LEGOLAND FLORIDA!

Laszlo turned seven and Paul turned ten this November. For their combined birthdays, we planned a surprise trip to Legoland Florida. We told them on Laszlo's birthday, and flew out to Florida on Paul's birthday. Delta did an announcement at the gate and gave Paul a gift because it was his birthday. I did not know that was a thing, but I encourage you all to fly on your birthday and find out.

We arrived at the Legoland Hotel late in the evening. I nearly had a panic attack when the girl at reception couldn't find our reservation, but all it took was her to finally ask for help and someone else found it immediately.

Not a surprise, but our room was pretty awesome.

There are decorations made of Legos, they give you Legos to play with in the room, and they give you a small Lego set every day to keep. There are also Master Builder workshops where you can go to a class to learn to build a little creature or vehicle and bring it home with you when you're done.

The lobby of the hotel has a large play area, so it was always a wild, noisy kid-splosion. This hotel is 100% geared towards young children. They aren't just paying lip service with fun decor, there are play areas in the lobby seating for the parents, and not a single employee will tell the kids to stop acting like kids.

We ate breakfast in the pirate restaurant in the morning and it was, in my mother's words, the best included breakfast she'd ever had at a hotel. I think that goes for me too. It was A LOT of food, which is kind of what you want when you're about to spend all day at a theme park.

 

The hotel is right next to the park entrance. I'm pretty sure everyone at Legoland that day was staying in the Legoland hotel and the hotel wasn't very full. It felt like we were alone at the park sometimes as there was barely anyone else around. That was doubly true when the rain started.

A lot of employees commented on how rarely it rained and how weird the weather was. The good news is that all the big awnings and shade structures set up to protect visitors from the Florida sun did just fine protecting us from the rain as well. I'm so glad they had all of Miniland USA under the shade. It made for a nice place to wait out the worst of the rain.

We were getting wet enough by 11AM that I gave in and bought Legoland ponchos for everyone. 

Luckily, there are lots of indoor playing and building spaces in Legoland. When rides were closed because of rain, we found lots of things to do and keep dry. Dry, but not warm. Despite the downpour and pleasant temperatures, every building has their A/C cranked like it was summer. It was that and not the rain that inspired me to put the kids and myself in long pants on day two.

When the parked closed for the evening, we went back to the hotel where they were handing out towels right at the front door for everyone to dry themselves off, and this pirate was hanging out for photo opportunities. 

Once the kids had warmed up a bit we went to the lobby to play while Lee picked up some picnic supplies from the grocery story down the street.

The Pirate's Cove hotel had it's own play area, so the kids had to check that one out as well.

On our second day, I knew there was going to be some more rain, but we didn't really know when or how much. The forecast kept changing. I was just hoping we'd have a dry hour or two to get to the last few rides that we hadn't done that were weather dependent. And so begins our saga of trying to ride The Dragon rollercoaster!

It was barely misting when the park opened. That was apparently enough to keep The Dragon closed. So we rode a couple rides nearby that we hadn't gotten to the day before.

The rain continued, but still very light. So we visited the play area in Duplo Valley. Arthur and Laszlo really liked it, Paul convinced Grandma Jamie to go look at The Big Store instead.

The rain continued. So we walked around Miniland. I took special interest in the Cape Canaveral replica.

We tried to go watch the Pirate themed stunt/water skiing show--inclement weather. Cancelled performance. So instead we headed indoors to build cars to race.

That was such a hit that after lunch, when the rain cleared up, Arthur stayed there with Grandparents while we rushed over to try to ride the now open Dragon. We got in the very short line, and it closed again for weather. We stayed and waited. They got the go ahead to run the ride again. We got in our seats, seat belts fastened, and then they had to close the ride again.

We got back out and waited, just in case it was a short delay. It was not! We waited quite a long time before an employee gave each kid a ticket for a free prize from the store as an apology and we left. Paul and Laszlo got to pick out a little mini fig keychain and we went back to join Arthur and the Grandparents.

I figured if the only rides we hadn't gone on were closed for the rain, we might as well visit Cypress Gardens at the back of the park. As we headed toward the garden, however, we say that the Pirate boat ride was finally open! We rushed on over and hopped on.

This ride is a long, gentle visit to the beautiful swamp with a smattering of Lego decor and a bit of a treasure hunt. Definitely the most Grandparent friendly ride in Legoland!

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By the time we got off the ride, the rain had stopped for several minutes, so I grabbed Paul and Laszlo and hurried back to try one more time to ride The Dragon while the rest of the crew stayed to visit Cypress Gardens.

We made it! The three of us rode The Dragon probably 3 times. The employee from earlier recognized our intrepid band and told us we didn't have to get out and get back in line, we could just hop into the back seats and ride as many times as we liked.

Once Lee caught up with us, we rode it a few more times for good measure.

The only other ride we had missed due to rain was the Unikitty Disco Drop. Don't you worry. We went on that one a few times as well.

Despite the rain, we managed to do everything we had wanted to do except the stunt show. We now also have a pile of Rainy Day return passes that I don't know if we'll ever be able to use. If you are planning a visit to Legoland Florida in the next year, call me.

It was after all this that we said good-bye to Legoland and headed off for the next step in our adventure. Here's a little video compilation of some of our Lego fun!