LEGOLAND initially opened in Southern California in 1999. Even though I am a native Angeleno, I had never been to Legoland before. I was so excited to finally be able to take my children to this fun-filled theme park.
Then 2020 happens! The park closed. Like many of you, our plans had to change. Well, GREAT NEWS! It’s 2021 and the theme park has fully reopened on April 15. All the fun rides to experience, LEGO CHIMA Water Park, SEA LIFE Aquarium, and both LEGOLAND Hotels are opened at a limited capacity.
We finally took the family on a fun-filled vacation at Legoland and stayed over at their Legoland hotel. Our whole family had so much fun! They have been talking for days about it and can’t wait to return.
I wanted to share some tips on how to make your Legoland vacation fun, safe, and as smooth as possible.
1. BUY YOUR VACATION PACKAGE WELL IN ADVANCE
Legoland is offering a great deal on Hotel stay with park-hopper tickets. You can enjoy Legoland theme park, Lego Chima Waterpark (located inside Legoland theme park), and Sea Life Aquarium with a park hopper ticket. Vacation packages can easily be bought online. I would suggest a 2-night stay. We stayed only one night and we missed out on some things (read below on tip #3). It’s hard to add the additional night after booking. Their customer service line was ALWAYS busy and was not taking any calls. Your e-tickets will arrive via email. Contrary to what the confirmation email says, your tickets will NOT arrive 24 hours after your booking. You will still get them on time for your trip. this is why I suggest, to book your vacation way in advance.
2. MAKE AN ITINERARY AND RESERVATIONS.
Honestly, I am not one to do an itinerary for trips. I usually like to go with the flow. Things are different now, post-2020. I’m glad I did a very general itinerary for our trip. I mean by general that I only planned on what day we would visit the theme park, the water park, the aquarium, the hotel pool, and just relax. With the limited capacity that the theme park and hotel have, you must make reservations for the day you plan to be at the park and use some of the hotel amenities. So the itinerary will help you plan out to make the proper reservations. Once you have received your e-tickets, you can reserve the date you plan to attend each theme park. It’s a fairly simple process through their online portal. Doing the reservations in advance will save you time from making a line in the membership window to make your reservations on the day of. Trust me, there were some very unhappy families making line just to reserve their spot on the day of.
3. WATER PARK AND SEA LIFE AQUARIUM
Here are a few tips and suggestions for the Chima Water Park and Sea Life Aquarium:
- Check out the Water Park and Aquarium’s time of operations. They tend to be different from those of Legoland. Check here for the calendar.
- Chima Water Park is located inside Legoland. You need Legoland tickets as well as Water Park tickets (or park hopper tickets) to enter the water park.
- Plan a day to do the Water park. We didn’t get a chance to experience the water park because we only had 1-day hopper tickets. We decided to spend our day at Legoland and end it at the Sea Life Aquarium. It definitely looked fun in there.
- You MUST bring your own towels for the water park. You can either bring it from home or the hotel room (if you are staying in the hotel and have a room already)
- I would highly recommend going to the Sea Life Aquarium toward the end of your Legoland theme park visit. Seaside Life Aquarium is open a bit later than the actual theme park. There is an entrance conveniently located from inside the theme park to go into Sea Life Aquarium.
4. LEGOLAND APP
There is a great Legoland theme park app. The app is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play. With this app you're able to see the Legoland map, check on wait times for the opened rides, check out showtimes, and set reminders for yourself, as well as order your food in advance at any of the theme park’s restaurants. I found the app very helpful as this was our first time going to Legoland.
5. HOTEL AND FUN EXPERIENCES
The hotel also offers fun experiences for the whole family. Here are few tips on these:
- POOL: We stayed at the Legoland hotel but at the time of our trip only the Legoland Castle Hotel pool was open. Any guest of either hotel can use the pool at Castle Hotel. Hotel guests are now admitted on a first come first serve basis.
- Hotel sing-along: Legoland hotel offers evening entertainment for the family sing-along and other fun activities. When you check-in you will be provided a schedule of these entertainments. All will be located in the LEGOLAND hotel’s play area. This is so much fun for the children and a good way to mellow down after a day at the theme park.
- DINNING: Both hotels Legoland hotel and cast so Park Hotel offers fun dining options. You have to make reservations for either one of the restaurants. We stayed at the Legoland hotel and enjoyed the complimentary breakfast. I do suggest that you go early as everyone is trying to have breakfast at the same time. There is a line you must wait in to get your breakfast. There are indoor and outdoor dining tables, which are 6 ft distance in between each table. They thoroughly clean the tables between each guest after they dine.
- SHOPPING: This is where we messed up on our trip. We did not go into the Legoland store inside the theme park. We assumed the stores in the hotels will have similar items as the theme park but we were wrong. The stores inside the hotels are small and limited in their selection. I would suggest doing your shopping inside the big Legoland Store located inside by the entrance of the theme park
MOST IMPORTANTLY, HAVE FUN ENJOY YOUR TIME WITH YOUR FAMILY!