A few weeks ago, Jay, Morgan, and I decided to spend the day out at Legoland Florida. (Technically it’s LEGOLAND Florida, but then I feel like I’m shouting.) Interestingly enough, their website forbids taking photos for blog purposes, which is why I haven’t written about them the handful of other times I’ve been to Legoland. To that end, this article has no photos. If you would like to see photos of our day at Legoland, you will find them here at this dedicated Instagram account I made.
Legoland is roughly an hour from our house, and forty-five minutes to an hour’s drive from anywhere in Orlando. I had done my research ahead of time and I wasn’t wild about Legoland’s mask policy, which is why our adventure took place on a random Thursday before both the Piratefest started and the new water ski show premiered. Masks are not required outdoors, and are only required indoors and on rides for guests EIGHT YEARS OLD OR OLDER. Yes, now I’m shouting. Every other park is requiring them at age two and at all times.
So, if you’re one of those annoying people who think masks are infringing on your personal freedoms, please stop yelling at my friends at their parks and go to Legoland instead.
They are doing temperature checks, but they check them on your wrist instead of your forehead. Their queue distancing markers are not as well placed as the other parks. They were definitely only considering the space between places as a straight line, they didn’t account for things being side by side.
Like the other theme parks, Legoland has eliminated paper maps. I actually brought one with me that I had snagged at a hotel in Orlando, and I had at least three families ask where I had gotten a map. I get why the parks are eliminating the paper maps and pushing people to use the apps instead, grabbing the maps would be a high contact touch point and this saves them money on printing, but it’s much easier to read a paper map than one on a screen. Hence why I planned ahead. I haven’t needed a map at any of the Orlando parks in years, but Legoland is still new to me.
There was a sign at the front that the Dragon was closed, which is the coaster you see on most Legoland advertising. So, that was sad. It turned out that Mia’s Riding Adventure was also closed, which is one of my favorite rides, and Miniland USA, which is the city built out of LEGO bricks was closed off because they’re putting a roof over it. Miniland being closed was super disappointing because it’s one of the coolest things at Legoland. I also couldn’t find anything about these closures on their website, so be prepared for things to be closed unexpectedly if you’re going to Legoland in the off season. (Supposedly Mia’s opens at noon, and I’m not sure what time we reached that ride. However, I know I didn’t see it cycling later in the day, because we would have gone to ride it.)
Our first stop was the double decker carousel. The Model Citizen, (that’s what they call their employees), was sending people to different parts of the carousel to try to maintain distancing, and she was doing a pretty good job, but that meant we got stuck on the lower level. Getting the seat belts on was a bit of a struggle because we thought they were for smaller riders, but that’s okay.
We headed through the Heartlake area next, which is where we found Mia’s Riding Adventure closed, and then walked onward to Miniland USA and found our path blocked. The biggest problem with Miniland being closed is now the park doesn’t make a loop, and there’s only one path through. So, we doubled pack to the carousel and took the only other path open through Duplo Valley, which is the little kids’ area. This brought us to the Lego Movie World, which we walked around but didn’t ride anything. It was too cold a day to risk getting wet on the Battle of Bricksburg, and Masters of Flight is an indoor ride that’s basically Soarin’ from Epcot. It made Jay super motion sick the last time we were there, so we took a pass.
With the Dragon closed, there wasn’t anything we wanted to ride in the Medieval area. This is also home to the Royal Joust that I’m not allowed to ride. However, just past it, we struck gold with our first real ride of the day: Pharaoh’s Revenge. It’s a dark ride with guns like Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, but it’s so much better. The theming is awesome and the practical effects are incredible. There are spiders and skeletons and all sorts of things to shoot. It’s a ton of fun.
The Safari Trek is a little truck ride that drives you through a bunch of Lego animals. It’s designed to be ridden by an adult and a child, but we were able to ride this one! We just had to take three separate vehicles. So, not being able to ride it together was a little sad, but we still had fun. The Lego animals were actually way cooler than we expected, and there was a hippo! (We’re Jungle Cruise Skippers; we have a love-hate relationship with hippos.)
After the Safari Trek, we headed over to Coastersaurus, which is a dinosaur themed coaster, as you may have guessed. It’s also the park’s only wooden roller coaster, and happens to be right on the edge of the park, meaning you can see roadway from the lift hill.
It was at this point we ran into another Jungle Cruise Skipper that Jay and Morgan knew, with a couple of his friends. They had just ridden Coastersaurus and were exiting as we were coming in. We had run into this same Skipper a week prior at Hollywood Studios, so at this point, I’m just convinced he’s following us.
I have never seen any of the Ninjago movies and know absolutely nothing about this franchise, but it is my favorite area of Legoland and home to the best ride. Ninjago the Ride is also a dark ride that involves shooting things, however this one uses screens and 3-D effects like Toy Story Midway Mania. However, unlike Mania, this one has no guns. Instead, you have to punch and karate chop your way through the ride to shoot various elements at the bad guys. You guys get where I’m going with this, right? It’s basically Avatar: the Last Airbender THE RIDE! My aim isn’t great, but I LOVE this ride.
Coming out of Ninjago we ran into Jay’s Skipper friend again and his friends, and the six of us wound up going to the next several rides together. Boating School lets you drive an actual boat around a small river, and I can tell you it’s not on a track because I hit the wall once. (The only boat I’ve ever driven is a Jungle Cruise boat, so of course Jay, who has driven many real boats in his life, made me drive.)
Our next stop was “Rescue Academy”, which I find both fascinating and horrifying, from a theme park operations perspective. Up to four people get in a fire truck, and you have to manually power it from the station to the building that’s “on fire”, where you get out of the vehicle to try to put the fire out with manually pumped water guns. Then you get back in the truck to race back to the station. It’s fun, and quickly exhausting. The idea that you have people exiting into an area with moving vehicles blows my mind, and I get that it should be safe because you have no reason to go near someone else’s truck, but I still see potential for disaster.
For the record, the Skipper friend and his friends did beat us, but none of us had done it before.
We walked past two different Driving Schools on our way to Flying School, which are two different places kids can drive a car based on age. Adults are not allowed on either of those attractions. Flying School is different from the other “schools” because it’s actually a hanging roller coaster. Short, simple, and fun, I’m like 90% sure it’s the same coaster model as one at Dollywood. (Gary from Coasting With Culture would probably know the answer to this, but I haven’t gotten around to asking him.)
Next to Flying School is the water park, which we were not going to because it was freezing. (For Florida at least.) I have been there before and it is a cute, if small, park. The Build a Raft section is awesome.
Our last stop with the other group was Technicycle, which was described to me as “Dumbo with extra steps”. Basically, you only go higher and stay up as long as you keep pedaling. I’m not sure why so many of Legoland’s rides require a workout, but it was fun. What was really funny was the six of us took up an entire ride cycle, since you couldn’t put two adults in the same vehicle and the families behind us were not pleased.
We made our way towards the Cypress Gardens section of the park. Once upon a time, Cypress Gardens was a botanical park that opened in Winter Haven in 1936. It changed hands numerous times over the years, with rides and animal exhibits being added and later taken away. It eventually became home to Legoland Florida in 2010. Rather than tear down the beautiful gardens, they preserved them, and it’s possibly the coolest thing Legoland Florida has to offer. It was once considered the “Water Ski Capital of the World”, which is why Legoland has a water ski show in the first place.
Cypress Gardens has a Lego “Southern Belle” out front, as a tribute to some of the past performers who worked the gardens. Inside there are numerous winding paths, some statues, a gazebo (that was also being worked on so we couldn’t explore, sigh), and a MASSIVE beautiful Banyan tree stands at the center of the park. I can’t even begin to put into words how large this tree is. If you’re familiar with Avatar: the Last Airbender, think of the massive tree at the heart of the swamp. This is the closest thing you’ll ever see in real life.
On the map there’s a Florida shaped pool, but I’ve never been able to find it.
On our way out of the gardens, we passed the stands for the water ski show, and caught part of a rehearsal. I would really REALLY like to see this show in all its glory at some point, and I have some serious questions about physics.
Since Miniland was closed, we had to make our way back the way we came to reach the front of the park. We decided to pass on the Great Lego Race coaster since it had a bit of a line, but we did jump on Coastersaurus and Pharaoh’s Revenge again.
While it is physically possible to go to Legoland and not stop at Granny’s Apple Fries, it would be a terrible mistake. Admittedly, I would have never tried these if I hadn’t been told to by a friend before our first visit, but now I will never go to Legoland without getting them. They are fries made from green Granny Smith apples, dusted with cinnamon and sugar, and they are AMAZING. As far as signature snacks go, they rival both Dole Whip and Butterbeer in my opinion.
As we were finishing up our apple fries, I noticed the carousel had no line, so we rode that one more time. This time we got to go to the top level since we were basically the only ones on it.
Legoland is a great park. Honestly, I wish it was on more people’s radar. If you want a great theme park experience without the stress and pressure of planning a Disney World vacation (Fastpasses, dining reservations, park hopping, etc.), Legoland is where it’s at. It’s great for families with smaller kids. It’s not ideal for twenty somethings and that’s okay, except I’m still bitter I can’t ride the Royal Joust. It’s still a really fun day, but it’s just not a place I ever see myself having an annual pass to. I’ve also never been to Legoland when it was busy. The longest we waited for anything was basically ten minutes. I would hate to be at this park during peak like spring break, or even on a Saturday.
Cost: Legoland one day theme park only tickets start at $84.99 online, but they do have specials for things such as “Brick Friday”. An annual pass starts at $149.99.
Value: This depends a lot on if you have kids. Legoland is the kind of place I’d like to visit every couple of years, but not somewhere I need an annual pass. If we had small kids, the whole family would have passes. Compared to the other major parks (Disney, Universal, SeaWorld), Legoland has the most to do for small children at a lower price point.
Duration: We were there about five hours. On a busy day, it would be a full day. There is not enough time in the day to do the theme park and the water park in my opinion, so if you want to do the water park you probably want two days.
Add Ons: The water park is an additional $25.
