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“Get Out There” is a column for itchy footed humans written by long-time Paste contributor Blake Snow. Although different now, travel is better than ever. Today we visit Legoland California.
If you don’t love Legos, don’t go to Legoland. That probably goes without saying. But unlike other amusement parks that arguably appeal to a wider audience than whatever company owns them, Legoland California might be the most niche and age-specific of America’s major theme parks.
That said, if you adore Legos and can spend hours with them like my 10 year old son routinely does, Legoland comes highly recommended. But non-Lego parents beware—things can get pretty stale pretty fast here, unless you can live vicariously through the focused determination of your Lego-loving child.
After a recent visit to Legoland in Carlsbad, here are five things you should know before visiting.
1. You can do the main park in one day.
Legoland is not big. First-opened in 1999, it includes three separate Lego-themed parks: the main original park, a small water park, and an aquarium. My advice: skip the aquarium. It was tiny and not worth the extra cash to get in. My wife didn’t even get her 7,500 steps until late afternoon (whereas at Disney she can do that for breakfast). Similarly, the water park is also small and geared even more towards small children than the main park.
2. The rides aren’t that thrilling.
That could be a good thing depending on your stomach. But the whole park is much more like Disney’s ToonTown with a focus on younger riders. The small coasters, boat rides, and cheap Soarin’ alternative are nothing scary. We never had to wait more than 30 minutes in line but opted to skip lots of littler rides. Pirate Reef was our favorite (a steep drop and we got soaked), followed by Unikitty Disco Drop and the Dragon roller coaster.
3. Lego-building is the highlight.
You don’t really go to Legoland for the rides. You come to build Legos. And in that regard, the park is perfect for kids (or grown ups) who love Legos. If you can embrace the build and tinker aspect of the park at a deliberate pace, there are actually a lot of things for Lego lovers to do, particularly at the plentiful number of random places to build or gawk at others’ professional creations. For instance, you can build boats or cars before racing them, take in impressive urban replicas at Miniland or the model shop, or (our favorite) do the one hour coder workshop.
4. The food is better than the theme park standard.
Legoland has good food, including ramen, salads, burgers, sandwiches, and all you can eat pasta and pizza. But the made from scratch churros dipped in Belgian dark chocolate kept us coming back. Seriously, those things are worth writing home about—or to all of y’all reading Paste.
5. Here are some money-saving pro tips.
In addition to paying for only a single day at the main park, you can save more money while staying at the Hilton or other hotel with a private entrance into the park (as opposed to the more expensive, official Lego hotels). We used the Kids Go Free promotion found in the Lego Magazine (buy one adult park hopper and get one free kids park hopper for free). On top of that, kids are free at many San Diego attractions for the entire month of October, which can stretch your dollar even further.
Again, if you have a child aged 3-10 who loves Legos, they will love Legoland. But given its small and limited appeal, I wouldn’t stay longer than a day or two at most—unless you consider yourself a Lego super fan. For everyone else, I give it four stars out of five.
Blake Snow contributes to fancy publications and Fortune 500 companies as a bodacious writer-for-hire and frequent travel columnist. He lives in Provo, Utah with his adolescent family and two dogs.
