to the scary rides for your littlier ones
This park is really best for under 12s – but don’t see that as a bad thing, it is, in fact, an excellent thing! We used the park as a gentle introduction to some of the rides that you grow to love as you get older; The Dragon, Coastasaurus and Project X are smaller versions of some of the more challenging rollercoasters that you can try in Florida. Our son in particular is a little wary of rollercoasters, but his experience on these made him perfectly find to try the other more challenging rides across Florida.
The park is a perfect “stepping stone” to those in the area with more white knuckle options, and if you want to give your kids a gentler ride, then its a great place to start them. You can even try some of the higher thrill rides like Flying School in the park too, if you are feeling really daring!
Model touches throughout the park fascinate
Miniland USA in the park is a wonderful place to explore. However, this is’t the only place to find fabulous Lego models in the park. Don’t miss out on the others Lego detail throughout the park; from the cats, to a microphones, and even a comedian plumber outside the toilets, the imagination of the Lego model builders is a sight to behold. Take time to stop and look, and don’t rush from ride the ride. It really is about the whole experience for you in the park; and slowing down just a little will allow you to take it all in.
The Star Wars scenes, in Miniland, are a must for any fan, and the builds for the cities in the USA are stunning, with some wonderful details.
The Cape Kennedy shuttle even has a countdown and takes off!
However, we did feel that this section of the park, and in places overall, could do with a little TLC, and even a bit of a refresh. For example, some of the models interactive features weren’t working when our kids tried them; though when the model is going to shoot water at you, perhaps this isn’t a bad thing! ;-)
Finally, just as a bonus, you mustn’t forget the excellent Water Park that is associated with the Leogland Florida theme park. Typically, uou are able to buy an extra day at the park for free, and if you are within the area for a few days, you might want to consider taking a little break from all of those parks, and cooling off on the rides and in the waters of this park – for free.
Don’t forget the hotel on site as well; which is a full size version of the houses that I used to build as a kid, with its multi-colouring bricks. You get an excellent view of it from the Island in the Sky, which is a lovely way to start your visit. It gives you a perfect idea of how the park is laid out, and a good view of pretty much everything you can do there, before you have even started.
Overall, Legoland Florida is a great place to take the kids; and won’t disappoint, but the way to get the most out of a trip there is to make sure you stop, and look around, rather than just focusing on the rides in the theme park. It is so much more than that.
Note: We were given complimentary tickets to visit the park for this article; all opinions are our own. This visit was part of a holiday we were given a press discount for with American Sky.
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!