Collins UK Travels: Day trip to Legoland

Two Legoland tickets. Free to a good home. Would anyone like them?

I can give them a good home.

I've also got a buy one, get one free coupon for additional tickets. Would you like that as well?

Absolutely.

This discussion from the St. Giles Facebook page gave us a chance to spend £90 for tickets that would normally cost closer to £200. That turned Legoland from "We're not going there." to "Let's give it a try." It was almost a bad idea. Kristine was ill the previous week, we didn't do a good job setting up the night before so got a slow start, and had lots of rain accompanying us as far as Birmingham. Thanks to Kristine persevering through a long day, the girls turning around their behavior, and the weather clearing up by the time we reached Windsor, we had a pleasant outing. It was a long day. We left Melbourne a little after 9 am, and didn't get home until after 9 pm. It's a trip we would not have considered making a year ago. That we pulled it off opens up opportunities for the next year.

As an amusement park, Legoland truthfully isn't that great. There are not very many rides. The lines are long. And you've got to wade past lots of stores selling overpriced merchandise to reach any of the rides. But I don't think you go to Legoland for the amusement park experience. You go to see the LEGOs. And that part of the trip was worth it. Here are some of the photos from our day. I'll make a disclaimer that captions may be sparse. There's not that many different ways you can say "cool sculpture." For the record, the walk to the car at the end of the day involved conversation among daughters who were eagerly anticipating a return visit.

It's almost a scary dragon

I was a little surprised there were not more places providing free play opportunity. Build a wall around an animal - simple concept that kept the girls happily occupied for quite a while.

I am not ruled by bias. I can take photos of more than East African LEGO sculptures from the train.

But the East African sculptures are pretty cool.

As I said ...

Disregard this conductor at your peril. You've been warned.

Pirates - awesome! LEGO Friends - not so much. This from the girls, not the parents.

Trademark Clare smile

Look - no hands!

Umm ... was this supposed to be exciting?

Miniland was my favorite stop. It's got the sculpting skill to satisfy my engineering self, the historical information to make me feel like a responsible parent, and lots of cool things that captivated the girls.