San Diego Trip - Legoland

For our final full day in San Diego, we decided to check out Legoland. My grandma lives only 15 minutes away from their California location and yet we had never been. I had heard conflicting stories about the best time to visit Legoland--some people said it was better for young kids, others said it was more for older kids. But I can now definitely say that Legoland is definitely geared toward younger children. I think the perfect age range is 6-9 years old but there was still a lot for our kids to do and I'm glad we came now and not when our kids our older. There's not a whole lot for older kids. In fact, many of the rides have height limits and older kids/adults can't ride them at all.

In addition to the main theme park, Legoloand also has an aquarium and a water park. We opted just to do the main theme park which was perfect for one day. I heard the aquarium is not that great and our kids are probably not quite old enough to enjoy the water park. However, if you decide to go, you should still consider packing swimsuits and towels. Pirate Shores, which is part of the main theme park, has several water rides and a splash pad so you can enjoy the water and cool down on hot days. I wish we had been better prepared. We rode several of the water rides and got soaked.

We started our day in Heartlake City/Duplo Village. Adelaide insisted on riding the carousel first. No matter where we go, she always wants to ride the merry-go-round. 

David then took Zara to Fun Town where they have a driving school which I knew Zara would love. (I felt bad that we had never made it to Autotopia at Disneyland and Zara seemed quite jealous of her cousins who got to drive cars.)

Meanwhile, I took Adelaide and Benjamin into the toddler Duplo Village where they got to build lots of fun things. We even rode their little train which just goes around in a circle around some Lego rabbits and carrots and corn. 

We then rode several of the rides in the Fun Town area. They have a Driving School for ages 6-13 but they also have a Junior Driving School for ages 3-5 so Adelaide was able to get into the action. 

Three to five year olds are terrible drivers. 

 Next, we wandered through Miniland USA where they've recreated many different cities and locations in Legos. It's pretty impressive. The kids (and David) also had fun building ships out of Legos and racing them in the water there as well.

They also had a special exhibit  on Star Wars so there were tons of scenes re-created from all the films.

 At this point, we decided to take a break for lunch. Unlike Disneyland, Legoland doesn't allow outside food. But they do allow entry and re-entry so we decided to leave the park for lunch. We stopped at Trader Joe's and then went to my grandma's house to eat lunch with her. Like I said, my grandma lives only 15 minutes away so it was the perfect way to rest and relax during the height of the day's heat. My brother and his family also stopped by so we got to see them as well. It was nice to get a chance to see both of them again since it was our last day in San Diego.

After our two hour lunch break, we headed back to the park to see the other parts of the park--Pirate Shores, Castle Hill, Land of Adventure, and Imagination Zone. I peeked into Ninjago World but didn't do any of the attractions there. 

Zara and I rode two of their bigger rollercoasters together--The Dragon Coaster and Technic Coaster. They were pretty basic rollercoasters, but not terribly memorable. I think I preferred the dragon one more. 

Near the end of the day, we stopped by one of their stores to build our own minifigs. We each built one to represent ourselves though it was difficult because they didn't have a lot of great options for hairstyles/hats or clothes. I still love our little minifig family, even if Zara's is a little off theme.

Minifig Family: David, Liz, Zara (?), Adelaide, and Benjamin

Overall, I enjoyed Legoland and I'm really glad we fit it into this trip. I think the kids wouldn't have enjoyed it quite as much if we had waited much longer to take them. We might do it again in a few years, but they would definitely age out of it by the time they're teenagers. It wasn't as crowded as Disneyland and they do have a lot of areas to just play with Duplos or on playgrounds which is great for the younger crowd. It isn't run as tightly or efficiently as Disneyland, but it was still an enjoyable trip, especially for those who love Legos like our family does.