The trip was planned well over a year ago, the kids had been counting down on a paper chain the past 30 days, and we did 10 weeks of Disney movie nights on Friday nights. I had to reenact the same "fireplace photo" we did the day we left almost two years ago for Disney when the boys were 4 and 2. It's always interesting to see how much they've grown in that time.
The boys flew down with my parents Friday morning. We figured it would be easier on the boys to have time to swim in the pool in the afternoon, get settled in the hotel, and get a good night's rest for Legoland than it would be to fly out when Scott and I had to. We both had to work Friday or we would get our pay docked for the day. I was a little bummed to not get to all travel together, but it all worked out and we all arrived on time.
My travel companion wasn't as helpful as he said he would be when he "closed his eyes" for the first 20 minutes of our first flight. So, I turned to Moana to help me get by and some rum and diet. Nothing like some rum to take the edge off my fear of flying.
My dad picked us up at the airport in our rental minivan and we were off to the hotel. Luckily, my mom put the boys to sleep that evening so when we arrived we warmed up some Pizza Hut and sat on the balcony to watch the firework shows going off at the Disney parks. We really did have a view of all 3 firework shows every night! It was my favorite part of the evening so put my feet up and watch the fireworks.
Speaking of the hotel, we decided to stay off-property this time at Lake Buena Vista Resort Village and Spa. It was a huge savings to do this and with the rental car, we didn't need to use the Disney transportation. We were in a 3 bedroom unit on the 12th floor that we rented from VRBO with a full kitchen, washer and dryer, and only a 10 minute drive to the parks. We enjoyed our stay and would consider off-property again in the future since it was just as easy to drive ourselves.
Scott and I said goodnight to the boys and per tradition got a picture of them sleeping in their Mickey ears. You have to lock in that Disney magic at night!
The next morning was a big one for all of us! We kept Legoland as a secret from the boys for the past year and it was finally time to reveal where we were going. We dressed the boys in Haunted Mansion shirts leading them to believe we were off to Magic Kingdom for the day. They ate a bowl of cereal in the hotel and we hit the road. It's a 45-minute drive to Winter Haven where the park is so we left around 8:45am so we could be there by 9:30 for a 10am opening. We made a quick pit-stop at McDonald's for some breakfast sandwiches for the adults and we pulled in a few minutes later! Evan cried, since he thought he was going to see Mickey, but Sean was beyond excited and Evan caught on to the excitement a few minutes later. I gave the boys their Lego shirts and we were off to the front entrance.
This park is absolutely adorable! I heard mixed reviews, even from some of our family members who went, so I wasn't too sure what to expect. It was also really hard to find reviews online including park plans, so I used the map and came up with our own game plan. This is nothing like Disney parks. The park was not crowded at all the first few hours of the morning. Like you could walk right on to their "big coasters" and ride it again without even having to get off. So, we took advantage of that and did all the big sections of the park before lunch.
We skipped over the first few sections when you enter the park called "The Beginning" , "Fun Town", and "Duplo Village" to get to the right side that included "Lego Kingdoms", "Land of Adventures", and "Lego City". Ford sponsors a really fun attraction called Driver's Training that is a must-do. There's a Junior version that Evan had to do for kids 3-5 years old where they are driving their own cars around a small track and then a bigger version for kids 6+ with stop lights and traffic signs they need to adhere to. We got suckered into buying Sean his Lego City Driver's License when we were done, but it was cute! For $18, it was a plastic card with his picture and stats on a lanyard.
We stopped to grab lunch at a burger place in Lego City and it was a ridiculous wait! The staff members were standing around and at times only had one cash register open to serve tons of guests. It took a solid hour to get our food, sit down and eat it. But, we made do.
After lunch, we walked through "Lego Technic" and rode a really fun ride and did some carnival games. Then, we strolled through Miniland, which was amazing! It was pretty hot at this point, so we wanted to get out of the sun and sit down for a while. Luckily, the Pirates Cove Live Water Ski Show had just started so we enjoyed watching that.
After the show, we made our way back to the front to do some of the smaller sections we skipped. The boys loved the "double-decker carousel", or at least that's what we called it. Duplo Village was kind of a bust, as both boys seemed too old for that. But, the favorite at the end of the day was the ride in Chima that was a water ride. People that weren't on the ride were able to squirt water at those on the ride. Let's just say Evan enjoyed both being on the ride and squirting people off of it.
By 5pm we were ready to head back to the hotel! The boys did a little bit of shopping on the way out and we were surprised that their main store didn't have the Moana Lego set that Evan had his heart on. We distracted him with an ice cream bar and figured we would stop at a Walmart on our way back to the hotel to check there. Legoland was so much fun and definitely worth spending a day at if you have Lego obsessed kids like I do! At 4 and 6 they were entertained all day!
We purchased the Photo Package so we could have the ride pictures. It was $40, so with the five pictures we had taken, it was less than $10 a photo, which is pretty good. Another piece of advice would be to take advantage of the minifigure trading with the employees. We brought a ziplock bag of 4 minifigures for Sean to trade and he loved doing it all afternoon. He was brave enough to ask the employees himself to see their minifigure and potentially trade and he got a few cool ones in the exchanges.
After leaving the park, we found Evan's lego set at Walmart while he took a snooze in the car. Bonus...it was on sale saving us $10! Woo hoo! We grabbed dinner at Chick-Fil-A, which was a first for all of us. It was so good!
When we returned to the hotel, Sean opted to build his Ninjago Lego set we bought him with Grandpa and Scott and I took Evan to the pool to swim. Unfortunately, the pool wasn't heated so it was a little too cool for me, but Scott and Evan sure enjoyed it! The pirate ship slide was a big hit!
We had a great first day at Legoland, but I was definitely ready for some Disney in my life! Magic Kingdom was on the agenda for the following day!
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