I’ve joked since my son was a baby, “watch him be a LEGOLAND kid and not care about Disney” simply because I thought it would be too lucky to create a human who loves Disney Parks as much as I do. While I’m proud to say my now four-year-old loves Disney very much, our LEGOLAND day finally came. We drove about an hour from Orlando to Winter Haven to Legoland Florida and honestly, it was a great day! LEGOLAND has a lot to offer and is a completely unique experience to add on to your Disney World vacation. If you have kids who are into LEGO, it’s absolutely worth the visit and you’ll be surprised how much you enjoy it too.
Here are a few things I noticed as a Disney parent visiting LEGOLAND for the first time –
1. Legoland Has Two Attractions That Will Remind You of Disney
In general, LEGOLAND is more-centered around outdoor attractions and interactive play areas. However, two of LEGOLAND’s newest attractions definitely reminded me of Disney. The Galacticoaster is an indoor, family-friendly coaster that opened earlier this year and is the most-advanced attraction at LEGOLAND. The queue features multiple rooms, building the story of your mission to save Earth from the “Asteroid of Probable Destruction”. Before boarding, you get to build your own LEGO spaceship similar to the previous version of Test Track. Once on the attraction, it feels like a scaled-down version of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. The launch, tempo of the ride, and the way the ride vehicle moves all reminded me of a kid-friendly version of Guardians. Even as an adult, I thought the story and the ride experience was well-done and entertaining. Make Galacticoaster a must-do on your visit.
THE LEGO MOVIE Masters of Flight attraction is straight from the first movie, as you take a ride on Emmet’s new invention; a triple-decker flying couch. Your ride vehicle is identical to Soarin’ except once inside the show, the screen is much more immersive and impressive. The ride is silly and intense at times – my kid couldn’t stop laughing and screaming the entire ride.
2. Legoland is Kid-Centric
While there’s plenty to do for LEGO fans of any age, LEGOLAND really leans into how kids play and experience theme parks. Each attraction queue includes an area to play with legos and is a great way to keep kids happy in line or entertain family members who aren’t riding. There’s also multiple places to relax inside just to play with endless LEGO and the SEA Life Aquarium is also included in your LEGOLAND ticket.
In addition to an over abundance of places to play LEGO, there’s the LEGO DUPLO area dedicated to toddlers and many attractions with no minimum height requirement.
3. It’s a Leisurely Park Day
Depending on the day, most of the LEGOLAND attractions are a walk-on or less than a 30-minute wait. There are also a lot of walk-through experiences like the collection of over 30 million LEGO at Miniland USA and the beautiful Cypress Botanical Gardens. You don’t have to have a strategy and you don’t have to feel like you need to rope drop. You can sleep in and let your kids decide how they want to spend the day.
Wherever your LEGOLAND day takes you, don’t miss Granny’s Apple Fries. These fried Granny Smith Apples are delicious dipped in caramel or served as a sundae. This treat is totally unique to LEGOLAND and you’ll be thinking of them well after your vacation.
If your kids are asking to go to LEGOLAND, do it! You can totally make a day trip from Orlando or stay at one of LEGOLAND’s three highly-themed hotels. LEGOLAND also offers fantastic seasonal events like Brick-or-Treat included in your regular admission plus discounts on packages and multi-day tickets..
